Imagine if the commissioners of the four major sports leagues in America – NBA, NFL, NHL & MLB – came together to take a joint stand against homophobia in sports. It would be a powerful moment. That's exactly what's happening in Australia next week for the Bingham Cup, the biannual gay world rugby championship.
From the Australian Times:
The heavy hitters of Australian sports administration are all scheduled to attend a press conference in Sydney next Wednesday organised by officials of the Bingham Cup, which is also known as the Gay Rugby World Cup.
Attending are the chief executive officers of the four football codes – Bill Pulver (ARU), David Smith (NRL), Andrew Demetriou (AFL) and David Gallop (FFA) and Cricket Australia's executive general manager, Ben Amarfio.
Organisers are claiming a world first in that all the the major, professional sports in a country collectively commit to tackling discrimination based on sexual orientation.
It's only been in the last year that any of the big four commissioners would speak out publicly against homophobia by themselves, so I'm not sure how close we are to something like this in the United States, though the powerful statement certainly wouldn't hurt!
