By MATT JOHNSON,
sports editor
Yarra Glen Football and Netball Club has embraced a holistic approach ahead of this weekend’s Pride Cup festival by educating its athletes on homophobia in the wider community.
The festivities champion diversity and the inclusion of the LGBTI community in sports. They began in 2014 following Jason Ball’s landmark public declaration as the first openly gay Australian rules footballer.
During the week leading up to the event’s 2016 instalment, the club’s football and netball teams participated in interactive workshops run by the Rainbow Network aimed at increasing their awareness of homophobic behaviour and strategies to combat it.
As part of the workshops, Ball’s teammates were reminded of internal monologues he had in the lead-up to his cathartic moment resulting from homophobia he encountered.
Senior football team ruckman Jim Baughan says that while the club has been identified for its progressiveness, these workshops helped to improve the team’s understanding of the daily struggles of the LGBTI community.
“When you actually sit there and workshop and discuss it [homophobia] all as a group, listen to everyone talk and get your opinions across, you realise that real people are actually going through this,” Baughan said.
“There’s people actually depressed and unhappy and it definitely opens your eyes to anyone in that situation or what Jason has gone through.”
Kim Christian, a member with the club’s C grade netball team over the past six years, says participating in the workshops and Pride Cup in general provide her a platform to advocate for acceptance of the LGBTI community.
“It’s an opportunity for when I’m talking to friends or work colleagues or even to my children and they go, ‘Oh, what’s Pride Cup?’, it’s then an opportunity to raise the subject and just make them aware,” Christian said.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re gay, whether you’re straight, you’re black, you’re white or whatever disability you may have, it’s all about the tolerance for people in general.”
The third running of the Pride Cup follows last year’s Out in the Fields study, which found just over three-quarters of those who identified as gay or lesbian felt uncomfortable disclosing their sexuality on the sporting field.
The cup is set against the backdrop of no openly LGBTI-identifying athletes currently competing in any of the country’s major football leagues.
Despite the lack of representation at the top of Australian sport, grassroots events like the Pride Cup have proved to inspire action in major sporting leagues. Round 21 of this year's AFL season will feature a pride match between St Kilda and Sydney.
For Christian, she believes events such as the Yarra Glen Pride Cup can still have a resounding impact on those who attend.
“Everybody has their little heroes who run out on to the field or the court and … you know, if that sort of person is a role model to other people and they’re promoting something like this, it could go a long way for people who might be a bit shut off from the idea [of LGBTI inclusion],” she said.
Baughan says that while friends who attend to support their cause inspire him and others, ultimately the Yarra Glen squad are spurred on by Ball’s heroics.
“The first year I was down here, it was the first time that everyone was there to support Jason, it was such a huge day and everyone just played that little bit harder and we played an absolutely amazing game that day, it was like a final,” Baughan said.
“All the boys love Jason, he’s part of the big family here.”
2016 Pride Cup festivities will start at 10am on Saturday, April 16, at the Yarra Glen Recreation Reserve, with the senior men’s football match kicking off at 2.10pm.