Joe Muraca and Dan Witthaus look at plans to tackle anti-gay discrimination on the playing field.
Dyke. Poofter. Lezzo. Faggot.
No, it’s not a school yard or King St at 3am on a Sunday morning. It’s the local sporting field every weekend, or even the remnants of Bay 13 during finals time. It’s every time a guy is told he throws like a girl or a girl is told she plays like a man. Can it be excused as something said ‘in the heat of the moment’, or are these often-used sledges suggestive of a deeper anti-gay sentiment in our sporting world; one that’s aimed at keeping us in our place?
If it makes someone think twice about going to watch a game of footy, or if it stops someone from joining the local squash club, then we shouldn’t take it lying down. And we’re not the only ones who think so.
A gathering of community heavyweights including key GLBT, human rights and sporting groups met last week to discuss ways of combating homophobia in sport. Those assembled at VicHealth included Queer Sports Alliance Melbourne (QSAM), Victoria University, and the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission.
Rob Mitchell also attended. Rob is a football identity whose experiences in regional Victoria recently convinced the Victorian Minister for Youth & Sport to commit to including sexual orientation anti-discrimination policies in existing sports governance manuals.
It sounds like a noble endeavour, but what will this new initiative actually mean to the everyday slogger?
Whilst it’s early days yet, the aim, simply, is to get more GLBT Victorians into mainstream sport, and to support those who are already there.
For some, this means bringing them back to the sports they once loved. It’s also about non-players who make sport happen, such as administrators and umpires (who sometimes attract the sledge of ‘maggot’ or ‘faggot’).
Melbourne has had a grassroots sporting scene catering to the GLBT community for some time. These clubs can offer a potentially safer space to get involved, given that mainstream sports have traditionally been hostile or unwelcoming for many of us. Of course, there’s always been a strong social agenda as well; particularly if the clubbing scene is not your thing.
But it’s not just about us taking our bat and ball and ‘going homo’. There are many individuals and teams who branch out and compete at everyday clubs and competitions, whether it’s rowing, volleyball, tennis or water polo.
Every week there are openly gay teams mixing it with the best that the state has to offer. Over time, we’ll profile those individuals and groups who are quietly gaining respect for their participation and building their own cross-sexual identity followings.
This is one of the things that last week’s thinktank (no mind-numbing acronyms yet folks) hopes to encourage. In the coming months, GLBT Victorians will be asked about what they want from sport, what’s working for them, and what is clearly not.
An integrated approach focusing on political lobbying, education and support is on the agenda to tackle the problem of homophobia in sport. To give you a flavour…
How should we respond when the first AFL star comes out (and we mean really ‘out’, not just the proverbial tale of a friend of a friend whose housemate went down on a full forward at the post-match celebrations at Love Machine)?
Will education programs make regional sports any safer or more welcoming for GLBT youth?
Is it enough to rework existing sporting manuals, policies and codes of conduct to embrace anti-discrimination ideals? Or do we simply need to get our hands dirty?
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Joe Muraca and Dan Witthaus look at plans to tackle anti-gay discrimination on the playing field.
