Confronting homophobia in tennis

The best tennis player who ever lived has given the gay marriage campaign a serve over the last few months. According to 62 grand slam title winner Margaret Court, gays need to go. Or at least be turned straight. Even fellow sports legend Warnie, who is annoyed at cyclists, has the sense not to suggest we turn all the bikes into cars. But with God on her side, the tennis player turned Christian preacher Reverend Court believes anything’s possible. And the idea of gay marriage, well that “violates their very own God given nature of what is right and what is wrong”.

The organisers of Rainbow Flags Over Margaret Court Arena disagree. They have launched a Facebook site to encourage tennis fans to “inundate Margaret Court Arena with rainbow flags during the Australian Open” in response to Court’s comments.

I went to Margaret Court Arena to show my support for the campaign on Day 4 of the Open but unfortunately there were no rainbow flags in sight. A competition for the most racist behaviour by someone in a Southern Cross onesie was being hotly contested, but no rainbows. This was probably because it costs at least $30 to go to the Open (the most expensive protest I’ve ever attended) and you can’t exactly just drop down to the local IGA and pick up a rainbow flag on your way to the tennis. Despite the limited presence in the stands, the campaign has received enormous media attention and provided an important organising space for people who support the issue.

The group has some powerful allies joining them in the media spotlight. Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova, two of the greatest ever tennis players and longtime activists for gay and lesbian rights have spoken out against Court since her bigotry made the papers during the ALP conference debate in December last year. Navratilova told tennischannel.com at the time, "Her myopic view is truly frightening as well as damaging to the thousands of children already living in same-gender families.”

Ironically, Navratilova was invited to participate in a legends doubles match on Margaret Court Arena on the middle Sunday of the Open this year. She played the match but wore a rainbow ribbon on her sleeve. A media snub was carried out against the star, with Channel 7 showing no images of Navratilova, only images of the opposing team in their brief crosses to the game.

Navratilova and King have been gay rights campaigners for decades and groundbreakers in professional sport – which is one of the most homophobic arenas on earth. The segregation of males and females in pretty much every sport highlights difference between the genders and helps shape gender stereotypes: that women are fragile and meek and consequently female athletes can only be appreciated for their sex appeal, whereas men are strong and violent and should be appreciated for their skill level.

Failing to conform to these norms can be damaging to players as sports administrators and sponsors continue to subscribe to the erroneous notion that sex sells sport. Navratilova and King publically announced their sexuality in the early 1980s and lost millions in sponsorship as a result. Ever since, they have been heroes of the gay and lesbian community, paving the way for a stream of high profile lesbian players – such as Amelie Mauresmo, Gigi Fernández, Lisa Raymond and Renee Stubbs – to publically disclose their sexuality.

This year at the Australian Open, 18 year old player Laura Robson carried on their legacy by wearing a rainbow hair band for her match on Margaret Court Arena on Day 1. When asked why it was worth being involved in the controversy, Robson explained, “I believe in equal rights for everyone – that is why I wore it.” Robson played an important role in the campaign by being the only current player courageous enough to support the campaign publically.

No high profile male tennis players have been willing to stick their necks out for the cause. And despite Navratilova and King’s work in the field of sport, most sports have very few “out” professional athletes. The largest football code in Australia, AFL, has none. Sport often reflects the values within our society. It shows how entrenched homophobia is in our society and how far there is to go.

On the other hand sport actually helps shape homophobic ideas in society by giving justification for these inequalities. Margaret Court can use sport as a platform to promote her homophobic beliefs because her tennis achievements have given her a high-standing in the community. Precisely because of this it is important for her beliefs to be challenged in the sporting arena.

Tennis has made more ground in the area of gay and lesbian rights than many other sports. The players, fans and supporters of equality are right to do whatever is in our power to return Court’s serve and protect that legacy.

This article was first posted at the Socialist Alternative website.

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.