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The Australian Professional Leagues (APL) will launch the first ever A-Leagues Pride Celebration round this month to coincide with Mardi Gras and 2023 Sydney World Pride, with the initiative set to take place across the last weekend of February (24–26) in Australia and the following weekend (March 4) in New Zealand for Wellington Phoenix home games.
Building on the success of last season's Pride games hosted by Adelaide United, which saw a number of displays including rainbow armbands, jersey numbers, corner flags, banners, and a rainbow seating pattern at Coopers Stadium, the APL decided to accelerate and expand the initiative to all fixtures in the A-League Men and A-League Women from this season onwards.
While individual clubs such as Victory, Adelaide, Canberra United, and Sydney FC have conducted smaller Pride initiatives in the past, this is the first time Australia's top-flight football league will host a competition-wide event that celebrates the LGBTQIA+ community.
For the past 18 months, the APL has been working behind the scenes with clubs, players, staff members, and executives on a number of education programs that emphasise the purpose of Pride initiatives in combating homophobic language and behaviour in football, as well as the importance of diversity and inclusion across all levels of the sport.
"The LGBTQI community is such an important part of the fabric of our game, particularly the women's game," APL CEO Danny Townsend told ABC.
"The women have been leaders in this space for a long time, but our men — with the exception of Josh [Cavallo] — are still so far behind. But now we're able to step it forward in a considered and organised way.
"We want this to be part of our annual calendar; it's not just over and done with, ticking the box and moving on. It's certainly a commitment we're making over the long-term: we want it to grow in importance in our calendar and we'll continue to work on the education programs that we've got in place and build on those, because the job is certainly not done."
In addition to education for players and staff, which include things such as bystander intervention training (ie. speaking up when you overhear someone using homophobic language), the APL has developed new stadium safety and inclusion program that was originally trialled with the Melbourne Olympic Parks Trust in late 2021 and which is now set to be rolled out nationally.
The program includes training for security staff on identifying homophobic abuse - both physical and verbal - committed by spectators towards players and other fans, and a system whereby fans can report incidents to an anonymous hotline whose number will be posted around the stadium during games.
The APL will also use the round to launch new technology that moderates and filters out homophobic comments and images directed towards clubs and players on various social media platforms.
The celebration's marquee fixture will be an ALM and ALW double-header between Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United, which will take place on Sunday February 26 - the day after the Sydney Mardi Gras Parade. The men's game will kick off at 3:00pm AEDT, acting as a curtain-raiser for the women's match at 6:00pm at AAMI Park.
Adelaide United player Josh Cavallo, currently the only male player in the ALM to identify as gay, was targeted by homophobic abuse during an away match against Melbourne Victory last year, making this fixture a particularly pertinent one around which a Pride initiative revolves.
Victory was presented with a "show case" notice and fined $5,000 by Football Australia for that incident, which was seen as a mild "slap on the wrist" at the time. However, thanks to the growing awareness of the impact homophobic abuse has on players and fans, ABC understands more severe punishments could be introduced in future by the APL and Football Australia.
9 other A-Leagues fixtures - four women's games and five men's games - will occur during the Pride Celebration window, with each club choosing their own respective activations (such as rainbow armbands, jerseys, corner flags, coloured nets, and fan engagement activities) after discussions with players and staff, and in accordance with their own relative resources.
Melbourne Victory, for example, will set up a "Pride bay" during both games, where over 200 members of the LGBTQIA+ community who are volunteers, mental health workers, and support workers will be invited for free, while Adelaide United will retain the rainbow jersey numbers and armband they wore last season. Anti-discrimination messages and support phone numbers will also be visible on billboards and signage around AAMI Park.
"That was a key pillar for us: giving freedom to players and clubs to express themselves the way that they would like and not be too prescriptive of what we expect," Townsend said.
"There will be individuals who have their own positions on things, but the key for us is ensuring that everyone was educated. When you ask people to do things or engage without the proper consultation and proper education, then you end up in positions that other sports have found themselves in, and they're not great for anyone.
"In this case, you'll see a variety of things across different playing groups and different clubs, which I think epitomises the way in which we've gone about it."
The A-Leagues' two broadcasters, Channel 10 and Paramount+, will also have particular displays throughout their coverage over the weekend.
Australian sport has a chequered history when it comes to Pride events.
Recent "inclusion" initiatives have been attempted by the Manly Sea Eagles in the NRL and the Cairns Taipans in the NBL, but the "top-down" approach where decisions were made at management level without consulting players often resulted in playing groups refusing to wear rainbow-themed jerseys.
The APL, by contrast, have gone for a "bottom-up" approach, consulting with players quietly over several education sessions since 2021 to ensure that the Pride Celebration is a player-driven initiative, with those who object for personal, religious, or cultural reasons able to opt out if they choose.
"At the end of the day, we're not forcing players with different beliefs that may or may not be as supportive of the LGBTQI community to do something we think is important as a collective," Townsend said.
"This is a whole-of-game approach that has the flexibility to give those that feel differently about it, from a personal perspective, to do what they see fit.
"I think that's the key: if you're forcing people to do things that they may be uncomfortable with, it defeats the purpose of what you're trying to achieve in trying to make our game as inclusive and safe as it can be.
"It's also not just about making a statement and then moving on. These things are going to be iterative; we're going to continue to learn and do a better job of ensuring that not just the LGBTQI community, but all groups, feel welcome in football."
$1 from every ticket sold across the Pride weekend will be donated to Pride Cup, the non-profit organisation that has partnered with the APL and helped run their education workshops over the past 18 months, and which also helps support community sports clubs across Australia to organise their own Pride initiatives.
For James Lolicato, the CEO of Pride Cup, the APL's approach to constructing their Pride event is what other sports should aspire towards.
"Cultural change is a long-term project; you need a long-term focus for a sustained cultural shift," he told the ABC.
"It doesn't come by throwing on a rainbow jersey, by announcing a Pride round that players don't know about, and the next week running out there in a rainbow and not having the notion about why this is important.
"The issues are in the mental health and wellbeing deficits we see within the LGBTI community; in the six-times higher rates of suicide for young people, or the one in two trans people who will attempt to end their lives before they turn 18. And one of the best tools to help mitigate those problems are sport.
"These games should not be built just to be a one-off event. It needs to be a sustained cultural shift that comes out of this. And the only way to do that is to get player development and education involved, and to ensure that we're getting community interaction.
"That's where Pride rounds often go wrong: they announce it, they run out in a rainbow jersey, and the next week after that, everything's forgotten about.
"We know we need to shift the thinking in a lot of our fans within the football community, and the only way you can do that is by inviting new communities in. But you can't invite new communities in without doing the work to ensure they feel safe and comfortable being in that space, being in a community club, or listening to the language that's used around the grounds.
"We always say that you need 12 to 18 months to make cultural change, but that's just the beginning."
Indeed, the foundational work that has occurred behind the scenes over the past 18 months with Pride Cup has already started to make an impact.
Sydney FC captain and PFA president Alex Wilkinson told ABC that the playing cohort — particularly on the men's side — has responded positively to the education programs, with changes in language and behaviour noticeable in the dressing room and on the field.
"There has been a change in the squad around awareness of the issues facing the LGBTI+ community and the reasons why some of them don't feel safe or secure in supporting or participating in sport," he told ABC.
"Pride Cup managed to get around to every club and talk to Men's and Women's players to educate them on why we are doing the program in the first place.
"Our A-League team at Sydney FC was really receptive to hearing the [Pride Cup] presentation and they all really enjoyed the education session and learning the statistics.
"It was fantastic to hear the feedback from the LGBTI+ community on how they feel and what their issues are in relation to sport in general, and this is the best way we can educate our players but also the wider community.
"I think that's where the education is so important, as it raises awareness. And the key point being that sport - and the whole of society - need to get better at making the LGBTI+ community feel more included and more secure and safe."
Lolicato said that while he experienced some reluctance from players across the A-Leagues, a crucial part of the education program was reframing the Pride initiatives to focus on their practical goals and outcomes rather than talking about it through a moral or political lens.
"Not every player across every league in every sport is ready for LGBTI engagements; people still have personal beliefs and religious ideologies that might not align," he said.
"So what we do is we break down the facts. We know that only six per cent of LGBTI young people are involved in a team sport, in comparison to almost 70 per cent outside that community. There's a six-times higher rate of suicide. There's mental health and well-being differences that we only see within this community. And we know that sport can help negate all that.
"So, at the end of the day, this has nothing to do about beliefs. It has nothing to do with religious ideologies. What this has to do with is: how can we help save lives by using sport as a powerful tool for change?
"That's what all our sessions are about. It's not about changing beliefs; it's about changing behaviours and the way we talk to one another. We're trying to break down hundreds of years of negative language, banter, and discriminatory behaviour; it isn't a simple process. That's why every individual needs to be part of that journey and do it in their own way."
While the need for more representation and education is arguably more urgent and necessary in the men's game, the women's game continues to face its own challenges, including negative stereotypes around queer sexuality - such as the "lesbian predator" discourse that emerged during the Lisa De Vanna abuse allegations - as well as the demonisation of trans women and non-binary people in sport.
For former Brisbane Roar and current Matildas player Tameka Yallop, while these bigger issues cannot be addressed with a single Pride event, these smaller initiatives can add into something larger that, over time, can change the culture and attitudes of the industry and wider community.
"It's really important to have that representation, just in the fact that it normalises it more for people who might not see it in their regular lives; who aren't exposed to different family scenarios and beliefs and relationships," she said.
"Women's sport in general already has the platform of being inclusive and fighting for things that are outside of sport.
"Coming from the days where women were more oppressed, we already know how it feels to fight for equality and representation. We have a platform that was built to be expressive and to demand more, so it's natural that we follow up with broader community and social issues.
"This is about showing support to a community that will give support back to you. It's about inclusivity. It's not like you're "in" or you're "out", or if you don't believe it, that's it. It's just about supporting people to live their everyday lives.
"It's important for humankind to be open-minded and open-hearted."