Damien Barrett is the latest journalist to embark on a backward screed that a particular sport or sports in general "aren't ready" for a gay athlete. He took to the radio to explain that Aussie Rules Football and the fans aren't "ready."
"If you ask me the question, if the AFL are ready … I don't think the public are either…. What would go on around the situation would be pretty brutal for that particular person, and I fear that, because I think we in the media are more than ready for that moment. …
"There are people in football who are going through what you are asking right now and I don't see them moving to a position where they are going to be able to do it in the future. And I think it's an indictment on this town and this country."
The media loves pointing out how horrible everyone else is while at the same time explaining how enlightened they are. Yet the media members themselves are the ones most responsible for continuing this nonsense that "sports aren't ready" for a gay athlete, as though it even matters if people are "ready" or not — as if "ready" even means anything or is definable.
People like Barrett seem to believe fans don't already say horrible things in the heat of a game. They posit that fans will somehow drive a gay person from sports if he dare come out. It hasn't happened before and it won't happen now.
By the way, Ian Roberts was signed by and played for the North Queensland Cowboys, a professional rugby league football club in Australia, after he came out publicly.
If only members of the media, like Barrett, who demonstrate no clear understanding of the issue of gays in sports would educate themselves and speak and write the truth, we would already be years ahead of where we currently are.
