“The Last Taboo: LGBTQ+ Soccer Documentary” Free Film Night (SF)

The World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States is in full swing.

Out of 500,000 active male professional soccer players worldwide, fewer than ten are openly gay. While homosexuality becomes less scrutinized in other spheres of life, the subject remains a near-complete taboo in professional soccer.

The feature-length documentary The Last Taboo gives a voice to those who have broken this silence, allowing them to tell their deeply personal stories. While each biography could not be more different, the personal experiences they depict — the conflicts faced between self-denial and liberation — create a familiar pattern. The film leaves us with lingering questions:

Why is this subject so completely hushed up within the world of soccer, in particular? Is there a fear that it might throw a wrench into the gears of soccer’s high-octane marketing machine? Or are players and fans already far ahead of those currently at the controls?

The Last Taboo delves into these questions, telling not only the story of the players but also shedding light on a society in transition — a society that, perhaps, is not always quite as tolerant as it believed itself to be.

Thank you to our community outreach partner, Frameline. Founded in 1977, Frameline is a San Francisco-based nonprofit media arts organization dedicated to the development, exhibition, distribution, and preservation of LGBTQ+ cinema and independent queer media.