HOMOSEXUALITY IN SPORT AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH: Bones of contention
Jason Akermanis, a leading Australian Rules football player who has played over 300 senior AFL games and is at present part of the Western Bulldogs (Footscray) team, is in strife over comments regarding homosexuality.
Akermanis wrote an article for the Melbourne Herald Sun newspaper in which he said that any AFL player who is homosexual should keep that fact to himself: “Other players would feel uncomfortable sharing a locker room with such a player.”
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Akermanis’s club has punished him with extra weeks out of the team (he is already out because of a bad leg, but they’ll be keeping him out longer than medically necessary as a punishment).
Media “experts” seem unanimous in condemning Akermanis for his stated opinion which they consider offensive.
The AFL’s CEO has also chimed in, “Jason doesn’t know what he is talking about . . . we’re in the 21st century and let’s get with it.”
Meanwhile, what do ordinary members of the public think?
Last Monday a poll in The Age newspaper asked, “What punishment should Jason Akermanis face for suggesting etc . . .?”
56 percent of 11,000 who voted said his punishment should be “NOTHING”.
Admittedly the wording of the question related to the complicating factor that at one stage Akermanis claimed the Herald Sun had altered his column – and then admitted that they hadn’t.
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Jason Akermanis is sticking by his opinions, having repeated them in a number of interviews.
He probably thinks that freedom of speech prevails in Australia. Not everybody is so sure . . . .
Everybody knows that what Akermanis said is in the paper is true – whether or not it was tactful to print it.
Those of us who have played in Australian Football clubs know that the uncomfortable-ness which he mentions would be very real.
This will continue to be true into the 22nd century, if there is one.
It is just a fact of life.
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As the Catholic Catechism says, “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered . . . . under no circumstances can they be approved. Homosexual persons are called to chastity . . . .” (Catechism, 2357-59)
