Headline: Rugby needs to give homophobia the Red Card
As community leaders, our top sportspeople should step up and speak out on the importance of inclusiveness
The Green Party are calling for the New Zealand Rugby Union and the All Blacks to stand up against homophobia in sports.
This was in response to today’s New Zealand Herald story where a young woman in the crowd was told that the yelling of homophobic slurs was just part of the game while watching the All Black game against France last weekend.
“To truly be our national sport, rugby needs to be inclusive of everyone” said the Green Party spokesperson for sport Kevin Hague.
“This is an opportunity for the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) to take action and start tackling homophobia in New Zealand rugby.
“The fact that the people hurling the abuse see it as part of the game indicates they have never had a message to the contrary from rugby leaders.
“Overseas, the big campaigns in European soccer on homophobia and racism became necessary because loutishness and bigotry had been allowed to grow unchecked. We have let this bigotry grow unchecked in rugby too.
“Ex-captain of the Wallabies David Pocock is an active supporter of marriage equality in Australia, and Ben Cohen has done the same thing in English rugby. But in New Zealand, even with the huge public support for marriage equality our rugby leaders were silent on the matter.
“As community leaders, our top sportspeople should step up and speak out on the importance of inclusiveness.
“In the Herald story, Ms Spyksma said she felt alone in the offence she took at this homophobic language. She isn’t alone; most New Zealanders feel that lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people all deserve to feel they are a welcome part of our community.
“This issue could easily be incorporated in the recently launched Applaud programme which focuses on positive sideline behaviour. Dismissing the concerns, as Eden Park management and the NZRU are doing, is completely inconsistent with that campaign.
“If New Zealand Rugby or the All Blacks aren’t going to address this issue then we as fans need to step up.
“If any All Blacks or Silver Ferns or other leading sportspeople want to speak up about their opposition to homophobic behaviour in sporting, I will support them in that.”
—
