This year five people or groups of people stood out from the crowd as particularly damaging. You can vote on the winner below, and be sure to leave a comment on why  you voted the way you did – or someone you think we forgot. And check back tomorrow to vote on our nominees for Sportsperson of the Year!

Jason Akermanis
The Aussie Rules Football player got a firestorm of backlash when he said that gay athletes should stay in the closet. He then threw gasoline on the fire when he said he didn’t want to shower with gay athletes. Though he maintained he’s not homophobic, his team cut him two months after his initial remarks.

Belmont University administration
While claiming a policy of inclusion, the Belmont University administration effectively fired successful head women’s soccer coach Lisa Howe this autumn for wanting to reveal to her team that she is a lesbian and that she and her partner are having a child. Despite backlash from students, faculty and school backers, Howe has not yet been rehired.

Homophobes in European soccer
While the image of Europe is a bastion of sexual freedom, homophobia in its most popular sport was front and center all year. Powerful soccer executives in Croatia said gay people have no place in soccer and should be in the ballet. The English Football Association created ads that were supposed to fight homophobia, but which were so homophobic themselves that John Amaechi became nearly enraged over them. And Sepp Blatter, the head of FIFA, capped the year first announcing that Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal, will host the 2022 World Cup and that gays simply shouldn’t have sex there. And those are just some of the low lights.

The man posing as Mikey
Mikey was a closeted high school hockey player with a blog. Or so we thought. Instead, Mikey was a hoax executed by what we believe to be a 40-something man in the Midwest. The revelation was crushing to many young gay athletes who found a community at the blog, which is now defunct.

Stephanie Rice
Twitter was often the venue of choice for people’s homophobic slurs, and Australian swimmer Stephanie Rice became the poster child. When she Tweeted, “Suck on that, faggots,” her friend Matthew Mitcham came to her defense saying she is not homophobic. But in a world where we face so much discrimination in sports, do we really need our allies using that language? Car manufacturer Jaguar didn’t think so as they quickly dropped the swimmer as a spokesperson.

Honorable Mentions: Dez Bryant (for saying he wishes his mom wasn’t gay), Evan Lysacek (for being a most unlikable Olympic champion) and Tim Tebow (for being Tim Tebow).

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According to Fox Sports, delegates heard how Aboriginal players are still judged by their colour when in trouble; the AFL was slow to include women in club culture; and administrators failed to introduce programs to break down homophobia.

One expert spoke specifically about the homophobia:

Dr Caroline Symons from Victoria University says in Australia, gay people are most likely to exclude themselves from playing Australian Rules Football (AFL), because of their sexuality.

“Forty-two per cent reported suffering from verbal homophobia within the context of sport and half felt they needed to stay in the closet in their sporting involvement,” she said.

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“He hasn’t earnt the trust of the group,” a source told The Age.  “It’s a pattern of behaviour. You can’t put it down to one thing. It has just gone on for so long. And we don’t want it to keep going.” …

Last week, The Age revealed that [Alermanis] had again attracted the ire of his teammates and coaches after he had revealed private details of a player meeting to the media.

Akermanis, 33, was slammed for the column he wrote this spring telling gay players to stay closeted, and he followed up by saying how uncomfortable he would be showering with a gay teammate. The resulting furor got him suspended by the club for writing the column. For now, he’s out of the AFL for his latest breach and he has indicated he might retire.

Hat tip to Noel from Australia.

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Speculation has been swirling about the possibility of Akermanis retiring over the incident (and his recent sub-par play). Last night he addressed it head-on with The Age: “I am just going to retire at the end of the year.” Akermanis’ coach said the actions the team have taken have nothing to do with his drop in production and everything to do with his newspaper column.

Coach Rodney Eade yesterday stressed Akermanis’ form wouldn’t have any bearing on any ramifications over his column. ”If he had kicked 10 goals and had 15 Brownlow votes at this stage, whatever sanction or discussion that is going to happen with Jason would be exactly the same,” Eade told Triple M.

The negotiations that lead to all this apparently weren’t easy, and Akermanis would not fulfill the request of his team and teammates for him to step away from his radio and newspaper appearances. From The Australian:

It is understood that the reason why negotiations yesterday between Akermanis and the club took almost six hours was an impasse created by the 33-year-old’s insistence on playing on and simultaneously fulfilling his media obligations, apparently aware the Dogs could not stop him from doing either without a courtroom fight they would unlikely win.

So it sounds like the sport of Aussie Rules Football will be rid of this guy soon, but Australians can look forward to his rantings for years to come. That is, unless no one in the media hires him for his “insight”…

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Maybe I’ve got a problem with it. What am I supposed to do? Do you think I’m the only one? That is an uncomfortable situation to be in.

But he’s OK with running around in a bikini.

He also attacked the people who are criticizing him.

There’s articles everywhere written from these guys and all of them, of course, are gay so they think they know everything and they know more. They’re making it personal about me, which is a very dumb thing to do because all I wanted to do was debate the facts.

I may just start referring to this guy as Kelly Bensimon, because he’s acting like a crazy idiotic lunatic. “All” of the people coming after you aren’t gay, you dumbass. In fact, they’re your team owner, your coach, other AFL coaches, other AFL players. Are you saying they’re all gay? This guy is the new Jeremy Shockey, except that Shockey knew when to shut up.

He also said in a TV interview that he was totally fine with a gay person in the locker room. Now he says he’s uncomfortable with it. I’m telling you, we’ve got “satchels of gold” here!

Akermanis said in his original column that he isn’t homophobic. Many people, including myself, didn’t believe it. Guess we were right.

Hat tip to Towleroad.

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The club do not agree with the views expressed by Jason Akermanis in relation to the potentially negative impact an openly gay footballer would have on a club. …

The club also fully supports the AFL, who have undoubtedly shown the way in terms of confronting and dealing with a range of difficult social and cultural issues.

Jason Akermanis’ article is based on his opinion and by no means does he speak for the club or AFL players as a whole.

The Western Bulldogs welcome any person regardless of race, religion or sexual preference and any suggestion to the contrary ignores the tireless work the club and the AFL does in the community to open the doors of AFL football to all.

Akermanis’ coach, Rodney Eade, followed suit saying the time of homophobia dominating his club is over.

I think we’ve come a long way and I think the AFL leads the way in that aspect. Certainly, at the Bulldogs, we think we’ve got a terrific culture and environment. We select players on what they can do on and off the field as individuals; for their football talent, and certainly the character they bring to the club.

And while Akermanis only sought to discourage gay people from coming out, Eade extended a welcoming hand for gay people to his club:

A central mission of the Western Bulldogs is the respect diversity within our community. The Bulldogs have a strong record in seeking to eliminate discrimination on the grounds of gender, race and religion. It’s now time to bring sexual orientation under that protective umbrella.

Sydney Swans coach Paul Roos called Akermanis irresponsible and, yes, wrong:

If any one of our players happened to be gay or came out, he wouldn’t be alienated by this group of players, I know that. In today’s day and age, it’s reasonably irresponsible what Jason’s said this morning. It’s a staggering story when you read it. If it had been written in 1943 or something like that, you could have been forgiven. But in 2010, to hear something like that is just bizarre.

Sydney co-captain Craig Bolton, who has played with Akermanis, continued the sentiment:

The thing that stood out for me was him saying it could break the fabric of the club. I certainly don’t agree with that and I’m sure no other players in our club, if not the league, would. It’s wrong to suggest in this day and age players would feel uncomfortable around someone if they came out or wouldn’t accept that individual for who he is.

The point of the story is this. If you’re gay in the AFL, who are you going to believe? Some bleached-out clown people are tired of hearing from, or some coaches and team captains who have a head on their shoulders?

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But I believe the world of AFL footy is not ready for it. To come out is unnecessary for a lot of reasons.

Imagine the publicity associated with a current player admitting he’s gay. It would be international news and could break the fabric of a club. …

Now try being the first AFL player to come out. That is too big a burden for any player. …

Locker room nudity and homoerotic activities are normal inside footy clubs.

Young people from the ages 15-24 are the main participants in organised sport in Victoria. Some of them must be gay and I hope they thoroughly enjoy their sporting lives without having to experience any form of prejudice.

But if they are thinking of telling the world, my advice would be forget it.

So young kids dealing with their sexuality should keep it repressed because this jerk thinks it would be too tough for him? I don’t know any gay people who regret coming out – in any profession. All I ever hear is that they wish they did it earlier. I’m sure some people must regret it; Some people still think the world is flat. But in all my years, I’ve never heard from or of any of them.

I’m so tired of these jerks who feel the need to proclaim how anti-gay sports are, instead of saying, “Come out. I’ll help you. I’ll be your friend.” This might be a little unprofessional, and I even hate this word, but this guy is a royal douchebag of the Jeremy Shockey variety.

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AFL's Daniel Jackson

Players and coaches of the AFL, the Australian rules football league, have launched a campaign against homophobia (photos below), a hugely positive step in a sport seen by gay men in a recent survey as being hostile and threatening. The campaign is timed to the May 17 International Day Against Homophobia.

Almost 30 players and coaches have signed up to the Players’ Association project, to be launched officially next month.

The sportsmen and coaches have been photographed holding handwritten signs calling for acceptance and understanding of homosexuals.

The signs are really cool and you can see a sample below. They are similar to ones in a campaign by an Australian rugby team last year.

The Age laid out the issue:

The game may have trouble convincing people to believe its new-found acceptance of homosexuals, given that not one player in the league is openly gay.

Channel Nine personality and Collingwood president Eddie McGuire recently told gay magazine DNA that he had shared a ”wink and a nod” with gay AFL players.

And new research by Victoria University shows that gay men believe Australian rules is the most hostile football code, with many saying they feel too threatened to play the game. … The Victoria University survey of 308 adults found the most common sports that men would like to play but did not, or felt they could not, were Australian Rules Football (45 per cent), rugby (17.5 per cent) and soccer (10 per cent).

All this is true, but it is not unique to the AFL. There are no out pro athletes in any of the four major North American team sports, or major international soccer. The AFL’s campaign is light years of anything done by any pro sport I know of. Imagine the impact such a campaign would have by the likes of Peyton Manning or Phil Jackson or Derek Jeter or Sidney Crosby. The AFL players and coaches are on that level in their sport.

Ian Roberts, who came out in the 1990s while a star in Australian rugby, applauded the move.

”Touche to the AFL,” Roberts said yesterday. He was the first openly gay player in rugby league. ”Obviously they’ve recognised there’s a massive problem and they’re finally doing something about it … Something’s got to change and this is a positive reaction by positive people.”

Here are some of the signs being held by AFL players and coaches. A larger gallery is here.

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We have more pics and a “highlight” reel of some of Murphy’s best plays, after the jump.

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There might be a bit of resentment there, particularly if I turned out to be better than one or two players. They would probably hold that against me because they’d be thinking, ‘God, he doesn’t even have a penis and he can kick the ball better than me’.

Hat tip to Queerclick.

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