Hi Everyone

Some of you in Australian states may have seen Jason Ball interviewed on current affairs programs about homophobia in Australian football. He came out as gay in his local team and wants the AFL to put a stop to homophobia so high profile gay players can feel free to come out.

Please sign the petition and post on facebook and twitter.

Blessings

Ann Maree

Here's some of Jason's email and other ways you can support the cause if you would like to:

Jason says:

We’ve raced through the original target of 10,000 — and the more support we get, the harder it will be for the AFL to ignore us. The new target is 30,000 – can you share the petition with everyone you know and make sure they sign? Share on facebook here or send the http://www.change.org/afl address to everyone you know.

I’d also love your help in other areas as well:

We need more personal stories (either public or anonymous) from fans and players about their own experiences of homophobia in the AFL. Many inspiring and brave people have already sent theirs in, but we need more to really show the AFL that this is a big problem for people inside the game. Email if you’ve got something you can share.

We need support from inside the game itself – so please get in touch if you have contacts for players, coaches, supporter groups or staff who might publicly (or privately) recognise the issue and support the campaign.

If you can help with any of these then please get in touch at [email protected] – I won’t be able to get back to everyone until next week, but will keep checking for urgent opportunities (thanks so much to everyone who's written so far). You can also join this facebook group to share ideas and be involved in taking the campaign forwards.

Since going public I’ve heard stories both beautiful and heart-wrenching from so many grassroots players and fans. It’s just shown how urgent it is we act — I hope together we can achieve something real.

Jason

Thanks for signing Jordan and for letting me know you have. 🙂 It's heartening to see these issues supported and only takes a few seconds to sign the petition.

Thanks for posting that link too. It's a really good one. Things are definitely getting better. Being gay in sports is not the taboo it was 20 years ago but the AFL needs to be doing much more.

I've included some links to a recent article and TV interviews with Jason Ball. http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/i-didnt-know-any-footballers-who-were-gay-20120908-25ler.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivOXRjJRM2M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ_WDgLVhk4&feature=relmfu

I'm so impressed with Jason Ball for having the courage to take this up. I'm also pleased that Jeff Kennett is fully behind him. There was a time when Jeff was not at all supportive of gay issues but in a recent article he said that the increased rates of mental illness and suicides in the LGBTI community made him think differently. He realised that homophobia contributed to this and something needed to be done about it. He's right – something does need to be done about it. Big organisations need to change their cultures to be truly inclusive and accepting of LGBTI people so employees and players can feel safe and comfortable enough to come out and be fully themselves. I don't believe the onus should be on individual players but on the big companies. And meanwhile we can raise awareness and put pressure on companies and corporations by signing petitions, writing letters and generally using our voices to make sure they know this issue is important. Everyone has the right to work and live free of harassment. And to create an inclusive working culture, especially in sports, will have a positive influence in other workplaces and environments. It will also save lives by reducing depression and suicide rates.

Blessings,

Ann Maree

also done,

Sarab

Signed.

I was also glad to see Kennett's reversal on his opinions of LGBTI issues. For someone in his position, his previous stance seemed to be completely incongruous.

That's so awesome to hear Ann! Thanks for sharing that 😛

I just did a google search and found this article too, I think it was posted 4 hours ago? Not sure, anyway, it has a good anti-homophobia ad that they are going to air.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/afl-flags-gay-pride-round-20120921-26bgk.html