Meet Jason Akermanis. Professional Australian Football League player and newspaper columnist. Jason has chosen this week, Anti Homophobia Week, to write a newspaper column telling all gay players that they should stay in the closet because he doesn’t think AFL is ready to deal with a gay player. He thinks the pressure on the first player to do so would “Tear the fabric” of the club.
He also went on to say that he doesn’t think it’s a safe environment to come out as it would make the other players in the team uncomfortable in the showers. “Akers” said that the players are at the height of masculinity and along with that comes homophobia.
Thankfully, another high profile player and a top coach have disputed his statements saying that they didn’t think anyone on their team would have a problem with a gay colleague.
Your thread title says it all in a nutshell.
He is also a W**k*r of the highest order.
oh yes, he is… I’m glad the other player and coach have shown their disagreement.
Homophobia is most rampant in closet queens. Maybe Jason’s diatribe is a plea for us to help him get out of the closet…….
It’s an oldie but a goodie. Homophobia hey…..
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8772014
I think Akermanis is being crucified for basically saying the truth. The fact is that AFL is a pretty homophobic sport (like most team contact sports) and coming out is likely to be a career-ending move with a fair bit of hostile reception from other players. We’re not talking here about what *should* be, but what *is*. Tell me what he has said that is blatantly untrue!
It’s all well and good to hold Matthew Mitcham out as a role model, but the fact is that his sponsorship hopes were utterly fucked by the fact that he is out. If he’d been straight he would be rolling in the cash now. But he’s not and he’s not. So let’s discuss homophobia in sports and society as a whole (although Campbell’s story today has received more public sympathy than John Dellabosca for his heterosexual fucking around) rather than shooting the messenger.
i agree with James, Aker simply stated a truth for many and I think it is a reality check for liberal thinkers that we haven’t come as far as we think and there is still much fear and hatred to overcome.
I liked his justification that ‘there was a lot of homo-eroticism’ in the changing rooms’ and that some of the straight players might find that difficult if they knew one of their team mates was a big old ‘mo.
Always remember that many of those who are homophobic are themselves gay and have a problem with the fact. Most Homophobes are Gay. Homophobes subconsciously use anti-gay attitudes as a smokescreen to disguise their own homosexuality.
You know what? James Akermanis has a point.The straight ballers in how to deal with a gay team mate and then the locker room nudity thing.
If you let a man in a womens room,they would feel uncomfortable too.
I’d understand Jason on that.I just think he should have phrased in a nice way.The last part of his article sounded harsh.
And yes,I do love perving hot straight guys in the locker room.Jason A is right:It is all very homoerotic in there.All men walking around naked….OOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! And they’re rugby players!!!! WOW WOW!!!!!!
We live in a heteronormal world so they built changing rooms based on gender because they think everyone is a hetero.Now with the realization and the establishment of rights for non-heteros,this becomes an issue.
Anyway,us gays should have fun enjoying perving on hot guys in the locker room as much as they can! ha ha! But just be careful!