Perth scholar Andrew Douglas is undertaking research on a subject that has been recently heavily discussed but historically paid little attention. He’s looking at homophobia in sports. In particular, in the AFL.
While undertaking his Masters Thesis at Edith Cown University, Douglas looked at changes in law and social attitudes in countries including Australia, the US and Britain in the conext of the gay liberation movement. He noted that in recent years, more and more gay athletes have come out of the closet, leading to more social acceptance. However, not one AFL player had ever openly identified as gay.
“I started it four years ago.” he said. “What I discovered was no academic people had ever looked at that specific area before, so it was a bit like doing a Ph D. It was quite difficult to actually strain 40,000 odd words out of it to write a whole thesis.
“I looked at various avenues, I looked at first of all, sport in general and what the situation is in mens’ sport and amateur sport versus professional and then specifically football teams like rugby and then specifically AFL and look at international trends between countries like America and Britain. It was very similar, only that AFL’s the only professional major code in English speaking nations where not only are there no gay players, not even one, but there never has been. None have ever come out.”
Douglas looked at the social repercussions of Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League player Jason Ball’s coming out in 2012, while also tracking the advancement of gay rights in other sectors. It was difficult to find any evidence of same sex attracted players on a national level.
“The more that I went into it the more strange it became because there wasn’t anyone at all.” he said. “There wasn’t anyone I could interview or anything, or access. That was an interesting thing. I was basically having to look at a negative and explain the situation, which is sort of working backwards.”
Douglas said he could suggest a few reasons as to why no professional AFL player had ever come out.
“I think it’s because they’re like role models, and the AFL is so big, I think the guys, you know how they muck around on the footy show, I think because they’re conscious that they’re in the public eye- and also the media, doesn’t want to know about it. They’ll talk about Fevola getting drunk or they’ll talk about Ben Cousins taking drugs and getting arrested. They won’t ever ever ever- it’s funny, it’s like an unofficial policy. Maybe it’s two-pronged. The Players themselves feel pressured and because no one has ever come out, there’s no precedent to do it.”
“If no one’s ever come out and no one ever thinks about it and no one ever talks about it, the gay player could be very isolated and marginalised.”
Sophie Joske
