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The Rainbow Reporters new show, Freshly Doug, broadcasts live every Thursday 9-noon AEST in Melbourne Australia on 94.9 FM, streaming via the web at joy.org.au.

Melbourne popular culture sport - Rainbow Reporter

Rainbow Report tonight, Thursday June 11

June 10th 2009 23:06
Will
Will Will Play AFL?(pic: The Age)


We talk to the transgender man who wants to play AFL:
Really Long Link

A special report from our own reporter on the turmoil in the New York State Senate – will it derail gay marriage?

Really Long Link

Plus

Gay rugby team appears on The Footy Show (NRL edition)

News of the first Diversity Conference for gay and lesbian servicemen and women.

And more

Tonight at 7pm onThe Rainbow Report, Joy 94.9 in Melbourne, streaming on the web www.joy.org.au
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Footy IS homophobic - but could soon change

September 3rd 2008 10:22
Eddie McGuire
Eddie McGuire congratulates Paul Medhurst - pic: Collingwood FC

Despite the head-in-the-sand attitude of the AFL, football insiders acknowledge there is a problem with attitudes towards sexual diversity in football.


AFL Media Manager Patrick Keane continues to insist that the AFL pollicy on vilification addresses the issue, but it doesn't even mention it.

The AFL rule in question makes no mention of sexual orientation; instead referring only to ‘conduct which threatens, disparages, vilifies or insults another person on the basis of that person’s race, religion, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin’.

The AFL Players Association Dr Pippa Grange disagrees. She says there’s much more that needs to be done on the issue.

She told MCV's Richard Watts "I do think that homophobia is alive and well in AFL football - as in any groups of Australian males, particularly in traditions where the whole part of you being involved in it is the gaining of masculine capital. It is there, but I don’t think it’s implicitly stated, and I don’t think it’s deeply held by the individuals.”

And Collingwood President Eddie McGuire also thinks footy has some work to do.

“I refer it back to the same principles as tackling racial vilification – when we started to tackle racism, I had a lot of people come up to me and say ‘Thank god we’re doing this: I used to shout racial abuse because I thought it was what you were supposed to do, but I didn’t really believe it’. It’s the same classic pack mentality in regards to sexual orientation, and football should be leading the way in that regard,” McGuire says.

Meanwhile the British Football Association, the FA, the equivalent body for soccer in the UK, has been dealing with the issue for more than five years.

The FA has:

• Expanded the role of its national free hotline for reporting racist incidents at matches to include homophobic comments and behaviour.

• Instructed referees that players or officials using homophobic language are in breach of Law 12, which bans offensive, insulting and abusive language on the pitch – and is punished with a red card offence. (A red card means the offending player must immediately leave the pitch and takes no further part in the match.)

• Secured the agreement of all clubs to change the rules at their grounds (2007-2008 season onwards), banning homophobic abuse, chanting and harassment. Offending fans are now ejected from the grounds and sometimes arrested.

• Established Respect, a ‘program of activities to combat unacceptable behaviour in our game at every level, on the pitch and from the sidelines’, in partnership with the Premier League, the Football League, and players, managers (coaches) and officials.

• Formed a close working relationship with the Gay Football Supporters Network, to monitor the effectiveness of the anti-homophobia program.

It's time the AFL took a lead from the FA, instead of doing sweet FA, and sticking its head in the sand.
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Akermanis on gays in the AFL

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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