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LGBT IS STILL FACING HUGE CHALLENGES IN THE WORLD OF SPORTS ✦ Increased inclusion can have a transformative impact
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ctober is LGBT History month in Australia, a time when we celebrate and further promote the merits of equality and inclusion.
However, despite significant progress made in recent years for the LGBT community to achieve acceptance and equality in society, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and other barriers are still, unfortunately, prevalent in the sports arena. When we consider that it was over 100 years ago when tennis great Bill Tilden proudly confirmed he was homosexual, thus becoming the first athlete of note to do so, we have to seriously ask how much ground has been covered and how much subsequent progress has been made. There have been notable examples of athletes over the years coming out as gay, lesbian and transgender with the likes of Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova and Caitlyn Jenner springing to mind but the number has been nowhere near enough. Many cite the “macho” nature of traditional, maledominated sports such as football (soccer), rugby, boxing and the likes of the NFL in the United States as reason for LGBT athletes not to come out and it is believed the fear of abusive chants, threats, bullying and physical assault lead many players to hide their sexuality. Australian rugby league player Ian Roberts was the first major sports personality in Australia to come out when he posed nude for a gay magazine in 1995 and spoke about being “part of a different group... an outsider.” Roberts recounts times when he was assaulted by fans while walking from the field of play and an instance when he was knocked unconscious after a vicious attack while walking the Sydney Harbour forecourt. More recently, Roberts aired his displeasure at the lack of progress and condemned Australia’s main sporting bodies for making “empty promises” to eliminate homophobia, as a collection of groundbreaking new studies reveal ongoing harm to young LGBTQ+ people in sport. This trend was not helped by the hugely controversial and outspoken comments of devout Christian Israel Forlau who said on Instagram in 2018 that homosexuals would go to “Hell... unless they repent of their sins and turn to God.”
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Bill Tilden, 1924: Full-length image of American tennis player Bill Tilden (1893 - 1953) hitting a tennis ball. Tilden was the only man to win the US championships for six consecutive years, 1920 - 1925. Photo Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
