SYDNEY (AP) — Seven Manly Sea Eagles players have withdrawn from a National Rugby League match in Australia because they’re unwilling to wear their club's inclusion jersey. The jersey has rainbow stripes and a rainbow collar — in place of the regular white sections — to support LGBTQ inclusion in sports, and the club plans to use it for one game against Sydney Roosters.

“The players will not play on Thursday and we accept their decision,” Hasler said. “These young men are strong in their beliefs and convictions and we will give them the space and support they require.

remove them from your team, make cancel culture real I beg of you :trans-gun:

  • AcidSmiley [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    the favorite sport of br*tish boarding school nonces that just banned trans people from participating has queerphobic players? :surprised-pika:

    • Spike [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Rugby union is the one that copies boarding school shit, rugby league is more of a poorer people's sport in Aus. Also, most of the players in this boycott are of Islander or Maori descent. In Australia a large portion of homophobic/anti LGBTQIA+ people are immigrants from strict religious backgrounds. As @KiaKaha said, for Pacific Islanders this is a remnant of them being colonised. But it is so ingrained now that there are several evangelical christian churches owned and run by people of Islander background where they echo everything the white evangelical christians in USA talk about.

      • star_wraith [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        for Pacific Islanders this is a remnant of them being colonised

        This was something that blew my mind a bit once I finally understood it. There are places all over the world that, before they were colonized and forcibly Christianized, were actually reasonably OK with different notions of gender, sexuality, etc. But since colonization the worst aspects of Christianity it seems, have been retained in many places.

    • MaoTheLawn [any, any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      To be fair it's not really the Brits that are against it. A while ago Israel Folau was homophobic and the rugby world clowned on him for it. Rugby Union's had openly gay legends of the sport for quite some time now. The players that are going against it at the moment are mostly from similar ilk as Folau, being indigenous but raised Catholic probably in a Catholic school

      • KiaKaha [he/him]M
        ·
        2 years ago

        Here’s a take I saw on Folau that made me pause for a bit.

        Missing from the public discourse is the background of how evangelical Christianity swept the Pacific Islands. This the story of colonialism and Christian missionaries and Captain Cook; of the destruction of local religions and languages.

        It is the story of how all over the world, cultures that didn’t have laws or customs against homosexuality or gender fluidity could become so puritanical that they turned against their own LGBTIQ brethren in favour of the gospel as preached by their colonisers; only for the colonisers to then finally soften their own stances against homosexuality and decide that homophobia was yet another moral failing of the colonised. *

        I still don’t like him, but there’s a grain of truth in it.

        • MaoTheLawn [any, any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          It's true, but there's plenty of others who were raised the same as him who have not publicly denounced gay people.

          It's true that there's a history there but there's also history in the white families of Christianity for generations upon generations, whether it's from aristocratic members or poor Irish convicts sent to Australia.

          I don't know, I just say fuck them off until they decide to shut up and play the game.

        • MtF_DOOM [she/her,they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          That history of colonization can be true and also still be internalized bullshit they need to work through if they’re in a position of public influence.

          Māori culture has a long and proud tradition of multiple gender identities outside the colonial gender binary as well as notions of queerness. There are are a lot of trans and GNC Māori folk bigots like that are actively harming.

          You’re right that there is complexity there and also the material impact of bigotry and hate remains a deep rooted problem that must be addressed.