Stamping out homophobia in sport is just the beginning

When one of the toughest guys in Australian rugby league, Ian Roberts, announced he was gay in October 1995, many assumed his bravery and honesty would open the door for other gay sportsmen and women to come out of the closet.

‘‘The next sportsperson to come out will make fewer headlines, the next after that fewer still,’’ wrote Fairfax columnist Peter FitzSimons the following day.

But almost 20 years later, though the door has been opened, few others have walked through it. A handful of athletes have gone public with their sexuality, such as diver Matthew Mitcham or beach volleyball star Natalie Cook, but no other rugby league player has followed Roberts’ lead, nor has a current elite male professional rugby union or AFL player, or a member of the men’s national cricket team.

That no gay men exist in such teams or would be suitable to play for them is unlikely. Rather, it is easy to imagine that it is a fear of not being accepted by your teammates or the Australian public, or by sponsors, goes some way to explaining why others have remained in the closet, or were deterred from playing and reaching their full potential.

A 2010 Victorian study found 40 per cent of amateur sportspeople from lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual and intersex backgrounds had experienced verbal homophobia at some point, while 26 per cent of male respondents said there were sports they wanted to play but did not because of their sexuality.

These disturbing facts are just some of the reasons why a pledge this week from the nation’s top sporting bodies to tackle homophobia and promote a culture of inclusiveness is so welcome. In a a world first, all four football codes, plus Cricket Australia, signed on to a common anti-homophobia and inclusion framework, with a view to quickly developing official anti-homophobia policies.

Rabbitohs’ star Greg Inglis was among many to lend their celebrity to the campaign, welcoming his colleagues out of the closet and pledging to stamp out homophobic locker-room banter such as: ‘‘Don't do that, it's gay.’’

‘‘I'm a big believer, a firm believer, in respecting what others are and who they are,’’ Inglis said.

Other prominent sportspeople including Harry Kewell, Lauren Jackson, Mitchell Johnson and Paul Gallen also lent their faces and support to a new anti-homophobia advertisement. All these moves were spurred by the organisers of the Bingham Cup, an international gay rugby tournament, taking place in Sydney later this year.