Glenn Beck has another reason to hate soccer. Heterosexual male students in Great Britain are openly kissing each other, and it’s all because of that stupid, boring, socialist sport.

British researchers at the University of Bath interviewed 145 college and high-school students throughout the U.K. All of the students were straight and white. Eighty-nine percent said they had kissed a heterosexual male friend on the lips. Thirty-seven percent said they had engaged in “sustained” kissing with another man. None of the respondents considered this behavior to be sexual.

Apparently, same-sex kissing began on the soccer field. In Europe, it’s not rare to see two players lock lips after scoring a goal. Then again, it’s not rare to see a guy take his pants off and run around with them on his head. Let’s hope that trend doesn’t catch on.

Ninety-five percent of the athletes interviewed had kissed another man, compared to 80 percent of the non-athletes. All of the subjects who hadn’t kissed a guy said they saw nothing wrong it.

The researchers believe that this behavior has helped to reduce homophobia in the U.K.:

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Dr. Eric Anderson, from the university’s department of education, said: “Heterosexual men kissing each other in friendship is an offshoot of what happens when homophobia is reduced. “At these universities, overt homophobia has reduced to near extinction, permitting those men to engage in behavior that was once taboo. “The kiss is a sign of affection in student social spaces, a sign of victory on the pitch, or celebration at a nightclub, but it does not have a sexual connotation in any of these spaces. It seems generally younger people are becoming more and more open-minded with each generation.”

Anderson expects same-sex kissing to reach our shores soon enough. He says there’s research suggesting that 20 percent of American college soccer players have kissed another guy.

The author of this post, a former college soccer player, was not available for comment.

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