Football analyst under fire over remarks about gay people

Football analyst Johan Derksen is again under fire about statements he made, this time for comments made about gay people on Veronica Inside. "We just have to stop saying its so hard to come out of the closet. If you have a bit of character, you just come out", he said. The remark has since turned into the viral hashtag #SorryJohan with over 17 thousand posts on Twitter, RTL Nieuws reports.

Derksen made these statements after football supporter Bowi Jong and others sent a letter to football association KNVB saying that they can't visit a stadium without their sexual orientation being brought up in a negative way. "I will not let myself be bothered by two hysterical young homosexuals", Derksen said.

The remarks were not taken well by the public or Jong himself. Jong therefore wrote another letter: "Sorry Johann, I should have had character. Should have resisted when I was pushed out of the boys' dressing room by classmates because 'I do not belong there', should have pushed back when someone pushed me in the hallway and whispered 'dirty homo'," he wrote.

The hashtag #SorryJohan has since been featured in over 17 thousand tweets.

Julian Kaihatu tweeted: "#SorryJohan that I never dared to come out of the closet at any of the sports clubs I was a member of, that in the locker room I kept my eyes on the ground to prevent anyone from thinking that I was staring. #SorryJohan that I was scared to be beaten up if 'the secret' leaked."

Mats Bergman wrote: "SorryJohan that I was beaten in class for years, was and am insulted, that I have to explain that I am just as masculine as my colleague, that I can't kiss my husband at Feyenoord because we are afraid, that we must be stronger than the rest but can't always do it. Sorry."

Lawyer Sidney Smeets tweeted: "#SorryJohan that as a child I thought I could never have a normal life (and thus maybe should not have a life at all) because I like boys and on TV I only saw that gays (and therefore me too) were weird. #SorryJohan that several times a year I have to represent guys who were victims of homophobic violence by perpetrators who - just like you - claim that despite shouting 'homo', 'cancer homo' and 'fagot', they are not homophobic."

Vincent Regtop tweeted: "#SorryJohan that as a teenager I cried myself asleep for nights because I did not feel normal because of others and did not want to accept that I fell for men. #SorryJohan that because of this I did not have enough 'character' for years to come out of the closet."

Other members of the LGBTQ community also picked up the hashtag. "#SorryJohan that I'm worried that my child will be bullied for having a lesbian mother. Even if she thinks it's great", Patries tweeted.

The tweets received a lot of support, including from PvdA leader Lodewijk Asscher. "Sad after reading #SorryJohan - so much pain. Because of who you love. You deserve support instead of ridicule."

Derksen was previously under fire for comparing back politician Sylvana Simmons to a monkey, and for saying that football clubs go under because they have too many Moroccan players.