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Akermanis on gays in the AFL (LINK)

August 20th 2008 08:22
Jason Akermanis
Jason Akermanis


'Aka' is always outspoken, and often in trouble for it, and he's the one who has broken the AFL players silence on the issue of gays in Australian Rules Football.

Outwardly it's the issue the AFL don't want to touch. On my radio show a senior AFL official said, in effect, that if a player came out, then the anti-vilification rules would of course apply, but to date no one has, and until they do, the AFL can't do anything.


That's nonsense, of course, but the hierarchy is for some reason terrified of taking a pro-active stance and making it safe for a player to come out.

Aka explains why that might not be the best approach. He describes the way players regularly call one another 'poofters' (and other jibes with the same meaning) when they're on the pitch.

This is the first time I can recollect anyone from the AFL admitting publicly that this sort of homophobic sledging goes on.

The AFL says they can't stop that until a player complains he's been vilified on the grounds of his sexual orientation - which is nonsense. The AFL has made it plain that racist language is unacceptable. They could make it equally plain in a second that homophobic language and behaviour is taboo, too.

But that would be tantamount to admitting there are gay players in the sport - something Aka (and simple common sense) confirms.


Clearly the issue is boiling up inside the sport, with comments in the press from coach Kevin Sheedy, former captain (and now club director Nathan Burke), and now veteran player Jason Akermanis.

But Aka is the first to point a possible way forward. Assured of the support and shelter of the hierarchy, the first gay player to come out could reap a fortune in endorsements, as well as easing at one move the horrible burden of insult and vilification from other players at all levels.

It will take big shoulders to carry all that. But there's no shortage of them in the sport!
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Brian McFadden’s pink stink

August 19th 2008 01:57
Bernarr McFadden
Bernarr McFadden - no (known) relation

Former Westlife boy-band singer Brian McFadden says straight men should not wear pink.

McFadden, whose former Westlife colleague Mark Feehily came out last year, said, “If you are not gay, a man should not be wearing pink," adding, "Saying pink is a form of red is the same as saying homosexual is a form of male."

Responding to a caller to New Zealand's More FM, who said that in days gone by boys used to wear pink while little girls were dressed in blue, McFadden, 28, sneered: "In San Francisco or Sydney."

Poor Delta. Your legion of gay male fans can sympathise. We all understand the attractions of a bit of homophobic rough trade. Don’t worry. You’ll get over it.

McFadden is probably trying to boost his moribund career with a new gig as a shock-jock. He’s already lined up to prat on about football, hosting Foxtel's new reality TV soccer show Football Superstar.

And John Laws old job is still vacant. He could go head to head with one of the stately homos of Australia, and fellow sports nut, Alan Jones. And make country music albums to sell to the listeners.

Someone should remind him that calling himself an artist is the same as saying that mooing over a celebrity girlfriend for profit is a form of music.

Meantime can someone get him a date with Jeff Kennett?
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The Tsunami of Sport

August 12th 2008 01:34
Get your runners on
Get your kit on!


If anyone wonders why I bother to involve myself with the RJM Trust, the tsunami of Olympics coverage provides the perfect answer.

Australia is a country where everything else takes a back seat to sport. Politics, health, war, education, business, finance – all get swept off the front pages and relegated to the ‘also’ bits of news bulletins the minute some footballer pees on a restaurant window.

If you want to get the publics attention, get involved in sport. If you want to change the publics mind, get into sport. If you want to find the last bastions of all kinds of prejudice – the ones that dare not speak their name in public – look in the club rooms of any sporting organization.

There, it’s still OK for a coach wanting to fire up his team to accuse them of being a bunch of poofs, of playing like fairies. OK to tell them to stick it up the opposition. It’s still OK for cricketers and footballers of all codes to ‘sledge’ their opponents on the field with homosexual innuendoes.

They used to do it with race. They used to call one another ‘half-breeds’ and worse if they wanted to put someone off their game. That’s not acceptable any more – but calling them a ‘pansy’ still is. That’s got to end.

That’s where the RJM Trust comes in. Football/netball clubs are the heart of most small Victorian towns – and small town Australia is still a very unsafe place to be gay.

Literally hundreds of same-sex attracted kids try to kill themselves in rural Australia every year, and many succeed, because there is nowhere – not at home, at school, not at church, not on the street – where they feel safe and accepted, as in depth research by La Trobe University (“Writing themselves in again”) makes plain. And the place where they feel the least safe is sporting events and venues.

I’m working with founder Rob Mitchell to turn local footy and netball clubs from centres of ignorance and prejudice into safe havens for people of all sexualities and genders. That’s why we’ve been working with bisexual Ken Campagnolo in his fight with the Bonnie Doon Football Club, and transsexual Tess Emery with her problems at Northern Saints.

And it’s why we’re working with the Victorian Country Football League and the Victorian AFL to launch diversity procedures, policies and training into every VCFL club. And why Rob has taken a seat on the Victorian Sports ministry committee working on the sporting clubs governance manual.

The Olympics may have swamped everything else for now, but the work has to go on, even if it’s temporarily invisible. The Olympics have allowed Jeff Kennett to slide out of responsibility for his remarks that appeared to say that a bisexual trainer among junior footballers presents the same risk profile as a paedophile priest among choirboys.

He still hasn’t given any satisfactory response on that one, but state politicians have shown interest in taking up the issue.

Sue Pennicuik of the Greens is more than happy to raise the matter in State Parliament, and there are some in the Liberal and Labor parties who are equally as unhappy with Mr Kennett.

It’s not all downside: the Olympics also allows me to have some time out here in Queensland. But don’t think I’ve gone away for long. I will be back!
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Normal Service will be resumed as soon as possible . . . .

August 8th 2008 09:55
Clifton Beach
Clifton Beach


Apologies if posts become slightly erratic over the next couple of weeks, but I'm going to be hard at work lying on the beach, drinking Tequila Sunrises, Long Island Iced Teas and Mai Tais, nibbling on fresh-caught reef fish and tropical fruits, snorkelling the Barrier Reef and other arduous pursuits


[ Click here to read more ]
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