Gay in the AFL

Jason Ball, a gay footballer, has been behind the push to get the AFL (Australian Football League) to play the anti-homophobia adds on the big screens at the grand final this year.

 

I don't follow AFL myself, but I was surprised to hear that there's currently not one  senior professional AFL player who has identified them self as gay. You'd think that statistically there'd be at least some. As is stated though, there appears to be something about the culture within football that makes people unwilling to say they're gay if they are. 

SOMETIMES he'd say he had a girlfriend. In the world of Aussie rules football, Jason Ball thought he had to play up his ''blokeyness''. When teammates sledged opposition players, calling them ''homo'' or ''fag'', he'd pretend not to care. Inside the footy club where he'd played since he was five, nobody knew he was gay.

''It was the one place I never thought I'd be able to come out. Ever. It just felt like a really hostile environment. I worried I'd be bullied, maybe I'd get kicked out of the side, maybe the opposition would treat me differently or I'd get abuse [from supporters] over the fence,'' he told The Sunday Age. ''I didn't know any footballers who were gay, so I could only assume the worst, and it scared me.''

The 24-year-old, who plays for Yarra Glen seniors in the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League, is a rare voice in a football world that gay groups say is struggling to come to terms with homosexuality in its ranks.
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The fact St Kilda's Stephen Milne escaped with a $3000 fine and an education course rather than a suspension, after calling Collingwood defender Harry O'Brien a ''f---ing homo'', implied that sexual vilification was treated less seriously than other forms of discrimination, Ball said.

''At high school I got picked on for being gay and those words were used to make me feel small and worthless. If you look at rates of suicide, self-harm and depression for gay kids, this is a serious issue. I was fine coming out to my school friends and my family but I was terrified coming out to my football team. That makes it the AFL's problem because this culture is in their sport.'' Read more

Also, Beyond Blue, the organisation that addresses depression issues, has supported Jason Ball with this and has decided to sponsor the Sydney Mardi Gras. Jeff Kennett of Beyond Blue has evidently changed his mind in regard to gay people.

Ms Carnell said Mr Kennett was passionate about improving the mental health of the GLBTI (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex) community. 

"There is lots of research to show that discrimination is solidly linked to greater incidence of depression and anxiety and even suicide among GLBTI people, so if people are discriminated against just for being who they are, that's not acceptable, and Jeff is an absolute advocate of that concept," Ms Carnell said. 

"Mardi Gras is a great opportunity for us to get that message to one of our target audiences on a mass scale." 

Mr Kennett has become an unlikely champion of gay rights in recent times. 

Earlier this month when Prime Minister Julia Gillard pulled out of speaking engagement at an Australian Christian Lobby conference after managing director Jim Wallace made homophobic comments, Mr Kennett offered to take her place to debate the religious leader. 

He also backed gay country footballer Jason Ball in his successful campaign to persuade the AFL to show anti-homophobia adverts during the finals series. 

Mr Kennett is now working with the AFL and Mr Ball to help the league develop more inclusive policies and investigate a gay pride round next season. Read more