After coming out only fourteen months ago, Spain’s very first openly gay referee is walking away from his job because he “cannot take anymore” homophobic abuse, he told The Guardian. 

Jesus Tomillero was facing abuse ever since he came out March of last year, he told El Espanol. After he gave out a penalty on the field, someone in the crowd shouted: “That’s that poof who was on the telly. He also said, “you can stick the goal up your arse, you f**king poof.” 

Even worse for him, “everyone in the crowd laughed.” For Tomillero, that incident was his breaking point. 

According to Pink News, the referee first came out by necessity after he filed a formal complaint against a kit man for shouting homophobic slurs. The man, who was on the local team, was angry because of an offside offense. After a failed attempt to get him to calm down, the man told Tomillero “You’re a c***sucker and you take it in the a**, you fagot [sic]. I’ll wait for you outside.” 

Andalucían Reginal Legal gave a nine-game ban, reported OUT Magazine, but the legit has not yet openly spoken about the incident. Tomillero also told The Guardian that it was “absolutely incredible” for giving the kit man such a short ban, because “football is educating 14- and 15-year olds.”