In a world first, this coming Wednesday (Tuesday USA) every major, professional sport in Australia will collectively commit to tackling discrimination based on sexual orientation. Australian Football League’s Andrew Demetriou (CEO), Australia Rugby Union’s Bill Pulver (CEO), National Rugby League’s Dave Smith (CEO), Football Federation of Australia’s David Gallop (CEO) and Cricket Australia’s Ben Amarfio (Exec. General Manager) will collectively commit to create inclusive sporting cultures and eliminate homophobia in their sport. At the event, the sport leaders will agree to implement anti-homophobia and inclusion policies by the end of August, 2014. This is when thousands of international gay rugby players, fans and media arrive in Australia for The Bingham Cup 2014 Sydney, the world cup of gay rugby.
High-profile players from each of their sports will also attend including Nick Farr-Jones (Rugby), Greg Inglis (NRL), Matthew (Matty) Johns (NRL), Phil Davis (AFL), Mike Pyke (AFL), Sasa Ognenovski (Football), Sara Walsh (Football), Nathan Lyon (Cricket) and Alex Blackwell (Cricket).
Dave Pocock, Bingham Cup Sydney 2014 Ambassador and national rugby player, who is a spokesperson and ambassador on the issue of homophobia in sports said, “I think it’s a travesty that people aren’t able to participate in sports for fear of being judged or who do participate and aren’t open about their sexuality. I hate the idea of people missing out on sport because of the fear of being discriminated against. If you look through the history of sports, I think sports are at their very best when they are challenging society to be more inclusive. That’s when we really see the value of sport, when we see people regardless of their race, sexual orientation or anything else.”
Check back with LGBTweekly.com for updates on this world first event.
