Eriksen: ‘I’m fine under the circumstances’

COPENHAGEN — Denmark’s Christian Eriksen said he was feeling “fine — under the circumstances” and expressed gratitude for the flood of messages he had received after he suffered a cardiac arrest during their Euro 2020 opener on Saturday.

His first public comment since the collapse on the pitch came as his teammates were preparing for Denmark’s second Group B game against Belgium on Thursday.

“Big thanks for your sweet and amazing greetings and messages from all around the world. It means a lot to me and my family,” Eriksen said in a post on the national team’s Instagram profile. “I’m fine — under the circumstances.”

The post was accompanied by a picture of the 29-year-old lying in a hospital bed, smiling and giving a thumbs-up.

“But I feel OK. Now, I will cheer on the boys on the Denmark team in the next matches, Play for all of Denmark,” he added.

Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand said it would be “very emotional” for the players to return to the stadium where they witnessed their team mate collapse.

“I have said — very a propos — that Christian is the heart of our team. He is the pulse, the rhythm of our game,” Hjulmand told reporters on Tuesday.

A student beaten at a grad party for being gay. Rainbow Pride flags stolen at two schools and burned. Students in Pride T-shirts at another school harassed and mocked by fellow students clad in black.

Those disturbing incidents have all happened in just the last week — during the Pride-designated month of June — in Atlantic Canada.

The first two occurred in Newfoundland and Labrador, the third in P.E.I.

An unnamed student from Holy Spirit High School in Conception Bay South, NL was apparently attacked at a grad party over the weekend.

Paradise Elementary and Mount Pearl Senior High in Newfoundland had rainbow flags flying at the buildings stolen over the weekend and later found burned nearby. Both have been replaced.

Last week, at East Wiltshire Intermediate School in Cornwall, P.E.I., students wearing black disrupted Pride events at the school, destroying Pride-themed posters and hurling slurs at students wearing Pride colours.

Sadly, however, these types of incidents could have happened anywhere in our region or our country.

Earlier this month, late on the night of June 5, a 24-year-old man was violently assaulted in Toronto in a suspected homophobic attack by a group allegedly including a member of the CFL Ottawa Redblacks. The league says football player Chris Larsen has been suspended.

A few days later, on June 9, a 71-year-old man in Saskatoon was charged with causing a disturbance for physically interfering with — in a scene caught on video — a group painting a rainbow crosswalk.

“Whenever homophobia rears its ugly head, it’s on all of us to confront and condemn it loudly for what it is — ignorance and hate.”

REPULSIVE BEHAVIOUR

Such homophobic behaviour repulses most Canadians.

Studies have shown homophobic attitudes are more likely among those who’ve had less contact with members of the LGBTQ2S+ community.

Other factors include growing up where such prejudices, and belief in rigid gender roles, are the norm; having peer groups, especially male, who espouse those negative attitudes; and being less well-educated.

That underlines that education — particularly at public schools — is crucial to challenging prejudices and changing hearts and minds.

Given that, it’s disturbing that recent incidents in the region have all involved schools. It’s especially disquieting that school officials at East Wiltshire Intermediate in P.E.I. were allegedly forewarned that some students planned to disrupt Pride activities but did little to stop what happened. Education officials are investigating.

Whenever homophobia rears its ugly head, it’s on all of us to confront and condemn it loudly for what it is — ignorance and hate.

It’s also up to all of us to insist on consequences for those who choose to perpetrate homophobic attacks, whether physical, verbal or emotional.

Battling homophobia, similar to fighting racism and other forms of prejudice, cannot succeed as a passive endeavour.