The word only has one effect: it denigrates same-sex attracted people and makes those on the football field who are same-sex attracted feel unsafe about being themselves. We now have more than enough evidence to know that is dangerous to the health and wellbeing of same-sex attracted people.
If there is any hope of changing attitudes and behaviours to ensure a game – that not so long ago carried a culture that was hostile to same sex-attracted people – becomes welcoming, then this needed to be the stance.
It won’t always be easy. People will ask: what about this or that phrase? And there won’t be as easy an answer as there is when dealing with a player saying what Powell did because most of us push at the edges of what’s acceptable in our daily lives.
But you can only jump such hurdles when you reach them.
An embarrassed Finlayson summed up the reality for players when he told The Age’s Caroline Wilson how he reflected on the offence he had caused.
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“Every day I wish I could take it all back,” he said. “It’s hard to talk about even now, and I don’t know who I’ve hurt or how many people. I have family members who are gay and friends who are gay.
“I’ve reached out to them all to try to explain I just said something so wrong in the heat of the moment.”
Now Powell also has to face friends and people at his club offended by what he said. He must look at his coach and teammates who must be wondering how he put himself in the position to be suspended.
That’s unfortunate for the 24-year-old who potentially carries similar attitudes to those identified in a 2018 study led by Monash University’s Erik Denison on the use of homophobic language in sport.
The study found sportspeople using such language carried no real hostility to same-sex attracted people, but used such phrases because it was normalised to sledge anyone with homophobic slurs.
But now we know such words and phrases are harmful to people around us that we care about. We need to break that cycle of normalisation of homophobic language.
We only have one choice. Stop it.
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