Senator Penny Wong does not suffer fools. The senior Labor party senator used her speech in the upper house today to address the number of issues pertaining to homophobia – both positive and negative – that have arisen through the world of sport over the past few days; namely Ian Thorpe‘s deeply personal, revealing interview with Michael Parkinson, and Channel Seven AFL commentator Brian Taylor‘s woefully ill-timed on-air homophobic slur.
Wong specifically cited the incident, in which Taylor mocked Geelong Cats player Harry Taylor‘s behaviour during a celebration for his 150th game, calling Harry a “big poofter,” suggesting that while the AFL and Channel Seven were very much in the right to make Taylor apologise and enforce education upon him, she also stated, “Well, if he can’t exercise self-control and just blurts these things out in the heat of the moment, perhaps he isn’t qualified to be sitting in front of a live microphone.“
“Are people in prominent positions really that ignorant, really that cruel, really that careless – also prejudiced? Because if they are they simply don’t deserve to occupy positions where they can hurt people by what they say.“
Wong went further, calling into question those who dismiss the gaffe as merely a joke, and the perception that those who express offence are somehow thin skinned.
“It isn’t a joke to be on the receiving end of a word like poofter. It’s no joke to be caught in the crossfire of prejudice and it’s no joke to live with the fear of being rejected or vilified or persecuted because of who you are.“
“We still hear homophobic insults and slurs bandied around as if they’re acceptable, harmless just a bit of a laugh. Well it isn’t a laugh to a young person growing up working out who they are surrounded by an atmosphere of hostility.”
Wong’s full speech can be seen below, and it is well worth your time to look at. Despite studies that show as much as 72% of Australians are in favour of same-sex marriage, casual homophobia is still rife within society, and this culture of “it’s just a joke” belies the true hurtful and repressive nature such slurs carry.
To apologise and repent after you’ve been caught out is simply not good enough, as the hollow apology of Brian Taylor plainly shows. To apologise to people “if it caused offence” is to display a total lack of understanding of one’s own actions. Indeed, such apologies only aid the conscience of the person at fault; to those who felt hurt and vilified by the errant words, the damage is done.
The only way to truly eradicate the immensely oppressive power that weak attitudes like homophobia yields is to develop the self-awareness necessary to not make the mistake in the first place.
A live microphone on a live sporting broadcast is an enormous responsibility that should be handled only by those proven capable of adequately shouldering that privilege. And whilst erring might be human, Brian Taylor is surely running out of strikes.
Photo: Cole Bennetts via Getty Images.
