99% feel gays not accepted on sports field
Print Edition
Only 1 percent of people feel that homosexuals are “completely accepted” on the sporting field, while others have been subject to verbal and physical abuse for being homosexual, a new international survey said yesterday.
Close to 9,500 people were interviewed for the “Out on the Fields” study, with respondents mostly from Australia, Britain, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United States.
“Even in the most promising countries, such as Canada, discrimination and homophobia were still widely experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and straight participants,” it said.
Some 19 percent of gay men and nine percent of lesbians surveyed said they had been “physically assaulted”, while 27 percent of gay men and 16 percent of lesbians said they were subject to verbal threats of harm.
About 54 percent of gay men, 48 percent of lesbians and 28 percent of straight men said they had experienced homophobia.
Australian sports officials vowed to tackle the issue, after the survey — initiated by the Sydney organizing committee of a gay rugby event — found few positive signs that lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people were welcome playing team sports.
The participants were from all sexualities, with nearly 25 percent saying they were heterosexual.
Respondents were largely unanimous in the view that spectator stands were not accepting of gay people.
About 78 percent said they believed LGB people would not be “very safe” if they visibly displayed their sexuality, for example by showing affection to each other.
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said the study’s findings were concerning.
“The support of the study by Australian Cricket — and sport more broadly — shows we are eager to better understand homophobia in sport and take action against it,” Sutherland said.
Current LA Galaxy and former Leeds footballer Robbie Rogers, one of very few professional footballers to announce they are gay, said he hoped the study would spur change.
“Change can start with every athlete or fan who decides not to use homophobic language even if meant as humor,” he said.
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