Comment: Time to kick homophobia out of sport

Hawke's Bay Today news editor James Ford. Photo / File

I was struggling to sleep on Tuesday evening, so I committed the cardinal sin of firing up my tablet to see what was happening in the world.

To my surprise I saw a video featuring someone from my university course.

We both studied journalism at Leeds and while my career brought me to New Zealand he has gone on to work for the BBC.

In the video he addressed something that is still a social taboo; homophobia in sport.

He also went a step further by revealing to his amateur football team that he is gay.
It was a brave and inspiring decision and one, fortunately, met with support from his teammates.

It highlighted that, despite how far we've come, homophobia in sport is still a social quagmire.

In the UK 20 per cent of reports of abuse in football to campaign group Kick It Out were related to homophobia.

While closer to home the number of high-profile athletes past and present to reveal their sexuality doesn't match up to statistics.

Of the 1170 players to pull on the All Blacks jersey, not one has come out publicly as gay.

The numbers don't add up.

So why is it that some of our finest sports people don't have the confidence to come out?

Last year a gay Argentinian rugby player suffered an attack which left him hospitalised with a fractured eye.

While here in Aotearoa a gay inclusive rugby team, the New Zealand Falcons, revealed an opposition player refused to shake hands with a player post-match after finding out about their sexual orientation.

Commendably, giant steps have been taken by NZRU and other sporting bodies.

Hopefully one day homophobia in sport will be a thing of the past.