Speech of 14 May 2022.
Well – I have to say that when I was growing up in rural Victoria in the 1970s and early 19080s the concept that I would ever get to speak at the opening of a Canberra AFL Pride Round never began to speculate about crossing my mind. I’m sure you can imagine the heterosexism and VFL bias that abounded in my growing up. Women playing football was as unimaginable as a world in which gay men could mention their sexuality without losing their jobs or getting the crap bashed out of them. And as for lesbians, bisexuals or any other members of the LGBTIAQ+ community even existing – good luck!
I thought a brief exploration of the links between the LGBTIAQ+ community and the AFL would be an appropriate way to start off today. Did you know that the first queer AFL supporter group, the Pink Magpies was founded in 2001 (incidentally, started by my brother)? Their slogan is “Side by side we stick together to support the Collingwood Football Club as well as queer people in general”. Queer supporter groups are now common, and some are involved in their clubs to the point of being involved in the development of governance practices such as Diversity & Inclusion policies.
It’s nearly 6 years since the inaugural AFL Pride Game. I’m sure that people here know that the Molonglo Juggernauts and ANU Griffins played the first ACT Pride game in 2019. It’s fantastic that this fixture is now a mainstay in the ACT AFL calendar and that both teams are committed to make AFL a sport for all.
So that’s a brief potted history of AFL Pride, but what does this mean for the LGBTIAQ+ community? Pride games and Pride Rounds are an example of sporting organisations implementing a couple of fundamental elements of inclusion – “Nothing about us without us” and “Be the change you want to see in the world”. I look back to life in rural Victoria in the 1970s, when the worst thing you could possibly be was a same-sex attracted man, and I wonder how many young men desperately needed to see this element of who they were receiving some positive recognition. Let alone the same-sex attracted women, who really didn’t exist at all in that culture. Today though, young people can see sportsmen and women they admire wearing Pride jerseys, playing in Pride games and rounds, and even living out authentic public lives as members of the LGBTIAQ+ community.
Shortly after the equal marriage plebishite, I was asked if there was still any need for LGBTIAQ+ support agencies in Australia. Because (to read behind the lines of the question that was asked), now the gays and lesbians can get married, and there’s gays and lesbians in most of our parliaments, and they don’t get thrown out of the armed forces anymore, and there’s Pride rounds at the footy. So, what more do you people need? Needless to say, once I recovered from the shock, I had a conversation with this person about the fact that during the plebishite, one of the members of our LGBTIAQ+ youth group had been assaulted at school, including having a knife held to their throat. I talked about the fact that the week the Diversity Hub opened in 2012, a sperm donor packed a suitcase, picked up his child who had just come out, and dumped them at the Hub because “this is your problem now”. I talked about the fact that our community is hugely over-represented in rates of homelessness and mental illness, and that we face up to twice as much abuse or violence (including physical, mental, sexual or emotional abuse) as the heterosexual community. So yes, random stranger at an awards night, there certainly is still a need for LGBTIAQ+ support agencies in Australia today.
And that brings me to May 2022. To a country where people’s gender and sexuality is being used and abused in an election campaign. Where outright lies about transgender and Intersex children and teenagers are being spread by our Prime Minister and at least one of his candidates. Just to make sure that everyone is fully aware – despite what the Liberal candidate for Warringah would have you believe, the only mutilation of children that is being conducted in Australian hospitals is being done to Intersex babies, when surgeons pressure parents to consent to unnecessary surgeries to “fix” what is not broken. No trans children or teenagers can access gender affirming surgery in Australia until they are 18 years old. Our lived experience in the last few weeks makes it even clearer today than it was in 2017 that while acceptance of gays and lesbians has improved, the rest of the community (the BTIAQ+), still face major hurdles of misunderstanding, fear and even hatred.
Diversity ACT has been working to support the LGBTIAQ+ community in and around the Canberra community for almost 10 years. Our vision is safety and inclusion for LGBTIAQ+ people in the ACT region. Diversity ACT is a community-led volunteer organisation that connects with all levels of society. We work for the community, forming partnerships that provide advocacy and support to connect, empower and build an inclusive and safe region for LGBTIAQ+ people. We foster this environment through learning from and celebrating one another. We do this work with no ongoing funding and no paid staff, which means that financial support like that offered by the Griffins and the Juggernauts this weekend is vital to our continued work. So, on behalf of the members of Diversity ACT, and particularly those members of the LGBTIAQ+ community who use our services, thank you for choosing to support our organisation in this year’s Pride Round.