Real Betis stars Borja Iglesias and Aitor Ruibal have once again taken the battle to the homophobes after receiving abuse online for items of their clothing.
A photo was put on Instagram showing Ruibal, Iglesias, and Betis teammates Juanmi, Victor Ruiz and Victor Camarasa, which showed the first two wearing bags. The photo was beset by homophobic comments. They were attending the wedding of staff member at Betis, as per Marca.
After this, Ruibal released a series of tweets, before thanking the response to that abuse, which were messages of support.
“After the frustrated attempts by a noisy minority to ridicule my colleague Borja Iglesias and me, in reference to our clothing as well as its supposed link to our sexual orientation, I just want to underline:
– The importance of maintaining respect for any person, regardless of their sexual orientation or of any kind.
– The need, once and for all, to normalise and live together, rejecting and moving away from any type of phobia, to make it possible to live normally in our society.
– Condemn homophobia, which evidently continues to exist to a greater or lesser extent, and fight for its eradication.
– Those who at this point continue to show behaviours of this type urgently need help. The problem is with them because of their intolerance and their complexes.”
Iglesias then took to social media himself, congratulating Ruibal for his commentary.
“Every time these types of situations occur in reference to the phobias that still exist, they give me strength to continue fighting so that everyone can do and enjoy themselves and others as they really want. Thank you very much for all the messages of affection that you always give me.”
“And to those of you who are still in prehistoric times, I send you a lot of encouragement, it must be very difficult not to evolve and continue conditioning yourself instead of enjoying how precious life is.”
Iglesias famously stood up for queer rights several seasons ago by painting his nails to draw attention to the discrimination faced by the community. He has since continued to do so out of pleasure. Their boldness and willingness to rail against convention stands out in a business that is famously conservative.
