Sir Ian McKellen has said that the sporting world should be "ashamed of itself" for the way it classes homosexuality as socially abhorrent.
In an interview to be broadcast by Radio 5 Live's Tony Livesey on tonight, he said sport was not in sync with the wider world.
Sir Ian said in the interview, to be broadcast at 10.30pm: ''The sports world
should be ashamed of itself. It's full of all these macho men and strong
women who go out and dedicate their lives...
''They're absolutely admirable people in many senses - but when it comes to
the business of simply being honest about who they are, some of them become
little shrinking violets because they're afraid, probably, of being booed
from the terraces, and that must be a horrible experience and shame on
people who do it.
''But it ain't going to stop someone being a fantastic footballer because
they're honest about their private lives, is it? I don't believe so and the
world is changing and sport, I'm afraid, is very slow to catch up.''
The comments come just weeks after rugby ace Gareth Thomas public outed himself after years of denial.