Rugby Team Fined for Fans’ Abuse of Gay Athlete
0In the United States, Chicago's Pride celebration was bolstered by the visible participation of straight pro athletes. In the U.K., a rugby team has been slapped with a hefty fine because its fans hurled homophobic verbal abuse at an opposing team's openly gay star player.
The fine stems from a March 26 match between the Castleford Tigers and the Crusaders, during which Tigers supporters shouted anti-gay chants targeting openly gay Crusaders team member Gareth Thomas, reported U.K. GLBT news site Pink News on June 29.
The Rugby Football League (RFL) imposed a fine of more than $60,000 on the Tigers, reported Pink News. In a statement, the RFL announced that, "Castleford were found guilty of unacceptable behavior, of breaching the RFL's respect policy, of misconduct by their supporters and of conduct prejudicial to the interests of the sport."
Over and above the fine, the tribunal judge, Rodney Grant, took the Tigers to task, the statement said, "for failing to take steps to stop the homophobic chanting, for failing to identify the perpetrators, for failing to challenge the chanting and for their failure to undertake a meaningful inquiry afterwards."
"The evidence does not support the decision and does not in any way support the scale of the penalty," Richard Wright, chief executive for the Tigers, told the press. "We totally refute the outcome of the hearing."
"The club condemns any person who makes or chants obscene remarks towards players or officials," stated Rod Findlay, counsel for the Tigers, reported the BBC on June 29. "But the charges against the club are not that there was chanting, they are that the club failed to take its best endeavors to prevent or stop any chanting," added Findlay. "This the club refutes totally. The club has a well-established system for dealing with chanting and could not have done any more on the day."
Thomas rocked the athletic world when he came out as gay in an interview with U.K. newspaper The Daily Mail late last year, telling the paper that his marriage to ex-wife Jemma was genuinely loving, but that keeping his true sexuality a secret had taken an emotional and psychological toll. "I've been through all sorts of emotions with this, tears, anger and absolute despair," Thomas, who was with the Cardiff Blues at the time, disclosed.
Although he knew in his teens that he was gay, "I could never accept it because I knew I would never be accepted as a gay man and still achieve what I wanted to achieve in the game," Thomas told the press. "I became a master of disguise and could play the straight man down to a tee, sometimes over-compensating by getting into fights or being overly aggressive because I didn't want the real me to be found out." Added the star player, "But when you withdraw into yourself you start to feel lonely, upset, ashamed."
Speaking of Jemma, Thomas said, "I genuinely did love her. She was the nicest, most caring, understanding, prettiest girl I had ever met."
Thomas had come out to his Cardiff Blues coach and several of his teammates in 2006. Their reaction, Thomas told the press, was immediate and unqualified acceptance. "They came in, patted me on the back and said, 'We don't care'," Thomas recounted. "Two of my best mates in rugby didn't even blink an eyelid."
Thomas' public disclosure led to an international debate on the matter of gay athletes. Though some pro athletes have come out of the closet after retiring, it is exceedingly rare for one to own up to being gay while still actively playing. That may be slowly changing--but widespread acceptance is not yet the rule among sports fans. In the wake of Thomas' self-disclosure, U.K. sports publicist Max Clifford told the media that he had personally advised two closeted athletes to stay quiet in order to protect their careers.
Soccer "remains in the dark ages, steeped in homophobia," Clifford advised the athletes, he told U.K. publication The Daily Star, a Dec. 21 article in that paper said. "It's a very sad state of affairs," Clifford added. "But it's a fact that homophobia in football is as strong now as it was 10 years ago." Added the publicist, "If you'd asked me in 2000 whether I thought we'd have a famous, openly gay [soccer player] by 2010 I would have said yes."
American former NBA star John Amaechi, who came out as gay only after his retirement in 2007, spoke to the British press about Thomas, saying, "When people learn you are gay, often that can squash your definition so all the good stuff goes and you just become 'some gay rugby player,' which is quite difficult for many athletes to deal with," reported Canadian news service CanWest in a Dec. 21 news item.
"Sport still needs to grow up in certain areas," Amaechi added. "As much as society has moved on, sport is still dragging behind."
"It would take a very courageous Premier League [soccer player] to come out because fans are so vociferous," opined Homophobia in Football's Peter Clayton, the Daily Star article reported, even though, Clayton added, "Some are out to their clubs and team-mates and nobody gives a jot."