- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
On the day that the heads of Australian cricket and football codes announced they were committing to stamping out homophobia in their respective sports, my rugby teammates and I trained hard under lights on a wet and muddy pitch in Melbourne.
There is nothing remarkable about the latter except that my team, the Melbourne Chargers, have been explicitly inclusive of gay players and supporters since being founded five years ago.
The codes’ announcement is acknowledgement that sport – at both a professional and grassroots level – has a problem that is deeply embedded in its culture. Many of my teammates in the Chargers had either given the sport away years ago or would never had pulled on boots in the first place were it not for a space in the game which went out of its way to welcome them.
FFA chief executive David Gallop said at the launch that sport “has a great opportunity to raise awareness around [homophobia] and must take that responsibility seriously”.
With the greatest of respect to Gallop, he is giving his sport too much credit. Sport is a follower on this issue, not a leader. For a country that is obsessed with sport, particularly the football codes, the sad reality is that gays and lesbians are more likely to be in the closet in the world of sport than in the wider community.
Gays and lesbians are part of the fabric of Australian society in a way that would have been unimaginable even 20 years ago. Most people have gay colleagues, friends and family.
We have had a lesbian Cabinet minister in Canberra, a gay High Court justice and a gay man who reads the news on Channel Nine on weeknights, yet our professional football codes have not seen an openly gay player since Ian Roberts came out in 1995. It defies belief and human experience that there have not been any other gay players in our football codes.
Some straight people are puzzled by initiatives to combat homophobia in sport and which aim to include all people, gay or straight. Frequently, their response tends to be along the lines of “Who cares if footballers are gay?” or “I don’t care what my teammate does in the bedroom.”
This response reinforces the now outdated notion that gay and lesbian people are fine so long as they stay in the closet. Jason Akermanis gave the most cited example of this attitude, but only a few weeks ago sports journalist Damian Barrett agreed on radio that football is not “ready” for gay players.
Sitting behind this is are a bunch of tired old prejudices – that gay men are too effeminate for ‘tough’ sports like rugby or Aussie Rules, and that women who play contact sports must be lesbians. Judging by the way various commentators obsess over whether gay men are likely to be accepted in the locker room – shown recently by the number of references after US college footballer Michael Sam came out – there is an insidious and absurd prejudice that gay men are only interested in sport to watch straight guys getting changed.
Ask any gay person what coming out meant to them and they will likely tell you that it was a weight lifted off their shoulders. When the world tells you to stay quiet about something that is intrinsic to your sense of self, it reinforces feelings of shame and guilt.
To say that sexuality is a private matter ignores its many public dimensions – from taking a date to the Brownlow Medal count to giving your life partner a kiss after a game.
A wise person once said to me that rugby is an opportunity for self-expression. How can we ever expect the best of our teammates if we ask them to limit their self-expression because some people claim to be uncomfortable?
There is no way this could be good for your performance or enjoyment of sport, whether as weekend tryer or an elite athlete. For confirmation we need look no further than perhaps the toughest sport of all – boxing. Featherweight Orlando Cruz has said that he is able to perform better now that he is open about his sexuality.
“I’m much more tranquil now. My mind is on the fight. It was the same with my two other fights after coming out. I was calm and won easily. I’d said what I wanted to say for so long. I’m a gay man – and a fighter. This gives me calm.”
The move by the Australian sporting codes is an important step in changing the culture of sport to one that welcomes everybody – gay or straight. For too long the culture of sport has excluded a section of the community from being the best that they could be.
Here is hoping we’re headed for an era where sport again becomes a leader.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.