By JESSE GRAHAM
THREE years on from the first Pride Cup match in Yarra Glen, Yarra Ranges AFL general manager Luke McCormick thinks attitudes towards the LGBTI community are shifting in players and spectators alike.
Mr McCormick joined speakers including St Kilda Football Club CEO Matt Finnis, Yarra Glen footballer Jason Ball and Stand Up Events’ Angie Greene for a forum about addressing homophobia in sport on Wednesday 11 May.
The meeting saw about 40 people representing senior football clubs from around the Yarra Ranges discuss the next steps for spreading the message of inclusion for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) community in sport.
One of these steps, Mr McCormick said, was having discussions with club members with “old attitudes and ideals” – though he said an attitude change had already begun for club members and spectators.
“Things are still happening – we’ve still got people doing the wrong thing and crossing the line, in relation to abuse and inappropriate comments, which is the thing that hurts people the most,” he said.
“Realistically, the inappropriate comments really do hurt people and turn people away.
“What’s happening is people are calling those people out, and that’s the change that’s already begun – in the past, people would just sit by and let those things happen.”
He said that footy club changerooms across the Yarra Ranges would feature posters designed by the Yarra Ranges Council and the Rainbow Network with pictures from the Pride Cup, emblazoned with “We barrack for equality” and “We stand for equality”.
On a national level, Mr McCormick said that St Kilda and the Sydney Swans would face off in an AFL pride match in August – a direct result of the Pride Cup in Yarra Glen.
“It’s massive,” he said.
“That game is off the back of our Pride Cup game, and they’re trying to basically spread the message we’ve begun in Yarra Ranges to an AFL round.”
Council’s recreation inclusion officer Jacinda Erich said the forum’s speakers had a “broad spectrum of experiences” – giving those who had not been part of the discussions before “a solid foundation”.
She said the Pride Cup, the posters and the discussions at the forum were part of educating people in the community about the experiences of LGBTI people in relation to sport, to generate change in the long-term.
“I think that education and the long-term change happens more slowly, but you have to start somewhere with this stuff,” Ms Erich said.
“I think Yarra Glen have been on the journey now for three years, and it certainly helped having the momentum of that happening every year.”
She said the message of acceptance and inclusion was spreading, with junior football and netball clubs featured at this year’s Pride Cup for the first time – and 11 organisations providing about $50,000 in kind.
Both Mr McCormick and Ms Erich said they would have liked a better attendance at the forum from football teams, but Mr McCormick said he hoped the teams that were in attendance would help spread the word to other clubs, players, and spectators.
“The culture’s changing – people are calling others out, and we’re really hoping that those that were there on that night spread that message across the league,” he said.
“Bystander behaviour is really important and trying to develop to build capacity in the community to have the courage to say – and it doesn’t have to be aggressive – ‘It’s not alright to say that around here’,” Ms Erich said.
“You can kind-of say as a collective, ‘Our club doesn’t support that’, or ‘We don’t talk to each other like that around here’.”
