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Darce cried in the shower after Aussie rules games. They insist on the sport to change
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Darce cried in the shower after Aussie rules games. They insist on the sport to change

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Darce has always been from Australian Rules Football. They played sports all their lives, dabbling in hockey, cricket and footy since they were a child.
But now they feel physically ill when they hear the swirl of the afl -siren or pass an Aussie rules.
The 32-year-old is non-binary and is usually played in local women’s competitions. But they say that because of their physical presentation they are subject to transfobe and homophobic blemish and physical abuse – something they have said in recent years.
“I just let people scream out of the sidelines while I try to play a game – people who don’t even know me. It’s really alienating and frightening,” Darce told SBS News.

SBS News has chosen not to publish this blemish.

“I remember playing a game and I could hear the coach who only refers to me as ‘he’ … Then these players and they play with the mentality that they play on a man, so they start to tackle you very hard and hurt you,” Darce said.
Darce says that the last game they played, they were tackled so violently that it led to a concussion. They say that an unsafe culture is embedded in local competitions, adding that many of their gender-diverse and queer friends are also subject to physical and verbal discrimination under the guise of competition and routine sleds.

“Players will be called blemish and it will be treated as a very small thing [by the league]”They said.” Any form of diversity or deviation from what is considered the norm of ‘who plays footy’ is the target. “

Now they have stopped playing in their local competition and have stopped attending official AFL matches.
“I took so much work after games because I would cry all night in the shower, and I couldn’t sleep. And this is even just local footy,” they said.
“I miss the sport so much and I miss my friends, but I am about to have been able to go physically to a game since then. Even when I hear the whistles of the referee in the park around the corner, I get fear.

“It was something I really loved and it caused me so much harm that I had to get away completely.”

Adelaide Crows player Izak Rankine has been hit with a suspension of four games for the use of a “very offensive homophobic slur” against an opponent of Collingwood. Source: MONKEY / Matt Turner

Has AFL a culture of homophobia and transphobia?

The aim of the sport to stamp homophobia at the highest level to the base was in the spotlight this week.
Adelaide Crows player Izak Rankine was punished on Thursday to use a homophobic smell of smoking against an unnamed Collingwood opponent last Saturday evening.
Rankine made the Afl with a suspension of five games, which was later relegated to four games, with reference to “compelling medical entries”. SBS News has contacted the AFL for comment on what those medical entries were.
“Rankine called the Collingwood player to apologize personally and he fully contributed to the subsequent investigation by admitting the AFL Integrity unit, by using the Homophobic Bottlur and being repentant for it,” said the AFL in a statement.
Afraal counsel Stephen Meade said: “The language used was offensive, offensive and very inappropriate. Our players have a very clear understanding of what is acceptable on the football field. It is important that in this case it was called by players and is recognized by Izak himself – and that the standards mirror that we expect and demand in our game.”
Afl CEO Andrew Dillon said: “Inclusion and respect are important priorities for the AFL” and acknowledged that there was “much more work to do”.
“I know that people in the LGBTQI+ community hurt when an incident happens,” Dillon said Thursday.

On Monday, Adelaide captain Jordan Dawson denied that the incident was a sign of a broader cultural problem in the Afl.

Dr. Robert Boucaut, lecturer media at the University of Adelaide, said that the incident was a “symptom of a broader problem” and was not just an isolated incident.
“In team sports you often give priority and appreciate your properties about hyper-male and aggression and you look at methods to undermine opposing teams at those levels,” Boucaut told SBS News.
“Homophobia, misogynia, queer phobia and transphobia all play in that culture of sledding in the game,” he said. “The language used on the field and, more than likely behind the scenes, is one of exclusion, one of exile and others.”

He says that “safety and viability threatens from various communities that can participate in sport”.

Rankine is the sixth-rated player who has been forbidden against an opponent for a homophobic smell against an opponent in the last 16 months.
Boucaut says it has been an increase to report these incidents since 2023, which may indicate a light cultural shift. But he says that the way these incidents are tackled still misses “the greater image of a culture of institutional homophobia”.
“The AFL is unique under the world’s elite sports codes in never had an openly gay person -who supports this image of the AFL is an unsafe and non -supporting environment.”
Darce says that the incident sends the message that Aussie Rules is not a safe place for queer people like them: “It is very clear that we are not safe with feet and that we are not welcome.”

“The Afl tried to wipe it as a single incident, not that it is a cultural problem.”

The ‘tip of the iceberg’

Dr. Ryan Storr of the Sport Innovation Research Group at Swinburne University of Technology is co-author of the Free to Best Research Paper, published last year.
It turned out that 53 percent of young LGBTQIA+ people witnessed discrimination, and 40 percent have experienced discrimination – usually due to verbal obstacle.

Storr says that homosexual men were the largest group that report discrimination, with 76 percent hearing or witness of homophobia.

He is not surprised by the experience of Darce. “In recent years, in particular with the rise of right-wing conservatism, the Trump effect and what we have seen in the UK when changing the definition of a woman, there has been an increase in anti-lgbtqia+ sentiment.”
“Unfortunately, trans- and gender diverse people have dealt with this.
“This is just the top of the iceberg.”
He says that the environment has led to an increase in body police – something that has experienced darce: “In men’s sports and men’s football, everything that is seen as feminine – whether it has longer hair or painting your nails – there is an assumption of your sexuality that this person can be gay and that is somehow not male.”

“In the women’s compartment it is less homophobia that you are confronted with and it is more transphobia you get,” they said. “If your hair is too short or if you are too long or your voice is a bit deep, there is this assumption that:” Oh, you don’t have to be a girl. “

But Storr is cautious to fully blame politics, and says that the AFL must become the owner of the culture it has created.
“Sport is a reflection of society, but I think it can sometimes be increased,” he said.

“In the case of Izak Rankine, if you had said this in a working environment, you don’t get a blow to the wrist – you would be fired. Sport seems to be immune to this.”

Electricity for community sports

But authorities such as Rankine’s not only take place in Adelaide Oval. It can also have devastating electricity effects in community spaces and online.
“Every time an incident happens, you might get only online comments four or five days after that – and it is often quite negative,” said Storr.
“Ultimately, what you have openly homophobia in online environments is the message that LGBTQIA+ people are not welcome in the sport.”

His research has also led him to speak with local clubs, explaining a club manager that such incidents can lead to an increase in homophobic language on the field.

A man who speaks at a press conference.

AFL -CEO Andrew Dillon said: “Inclusion and respect are important priorities for the Afl”, adding that “people in the LGBTQI+ community hurt when an incident happens”. Source: MONKEY / Joel Carrett

“The big percentage of the community clubs and sports volunteers has stated that homophobic language is very common and a problem. A club said that the last time this happened, the discussion about and the use of homophobic language increased,” says Storr.

Boucaut adds that larger cultural attitudes can drip into local, community and junior competitions in the Afl.

“The flow effects for communities would be discouraging,” he said.

“If the elite spaces of AFL do not lead, it brings community clubs to a poured position, because it gives a pass for that behavior to drip down – to be seen as only part of the game.”
That is particularly disturbing for Storr.
“If they hear their role models say, it gives this young boy’s ammunition to do that.”

“The most important perpetrators of homophobia are young teenage boys in groups – that’s why sport is for this and it is an area that unfortunately promotes.”

‘We are not problems to be solved’

Regarding what that change could look like, it is difficult to imagine.
Storr argues for a “multiple” approach, inclusive education, to achieve the core of the problem.
“A plaster solution of giving a ban does not work,” he said. “Cultural change and attitudinal change take long, but they must realize that this is a problem and have a carefully compiled plan and strategy.”
Boucaut says that systemic homophobia and queerphobia cannot be easily resolved through competition bans, sanctions or pride education.
Instead, he insists on switching the conversation away from the punishment and looking at more holistic efforts to improve queer representation in the competition, especially in the commentary.

“There is room for the sport and the code to change. The game has made many adjustments about existence- this can be a different adjustment they choose to make,” Boucaut said.

But for Darce, dreams are just as easy as wanting to kick a Footy.
“Queer people are treated as an external problem that needs to be solved or worked out or tolerated, instead of people who are part of the sport and have the right to be admitted and heard without our existence being interrogated,” Darce said.
“The queer community has had such immeasurably positive consequences for the well -being of Australian sports and society – it is offensive that the conversation seems to be to treat foreign people as they are the problem, when they are those who should receive the most support at the moment.”
“Everyone should be comfortable with sports. We are not problems to solve.”

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