7 players stand out of gay pride game

[lewisnotmiller]

Currently a big story in Australian sport, even in Melbourne (where we play Aussie Rules football moreso than Rugby League).
The Manly Sea Eagles created a Pride jersey for a one off game, and have had 7 of their players refuse to wear it, citing religious and cultural reasons.

Seven Australian rugby league players boycott Pride jersey · The42

For a little more on this, there has only even been one League player come out publicly as gay, and he happens to be an ex-Manly player, so of course he has been asked for his opinion on almost every tv station across the country.

Ian Roberts Speaks Out On Manly Jersey Controversy (sportbible.com)


It's clear to me the club initiated this badly. They didn't give their playing group much in the way of warning or input. They also had strange timing of the whole thing, since they decided to wear the jersey in 'Women's round'.
But, all that notwithstanding, what are people's thoughts here?

For the sake of stating my position, I respect that people have the right to their own personal religious views. If they want to sit out games due to their beliefs, then so be it. But the fact that only one Rugby League player has ever come out as gay in a public setting somewhat belies the statement some have been making that 'Rugby League is inclusive, and all are welcome'.

That is an aspirational statement.

Without any evidence, I would suggest the cultural makeup of the Rugby League teams within Australia doesn't quite match the general population. There are a lot of Pacific Islanders playing, and the countries they come from have higher rates of religiosity, and can be quite conservative in certain ways.

 

[Subduction Zone]

Homophobia is rather strong in US professional football too. In all of its history only one player has come out while still playing:

Homosexuality in American football - Wikipedia

 

[John53]

 

[John53]

Homophobia is rather strong in US professional football too. In all of its history only one player has come out while still playing:

Homosexuality in American football - Wikipedia

Ironically the team in question had the first openly gay player. Although when he was playing the club tried to cover up his sexuality.

 

[Aštra’el]

When I competed in sports… I went out there to be the best athlete I could be, to transform my body into a machine and to take it to the next level, to make all my training worth it and to put myself to the test, to take pride in it and make those close to me proud, to experience the thrill and the exhilaration over and over again, to prove I was better then my competition, and to help my team achieve victory in whatever way I could.

I did not go out there to make political statements, or to care about inclusivity (I don’t). Sports are not inclusive. You either prove yourself to compete, or you don’t.

There were some teammates who I really did not like… but at the same time I respected them, because I valued their contribution as an asset in our group. Your skin color doesn’t matter. Your sexuality is irrelevant. You can be a horrible person or a saint. So what. You either prove yourself in your sport or you don’t, and if you do you will be valued, no matter how people feel about you.

Personally, I would not have taken part in the rainbow theatrics either. I’m there to focus on competing and to be honest I’m not interested in hand holding and pretending like we are something we are not.

 

[John53]

When I competed in sports… I went out there to be the best athlete I could be, to transform my body into a machine and to take it to the next level, to make all my training worth it and to put myself to the test, to take pride in it and make those close to me proud, to experience the thrill and the exhilaration over and over again, to prove I was better then my competition, and to help my team achieve victory in whatever way I could.

I did not go out there to make political statements, or to care about inclusivity (I don’t). Sports are not inclusive. You either prove yourself to compete, or you don’t.

There were some teammates who I really did not like… but at the same time I respected them, because I valued their contribution as an asset in our group. Your skin color doesn’t matter. Your sexuality is irrelevant. You either prove yourself in your sport or you don’t, and if you do you will be valued, no matter how people feel about you.

Personally, I would not have taken part in the rainbow theatrics either. I’m there to focus on competing and to be honest I’m not interested in hand holding and pretending like we are something we are not.

So the fans that are paying their wages can only be fit young straight males?

 

[Aštra’el]

So the fans that are paying their wages can only be fit young straight males?

How… on earth, did you arrive at that conclusion?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Personally, I would not have taken part in the rainbow theatrics either. I’m there to focus on competing and to be honest I’m not interested in hand holding and pretending like we are something we are not.

You would have "focused on competing" and rejected "theatrics" by refusing to compete and engaging in theatrics?



Seems like you haven't thought your position through.

 

[John53]

How… on earth, did you arrive at that conclusion?

From your post but it wasn't a conclusion it was a question.

 

[Brickjectivity]

For the sake of stating my position, I respect that people have the right to their own personal religious views. If they want to sit out games due to their beliefs, then so be it. But the fact that only one Rugby League player has ever come out as gay in a public setting somewhat belies the statement some have been making that 'Rugby League is inclusive, and all are welcome'.

That is an aspirational statement.

Without any evidence, I would suggest the cultural makeup of the Rugby League teams within Australia doesn't quite match the general population. There are a lot of Pacific Islanders playing, and the countries they come from have higher rates of religiosity, and can be quite conservative in certain ways.

The 2nd link doesn't say anything about Ian Roberts though it is titled "Ian Roberts speaks out...."

I work in a hospital setting, and we try to be inclusive. We also are affiliated with a Christian denomination. We operate under equal opportunity laws, so we hire everyone not only Christians, however in training we are all asked to represent Christ. So even the non Christians are tasked with acting like Christians. That doesn't mean they have to pray or anything. This creates a diverse environment with an interesting flavor -- perhaps awkward. It is a tiny bit like your t-shirt situation. Not everybody here wants to identify as Christian, yet we all work at a Christian affiliated hospital. Its not really a personal sexual statement though, either.

Now I imagine what would happen were we all asked to wear gay pride t-shirts. (This would probably not happen by the way, but it could happen. They do occasionally order us to wear various garments with slogans.) First thought that would cross my mind would be "I'm not gay. This shirt does not represent me." I would feel like wearing it made people think I was gay and that I wanted people to pay attention to the sexual side of my life, like an invitation to talk about sex with me. In real life I want no one to ask questions about my sex life. I want no conversations about that. I might wear the shirt just that day at work but would not wear it outside and would change immediately after work. I don't like drawing attention to myself, particularly not if its of a sexual nature.

Beyond that I have no insights into this sports club incident. I think its just kind of funny what happened and that there's no real harm since nobody has been forced to represent anything they didn't feel comfortable with. I guess its just how things are when you're in a group with individualism. The alternative is no individualism and groupthink instead, which is possible, too. People do live that way. The occasional faux pas seems like a small price to pay.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Currently a big story in Australian sport, even in Melbourne (where we play Aussie Rules football moreso than Rugby League).
The Manly Sea Eagles created a Pride jersey for a one off game, and have had 7 of their players refuse to wear it, citing religious and cultural reasons.

Forgive the ignorance of this Canadian, but I'd expect that a team named the Manly Sea Eagles would be pretty gay to begin with.

I mean, it's a team name that would be right at home in my friend's gay dodgeball league.

 

[John53]

The 2nd link doesn't say anything about Ian Roberts though it is titled "Ian Roberts speaks out...."

There's a paragraph with a statement from him towards the bottom middle... still the title seems a little misleading.

 

[Viker]

My only jaunt into traditional sports was with little league baseball. At the time, gender or identity in general were irrelevant. I would suppose Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and amateur MMA kinda count as another jaunt into sports as well. I get to spar with any gender or orientation, this really tests my martial skills.

Rugby strikes me as one of the most manliest of sports.

 

[John53]

Forgive the ignorance of this Canadian, but I'd expect that a team named the Manly Sea Eagles would be pretty gay to begin with.

I mean, it's a team name that would be right at home in my friend's gay dodgeball league.

Which part of the name? Manly is the name of the suburb where they originated and Sea Eagles are Australia's 2nd largest bird of prey. But they are the team everyone loves to hate, even their fans seem to hate each other.

 

[SomeRandom]

Currently a big story in Australian sport, even in Melbourne (where we play Aussie Rules football moreso than Rugby League).
The Manly Sea Eagles created a Pride jersey for a one off game, and have had 7 of their players refuse to wear it, citing religious and cultural reasons.

Seven Australian rugby league players boycott Pride jersey · The42

For a little more on this, there has only even been one League player come out publicly as gay, and he happens to be an ex-Manly player, so of course he has been asked for his opinion on almost every tv station across the country.

Ian Roberts Speaks Out On Manly Jersey Controversy (sportbible.com)


It's clear to me the club initiated this badly. They didn't give their playing group much in the way of warning or input. They also had strange timing of the whole thing, since they decided to wear the jersey in 'Women's round'.
But, all that notwithstanding, what are people's thoughts here?

For the sake of stating my position, I respect that people have the right to their own personal religious views. If they want to sit out games due to their beliefs, then so be it. But the fact that only one Rugby League player has ever come out as gay in a public setting somewhat belies the statement some have been making that 'Rugby League is inclusive, and all are welcome'.

That is an aspirational statement.

Without any evidence, I would suggest the cultural makeup of the Rugby League teams within Australia doesn't quite match the general population. There are a lot of Pacific Islanders playing, and the countries they come from have higher rates of religiosity, and can be quite conservative in certain ways.

You know interestingly enough I have heard people (who might not be fully homophobic for the record) refer to AFL as the so called “gayFL.”
Not that I agree with such a sentiment of course. Nor am I accusing anyone in those fields necessarily holding homophobic tendencies. Indeed I know some folks who are ardent NRL fans who are fine with gay rights, so to speak. Even voted “yes” on gay marriage (I may have lectured them at length on the matter lol.)
Just a phenomenon I’ve witnessed but the AFL overall seems to have a much more inclusive environment vs the NRL
We have indigenous rounds, women’s rounds and indeed pride month. Which I swear I’ve seen displayed on jerseys in the past. So I think the overall environment might be more progressive overall
(Again that’s somewhat stereotypical and not entirely honest about the individuals. Just that’s what the culture seems to be like. That’s all.)

 

[Wildswanderer]

Good for them for standing by their convictions. Does anyone really think people should be forced to wear gay pride apparel?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

View attachment 64914

That's really the gist of it. I *might* be able to summon up a shred of sympathy for them if they weren't so obviously hypocritical about it and utterly unable to support their claims with their religion.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Good for them for standing by their convictions. Does anyone really think people should be forced to wear gay pride apparel?

If they stood by their convictions they would have drawn the line WAY before this issue.

 

[SomeRandom]

Good for them for standing by their convictions. Does anyone really think people should be forced to wear gay pride apparel?

Do you think a person should be forced to get a vaccination?
Or indeed that a child should be forced to give birth? (The recent case of the 10 old child who would have been forced by law to give birth after she was raped?)
Or does that not matter in the long run?
Merely curious since that appears to be the red topic button right now is all

“By the fruits ye shall know them” indeed.
Consistency my friend

 

[Lyndon]

Forgive the ignorance of this Canadian, but I'd expect that a team named the Manly Sea Eagles would be pretty gay to begin with.

I mean, it's a team name that would be right at home in my friend's gay dodgeball league.

Manly is a city in Australia, not a statement on masculinity