NZR to tackle homophobia
Of the 1160 players who have pulled on the All Blacks jersey, not one has come out publicly as gay.
But New Zealand Rugby (NZR) chief executive Steve Tew believes some may have kept their sexual and gender identities secret.
Now, he wants to create an environment in which players and workers are free to express their sexuality and diversity without fear of discrimination.
NZR has become the first sporting body to be awarded the Rainbow Tick, following major corporates including ASB, Massey University and Spark.
The certification means it understands, values and welcomes sexual and gender diversity, and has policies in place to reflect that.
Speaking at New Zealand Rugby head office in Wellington, Tew acknowledged there was evidence of discrimination within his sport an issue he wanted to tackle.
‘‘Sport and rugby, as one sport, has an issue with homophobia. There’s no point in hiding from that fact,’’ Tew said.
‘‘There’s homophobia in New Zealand society, there’s homophobia in other workplaces.
‘‘What we can control is the way we respond to that information. We’ve immediately gone and got some help.’’
Tew said the tick signalled the organisation’s intentions to be more inclusive – and that extended to the All Blacks environment.
‘‘We can’t hide from the fact that, unless there’s something completely wrong with the law of averages in the male population, we would have had All Blacks who haven’t openly expressed their sexuality as different than we know.
‘‘We clearly haven’t created an environment at the community or professional levels where people are completely comfortable to express their sexuality and we need to fix that,’’ Tew said.
Concerns over that environment were raised by the findings of the first international study into homophobia in sport, Out on the Fields, released in 2015.
The research scrutinised the experiences of gay, lesbian and bisexual people in sport in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Britain, the United States and Ireland.
As well as NZR, the spotlight was shone on New Zealand Cricket, New Zealand Football, New Zealand Rugby League, Hockey New Zealand and Netball New Zealand.
It found 78 per cent of New Zealanders had witnessed homophobia in sport, with 77 per cent believing an openly gay person would not be safe as a spectator at sport.
Rainbow Tick programme director Michael Stevens has commended NZR’s commitment to the initiative.
‘‘We never promise it’s going to be perfect from day one.
‘‘This is about improving things step by step, so this is a stage and working towards helping NZR make their culture more inclusive and welcoming,’’ Stevens said.
He also hoped NZR’s pledge to become leaders in this space would encourage other sports to follow its lead.
‘‘They want rugby to be a force that unifies New Zealand and you can’t do that if it cuts out 10 per cent of the population, which is what we make up.
‘‘So, by saying we’re going to embrace 10 per cent of the population, they’re being true to their word about wanting to unify the nation,’’ Stevens said.