It’s one thing for the ARU to support events such as the Bingham Cup, the so-called Gay Rugby World Cup, to sign onto clauses such as anti-homophobia and inclusion framework, and to encourage players to march in the Mardi Gras parade. But it’s quite another to take concrete action to stamp out homophobia when it rears its ugly head mid-match. At the weekend Pocock stepped up when match official Craig Joubert failed to act.
Sadly, none is this is overly surprising on one level. By any estimates there must be plenty of highly conflicted and deeply repressed Australian sports people placing their career above their own open sexual freedom. Comment columns of mainstream news sites reveal prevailing attitudes that such language is just part of the game. Here’s a typical reader response from a
Fox Sports forum on Monday night: “harden up mate, did the name calling hurt your feelings so bad that it made the brumbies lose the game? Coaches take note. if u want to beat the brumbies call them names and theyll [sic] be too busy crying about it and forget about playing rugby.”
But this outcome has shown that “hardening up” has nothing to do with it. Such comments flung about like dirt on sports field are surely a contributing factor as to why there is not a single player in
Super Rugby, the NRL, AFL or A-League brave enough to step forward as gay in 2015. These are the kind of casual insults that cut deep and inflict real damage.
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A number of leading sports and social commentators including Peter FitzSimons and Tim Wilson immediately took to Twitter to congratulate Pocock on taking a principled stand. Potgieter at least had the decency to own up to his comments and make a considered and convincing response. Full credit to him for that.
What Pocock has propagated here is something deeper – cultural change. That will only happen when people are willing to stand up mid-match and call out inappropriate behaviour as and when it happens. Such ideological warriors are essential on the sports field because they can provide a bridge between the changing political demographic that no longer buys into misogynistic, homophobic or racist attributes formally associated with a different era of macho culture. Just because we play sport doesn’t mean we’re obnoxious bigots.