Jack Butland believes that when a Premier League footballer comes out as gay, that player's decision will be welcomed and supported by team-mates and the wider football family.
The Crystal Palace goalkeeper spoke this week to Chloe Morgan, his counterpart on the Eagles' women's team, who is part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Butland believes that an openly gay male player would be welcomed in the Palace dressing room, as much as they have been in the women's game.
"We'd be extremely supportive," he says. "I take this squad, for example, and Palace as a club - I look around the changing room and we're so diverse anyway.
"I'd be quite privileged if that was to happen here. It would be a great opportunity to really stand up and make a stand, if you like."
Morgan says that because many players in the women's game are openly gay, it has had a positive impact not just on the players but on fans as well.
"It's become such a comfortable sphere for openly gay players and also for fans," she says. "And with the teams I've played for, the majority of the team has been from the LGBTQ+ community and sort of creates a sense of feeling comfortable and feeling open."
Butland says his belief about the Palace dressing-room's welcoming of an openly gay footballer would also be the case at other teams.
"If it was another player on another team, there would be people that would go out of their way to say, 'I'm proud of you, appreciate and respect what you have done, what you've made as a choice and we're here to support you.' "
