Players take tackling homophobia into their own hands

Hanging up the footy books for the rainbow flag isn’t the norm in 2011 but Ben Cohen isn’t your normal international rugby player. He's proud of the fact that he’s a popular figure in the gay community all over the world even though he’s openly heterosexual. He also takes homophobia very seriously, so seriously in fact that he retired from his English rugby club earlier this month to spend more time concentrating on his anti-bullying foundation, StandUp. Less than a week later he jumped on a plane and embarked on an ‘Acceptance Tour’ of the US in which he has visited four cities over the last two weeks to speak at events hosted by gay and gay-friendly rugby clubs.

Cohen’s tour is a response to the overwhelming number of suicides linked to homophobic bullying in the US over the last few years including five young men in one week in October 2010. He believes that a lot of work needs to be done to stop young people taking their own lives.

Cohen expresses his opinion with eloquence on his website, “As athletes, it is not enough just to have strong bodies. We must have strong characters and use our voices to support those who need and deserve it.”

Contrast this with the damaging ramblings of Jason Akermanis on the Today Show and in the Herald Sun in May last year. The AFL and the football community rallied against Akermanis’ comments, embarrassed that the player chosen to write an article in the paper about International Day Against Homophobia could stuff it up so badly. The AFL has since managed to rid itself of Akermanis entirely but since the incident has done very little to promote an anti-homophobia message throughout the league.

The AFL's CEO Andrew Demetriou is extremely proud of himself for leading the only sporting body to update its racial and religious vilification code to "prohibit vilification on the basis of...sexual orientation, preference or identity" and uses this to combat accusations that the AFL has been dragging its feet on the issue of homophobia. However the changes to the code were done in 2009 and Akermanis clearly didn’t get the memo.

Ben Cohen shows up sporting organisations all over the world for how little they are doing to address the issue. If one rugby player can launch a foundation with international notoriety and conduct a successful speaking tour of the US, then imagine what a wealthy and powerful organisation like the AFL could do in Australia.

As is often the case, the union (in this case the AFL Players' Association) is currently taking the lead on this issue within the AFL. Unions have a strong history of fighting homophobia - even the Builders Labourers Federation have taken industrial action against homophobia.

The ALFPA have organised for three AFL players - Nick Duigan (Carlton), Daniel Jackson (Richmond) and Bob Murphy (Western Bulldogs) to link up with Headspace to promote the issue. Amongst their various media appearances, the players participated in a panel discussion on Joy FM, Melbourne’s gay and lesbian radio station. Jackson also spoke to the Sydney Morning Herald about his desire to see a diversity round in the AFL. Let’s hope he continues to ignore AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou who told 3AW his views on having such a round, “We don't have a round for cancer, we don't have a round for homelessness but we do things. We know very well what our views are about discrimination…Next we'll be sorting out the pygmies in Tanzania." It seems Demetriou studied at the Akermanis school of public relations.

Demetriou’s “pygmies” comment insinuates that homophobia has little to do with AFL. However, despite Demetriou’s belief, homophobia is a major issue in sport. In Australia a 2010 study found that 40% of gays and lesbians surveyed had experienced homophobia in the sporting environment and the experiences of the respondents showed that AFL is the most homophobic football code.

In the US homophobia in sport has jumped into the spotlight this month. In addition to Ben Cohen’s tour, the US chef de mission for the 2012 Olympics, Peter Vidmar was forced to resign after it was revealed he had supported the anti-gay marriage campaign. One week later NHL ice hockey player Sean Avery publicly announced his support for the gay marriage campaign in New York.

In Australia today the political battleground over homophobia also manifests in a fight to change the Marriage Act. Although it’s hard to see Demetriou stepping off his pedestal to lead an Equal Love march down Swanston Street, let’s hope we see some of the AFL players from the AFLPA follow Cohen and Avery’s lead in extending their reach and showing their support for the same sex marriage campaign in the coming months.