The Sydney Swans confirmed late last month that they would be taking part in the 2018 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, becoming the first AFL team to have their own float in Australia's biggest LGBTQI+ event.
Chief executive Andrew Ireland said in a statement: "The 40th anniversary is a special year for the Mardi Gras and we’re really proud of being, we believe, the first professional sporting team to have a float in the Mardi Gras Parade.
"LGBTI Pride is one of the four pillars of our Diversity Action Plan, which outlines our commitments to inclusion.
"We want to be an inclusive club and we want everyone to feel welcome at the football. It’s about making people feel welcome, safe and included."
The team's Mardi Gras appearance will be a history-making moment - particularly considering the AFL has noticeably trying to make change in recent years, in an attempt to promote acceptance and erase the institutionalised homophobia within the sport.
Prior to the first Pride Round match between Sydney and St. Kilda, — which included heterosexual and queer people — found that 47 per cent of respondents felt AFL games were not a safe place for members of the LGBTQI+ community. It also found that nearly three in five of the respondents who had attended an AFL match had witnessed verbal homophobia or transphobia, and 94 per cent of those people had witnessed the attack in the stands.
After the first pride match, VicHealth and LaTrobe University surveyed 3,750 people who attended to see if attitudes had changed at all: approximately 90 per cent of the LGBTQI+ surveyed said they found the pride match to be "safe and inclusive place".
VIcHealth told the that it "is an incredible result after just one game," but attitudes towards the LGBTQI+ community in the world of AFL still had a "long way to go".
Source: AAP / David Moir
However, Collingwood FC was the first to have a specific LGBTQI+ supporters group, with .
“We barrack for Collingwood, that’s why we get together. But obviously our existence is political, really. It’s a political reality if we march in Pride March we’re making a statement," Bell (now Secretary of the group) told in 2014.
“[Lobbying] not our job. Our job is to go to the footy. But certainly acceptance is the principle. Inclusion is the principle."
It hasn't been, and won't be, easy to overcome the institutionalised homophobia within the sport - to say it's prevalent is greatly understating the matter.
Players have been to sledge their opposition during matches, and even within the last five years, a during broadcast.
Six years ago, former Brisbane player Jason Akermanis responded to an anti-homophobia campaign by Jason Ball (the first AFL player to ever come out as gay) .
Just last year, AFLW player Erin Phillips kissed her wife Tracy in celebration after winning the Best and Fairest Award, and the completely normal act between supportive spouses was .
Homophobic flyers were even handed out and after a match in Melbourne only two years ago.
These incidents are remarkably recent, and are surprising when compared to the way social attitudes progressed in the same timeframe. So, despite the Pride matches, , and improving rates of comfortability and safety for the LGBTQI+ AFL community — there's still a long way to go.
But the Swans becoming the first team to have a Mardi Gras float is a strong, important building block in the fight. The float will be a marker of inclusivity, featuring non-LGBTQI+ players and hosts, as well as members of the Rainbow Swans LGBTQI+ supporters group.
Rainbow Swans chair Sarina Jackson tells SBS that the Swans' foray into Mardi Gras is "huge for the community".
"This is huge for our community and it’s huge for diversity. The Swans are showing their leadership as they always do, and it just means so much to us as supporters and the 400 members of our group.
"It ratifies my belief that I support the best club in the world. This club is the first professional sporting team to walk in Mardi Gras parade, it supports our community, it supports my family - how can I not think that’s awesome?"
So, while the fight continues for the AFL to be an all-inclusive space for the LGBTQI+ community, the Swans' history-making move is yet another important step forward in the move towards a more accepting environment for queer AFL fans and players.
Sure, a Mardi Gras float doesn't immediately solve generations of deep-seated societal issues - but it's historic moments like these that, over time, lead to widespread acceptance and tolerance, and end up creating a strong barrier against homophobia and discrimination.
