The AFL have formally apologised to Richmond’s AFLW player Kate Dempsey after they posted a story to their social media channels for the recent Pride round, but failed to monitor the comments on the post.
After the AFL posted an image of Dempsey and her young daughter, and a link to an article she’d written about her experiences as a queer woman in the AFLW, the comments were filled with homophobic and insulting comments. The post came inline with last week’s Pride round of the competition.
Yesterday Richmond Football Club publicly condemned the comments and said Dempsey story was one that should be celebrated.
‘It is a story that should be celebrated. Instead, some individual chose to make deeply disturbing and unacceptable comments.
“Richmond Football Club embraces diversity in all it’s forms. There is zero tolerance for homophobia, discrimination, or any form of hate in our game” the club said.
The AFL has apologised for leaving the post online with out any moderation. The post stayed up for two days and attracted hundreds of comments, many of them personal attacks on Dempsey and her family.
“The AFL would like to apologise formally to Kate and her family for the significant distress caused by these comments,” an AFL spokesperson said.
“We have processes in place to monitor and moderate comments on the AFL’s social media pages, and we have staff members engaged both during the week and over the weekend to review and remove comments where required. We acknowledge on this occasion that the comments were not removed quickly enough and we are looking at ways to improve the process in the future, including disabling comments on posts.
“Vilification of any nature towards players and their families is completely unacceptable and the AFL is committed to providing a safe environment that protects players and their families.”
To show support for Dempsey and her family both Richmond and their opponent Melbourne will wear their special Pride jumpers for a second week.
