Huge news alert! The British Rugby Football League has issued a £40k penalty to the Castleford team because their fans hurled homophobic chants at openly gay rugger Gareth Thomas during a match.
A statement from the RFL read: “Castleford were found guilty of unacceptable behaviour, of breaching the RFL’s respect policy, of misconduct by their supporters and of conduct prejudicial to the interests of the sport.
“The tribunal was chaired by his Honour Judge Rodney Grant, who criticised the club for failing to take steps to stop the homophobic chanting, for failing to identify the perpetrators, for failing to challenge the chanting and for their failure to undertake a meaningful inquiry afterwards.”
This puts the role of curbing homophobia in sports squarely on the shoulders of teams and sports organizations. The league said a club cannot just brush off homophobic chants as “fans being fans,” but rather they have to take it seriously and go to any lengths to curb it. Congratulations to the RFL for taking a huge step forward for every gay athlete and fan who has to endure the homophobia of the minority!
Hat tip to Howard Bragman.
on Jun 30th, 2010 at 1:59 AM
Hmmm…I kind of wonder about freedom of speech, but they may not have that in England. On the other hand, glad they are taking a stand against hate.
peace
on Jun 30th, 2010 at 2:45 AM
Freedom of speech only pertains to the government. A private entity can punish speech if it wants to, even in the United States.
on Jun 30th, 2010 at 8:21 AM
How does giving the team a fine stop hate-mongering fans? Who knows what team the fans support?
on Jun 30th, 2010 at 10:06 AM
Maybe this message will help provide incentive to teams to become more proactive to stop the anti-gay chants. We’ll see?
on Jun 30th, 2010 at 10:12 AM
The home team has an obligation to control the fans. For decades fans have not been allowed to run on the playing field or throw anything from the stands on to the field.
In more recent years stadium and team management have taken strong and effective action to eliminate vulgarity and racist slurs from fans in the stands.
It’s about time these leagues and teams are taking action to stop homophobic behavior in the stands.
on Jun 30th, 2010 at 10:14 AM
fineing the team is a good idea i think when the team folds because they keep getting fines for there stupid fans the fans wont have any team to see and maybe thay will stop being jerks
on Jun 30th, 2010 at 2:34 PM
it seems men’s college basketball gets alot of this same type of nasty taunting also. would like to see the home team coach “man-up” and pull his team off the court, stop the game and risk a forfeit to show that this type of dispicable behavior is unacceptable. but they just keep playing as though nothing is happening.
on Jun 30th, 2010 at 4:51 PM
we have a new law called hate speech or incitement to hate.
Yes people have the right to freedom of speech, but the moment that crosses the line in to hate and abuse it changes. and some very stiff fines can be handed out
on Jun 30th, 2010 at 11:49 PM
it’s also important to remember that most of the ticket holders at rugby matches, home and visitors, are actually dues paying of the club and each sit in specific sections of the stands.
It would certainly be easy for security to note the section of the stands they chants are coming from and match them up with ticket holders.
Additionally, most ticket purchases also come with a code of conduct agreement, all that fine print on the back, which you agreed to when you purchased the ticket giving management the right to throw you out and blah blah blah.
Finally, if you need to see what happens if the league doesn’t tackle this issue watch the latest episode or Real Sports on HBO about racism in Soccer and the far right white supremacist groups who rule sections of the stands.
on Jun 30th, 2010 at 11:51 PM
This is the same Real Sports episode with the Gareth Thomas interview, so twice the reason to watch
on Jul 1st, 2010 at 9:03 AM
As Cyd suggested, free speech is limited by private organizations all the time. Employees are often coerced or compelled to say or not say certain things, as are those who enter their property, regardless of whether they pay to do so.
And even in the USA hate speech is often considered a different category.
I doubt any of these cowards would want to call Thomas out in an alley but neither he nor anyone should have to be a vigilante.
on Jul 2nd, 2010 at 9:33 AM
“Fighting words” is the American case law defense term for when a provocateur gets battered (his lights put out) because he starts a violent chain of events with threatening words (and comes out on the losing end, usually!) The lesson for we gay folks is to learn to fight for when “fighting words” from a thug show an imminent threat to ourselves. But, then again, criminal & constitutional law are not my specialties. Haven’t studied them since law school days.
on Jul 2nd, 2010 at 2:15 PM
I bet if those fans were face to face with Mr. Thomas, they would not insult him. I suspect he takes the high road and the effect probably motivates him to play even harder.
on Jul 3rd, 2010 at 4:53 PM
Free speech is not the same in the UK as it is in the US. Hate speech is less protected by private entities and the government there than it is here.
I applaud the fining of the Rugby club, because it will force them to clean up problems in order to make the playing field more amenable to play. Could that happen here in the US? There have been times when I’ve sat near fans who hurl the f word at players on the field. We can get up, report the behavior to some official and get the fan tossed from the stadium. In terms of other loutish behavior, a few years ago there were incidents among certain Jet fans in a particular stairwell at Giant stadium. They subjected women to misogynist and sexist rants and lewd behavior. It took public outrage and scrutiny to force Giant stadium to stop it.
If we had an openly gay pro athlete playing, I’m sure homophobic rants would be very common. I’m sure Jackie Robinson was subjected to racist slurs when he played. Times have changed since Robinson began his career. Racist rants are not tolerated in any public place today. Sadly, I’m not sure if we are there yet when it comes to homophobic rants. We have to wait until an American professional athlete comes out of the closet.