Football, quite like marriage, should be for everybody. And while the Yes campaign has steadily gathered momentum in the face of the marriage equality postal vote, one of the most curiously silent voices in the country was that of the Australian Football League.
The largest sporting organisation in the country has largely refrained from making any official position on the issue public; a curious call, given their very public assertions about being a progressive and forward-thinking league that champions equality and tolerance.
That silence has ended this morning, however, in an emphatic and irrefutable statement in favour of equal rights for the LGBTQI community.
The league’s Docklands headquarters, AFL House, and its giant league logo, received an overhaul to stand firmly in support of the Yes campaign a short while ago. If there was ever any lingering doubt as to the league’s stance on the issue, it’s certainly now been erased.
It’s a big YES from the @AFL. https://t.co/8Hfl2S7U0t pic.twitter.com/mVO6gntbGW
— AU Marriage Equality (@AMEquality) September 20, 2017
New look at @AFL house this morning. #VoteYes #loveislove pic.twitter.com/ihwBn9xW7T
— Nat Edwards (@Nat_Edwards) September 20, 2017
League officials and players from both the AFL and AFLW posed with YES branded Sherrin footballs in front of the logo, presenting a unified front representing players, coaches, and league administrators.
Say YES @AFL #VoteYes #loveislove pic.twitter.com/izQKhK1ON8
— Nat Edwards (@Nat_Edwards) September 20, 2017
For those of you paying along at home, that’s Melbourne ruckman Max Gawn, Essendon captain Dyson Heppell, North Melbourne forward Ben Brown, Carlton midfield gun Darcy Vescio, Hawthorn senior coach Alastair Clarkson, and league CEO Gillon McLachlan to name but a few.
While there are some in the media who will suggest that sport should remain apolitical and that they don’t want to be “lectured” by the AFL (really, it’s just a sodding logo), the reality is that sport’s ability to normalise social change is unheralded, and time and time again it’s been professional sporting codes that have been well ahead of the curve on issues like race, religion, and, indeed, LGBTQI rights.
Much in the way that you don’t get to pick and choose who you’re attracted to, sport doesn’t get to pick and choose what it’s tolerant of and who it welcomes.
And with the AFL finally making this strong stance, the right stance, it’s now absolutely game on.
