It's a lot better than it was even a decade ago.
Outliers like Justin Fashanu and former Scottish referee Brian McGinlay were given unbelievable amounts of abuse in the 80s and 90s when their sexuality became known. Then there were individuals whose off-field interests such as Graeme Le Saux (art, culture, books) or Beckham (daring to wear a sarong in 1998) were singled out for a while, as their off-field interests were deemed 'gay', despite their being straight men.
The simple answer to your question is that it's everyone involved who is responsible not only for the problem but also solving it. There is a very long way to go, but a start and progress has been made significantly. For all those who were worried of the consequences of coming out, it's hard to have imagined stories like
Jake Daniels,
Thomas Hitzlsperger, or
Josh Cavallo quarter of a century ago.
I get that official campaigns such as
Rainbow Laces are seen as problematic and performative but they are important in having these issues discussed properly and providing a forum for greater understanding. Many professionals are now very open in saying they wouldn't have any problem at all with a gay team-mate and German international Manuel Neuer was stating bluntly that sexuality simply wasn't an issue anymore fifteen years ago. Jake Daniels had the unanimous support of his team-mates in coming out.
I'm afraid toxic masculinity and patriarchy cross over quite strongly in football crowds and in some dressing rooms and queerness is a big challenge to thse very essentialist, unthinking views of what a man / footballer should be. Stone Age stuff that's been around forever but will takes many more years of direct challenging and confronting to shift. Interestingly younger generations really seem not to care, and seem astonished when older folks like me point out just how challeneging things were for queer people at the end of the last century- battling instituionalised hatred and loathing as a daily occurrence, when being called a poof or a shirt lifter was not only unproblematic but widely supported and laughed at.
Interestingly it is not an issue at all in the womens' game which has professionalised to an unprecedented degree in the last fifteen years north and south of the border. There are many openly gay women playing the game at pro or semi-pro level and are not the target of abuse. Another interesting fact is the major cross-over between residual homophobes in a mens game crowd and skepticism of the coverage and support now afforded to the womens' game.
Using that sort of language now on a terrace means the person resposible likely to be banned from the ground if reported and where I am, arrested for a breach of the peace or hate crime.
tl;dr Things are getting better but perhaps too slowly. And football is a natural magnet for people who are angry about many many non-football things and will use any minority characteristic as a platform for abuse.
As you mention the issue of racism, I'd say tackling racial discrimination is a battle which football is further ahead in. I'm lucky enough not to really remember the 70s (I started going to football in the mid 80s and still watch 30-40 games a season all around the UK, mostly in Scotland). The knuckle draggers responsible for racist abuse in the 70s have been significantly challenged and marginalised, although there's no room for complacency. One of the first games I can remember was a Rous Cup game in '84 between Scotland and England; Mark Chamberlain and Luther Blissett were targeted with "Sambo, Sambo" by the home support in that game. I often have a half smile and rememebr that when the descendants of that crowd today claim that Scotland doesn't have a problem with racism.
E2A: Graeme Souness is quite good in this interview from 2019:
Souness: Game can be more LGBT-inclusive
What he says here- that there will be a good number of gay and bi players in the top leagues but none have yet come out- is true. For all the improvements the enivronment isn't quite there yet for them to be open. But ways of coming out are as varied as the members of the queer communities around the UK. I'm sure many won't have confidence that Jake Daniels had, or maybe take the old-fashioned view that it's no-one else's business who they share their bed with, or they don't want the noise, hassle and attention that will come with taking that role. It's no surprise that Hitzelsperger didn't come out until he retired.
In some ways being a professional footballer is a horrible life; pain, exhaustion, always on the move, life planned out for you, the same fucking two dozen guys day after day after day doing the same shit for ten and a half months a year, always in the papers, abuse from darren8048745 on social media. I'm not talking about the EPL level where money and the club's infrastructure insulates you from all that to an extent. I'm talking about the guys at Tier 4 or 5 on much, much less money still living under a similar microscope. For many players coming out would be a distraction from performing at their very best on the park every week.
It's a catch-22; straight allies like in the interview above may wonder why no top flight role model has emerged, yet it is a position not many will relish. Things will likely snowball when someone decides they want to be that role model.
