Gay Games book launched at conference on homophobia in football

From MCV:

A two-day conference on homophobia in football was held last week at Victoria University.

'The Worlds of Football: Triumphs, Trials & Traumas' conference included guests from overseas and also marked the launch of a book on the Gay Games by Melbourne academic Dr Caroline Symons.

The Gay Games: A History is the first comprehensive history of the Gay Games since their inception in 1982.

Keynote addresses at the conference were delivered by sociologists Dr Jayne Caudwell from the University of Brighton (UK) and Dr Eric Anderson from the University of Bath (UK).

Caudwell's presentation was on efforts to combat homophobia in professional men's soccer in Britain, specifically the Justin Campaign, named after the only professional player in the UK Premier League to come out, Justin Fashanu.

Anderson spoke about interviewing a male sports team after one of their members came out. He found that their experience was that it brought the team closer, the gay player's disclosure opening up the opportunity for the rest of the team to talk about their own lives in what he called "self-disclosure".

Anderson came out of the closet as America's first openly gay high school coach in 1993. Observing the prevalence of homophobia and misogyny in sport prompted Anderson to return to study, doing a doctorate in sociology. He believes we are currently seeing a decline in homophobia among young people. "The decline in homophobia is a youth phenomena," he told MCV. "We have passed the threshold in youth, and today's youth are tomorrow's leaders."

He said the term 'that's so gay' no longer automatically indicates among young people that the speaker is homophobic. He said he hoped to have a chance to debate Jason Akermanis about his claims that the AFL is not ready for an out gay player. "The institution of sport remains homophobic, but it's to prejudge people to say that because someone's an athlete they are homophobic.