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Former athlete Nathan Burke wants to make AFL gay-friendly. The footy legend spoke with Peter Hackney.
Nathan Burke is an Australian football success story. In his chosen code of AFL, he’s almost legendary.
When the former captain of the St Kilda Football Club (The Saints) retired from the game in 2003, he held the club record for most games played, with 323 matches behind him. He’s still very much involved in the sport he loves, as a Director on the board of The Saints.
In 2008, Burke finds himself in the spotlight again – but not for playing footy this time around. The 38-year-old has joined up with gay activist Rob Mitchell to lobby for a ban on anti-gay abuse in the sport – a move that’s caused a big stir in the AFL world.
“The AFL has a successful ban on racial vilification, which was brought in to help protect Indigenous players, and players of other backgrounds,” Burke explains, speaking to SX from Melbourne.
“What I want is something similar for gay and lesbian players. There are 700-odd professional players in AFL and not one of them is openly gay – that says something about the culture, I think.”
In fact, in all four major football codes in Australia – AFL, rugby league, rugby union and soccer – only one high-profile footballer has ever come out – former rugby league player Ian Roberts.
“It’s fine if people don’t want to come out. That’s their choice,” says Burke. “But my thing is that sport should be a place where people can feel comfortable to be themselves. People shouldn’t be excluded, or feel they have to self-exclude. What we’re trying to change is a situation where people don’t feel comfortable continuing with the sport they love.”
While gay rights groups, and the more enlightened among the AFL, have applauded Burke, some quarters haven’t taken too kindly to his proposal.
Posts on popular AFL internet forum bigfooty.com expressed shock that Burke was a “doughnut puncher” and sledged him for pursuing an issue “close to his heart – or rectum”. Others expressed concerns about the AFL becoming ‘GayFL’.
But Burke, who is actually heterosexual, is not phased.
“Doesn’t worry me at all,” he tells SX. “That’s just naïve people saying stupid things. The same thing happened when we were trying to change the culture around racial vilification. You’re always going to get idiots, but for the greater good you’ve just got to push that aside and get on with it.
“I’m married to a woman, with three children – they can say what they like. I don’t have anything to prove or disprove, I’m just trying to help with a campaign that I feel is right.”
Whether the AFL will adopt the proposal remains to be seen. But one thing’s for sure – Nathan Burke is still a champion.
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