Australian Football League Became an Unlikely Pioneer of Gay Rights

As the Australian government continues to argue about whether gay marriage should become law, people are increasingly turning to the country’s national football league as a leader in the gay rights movement, the New York Times reports.

“If the (Australian Football League) was a parliament, we’d have marriage equality now,” activist Clint McGilvray, who works on a national effort to expand Australia’s marriage laws, told the Times. “We wouldn’t be having this discussion.”

In terms of average attendance, it’s reportedly one of the top sports in the world, and continues to not only play in annual pride matches, but celebrates LGBT culture and politics by donning rainbow-colored clothing or accessories, and encouraging fans to embrace who they are.

“It’s fantastic,” Nicky Winmar, an Indigenous player for St. Kilda who has altered the national conversation on race, told the Times in a phone interview. “Letting people know that they’re safe being who they are, to fulfill their full potential, it’s important.”

That being said, the league reportedly still has far to go — incidents of racist speech, sexism and homophobia continue to litter the image that league is working hard to create. And some fans think that the displays of social conscience are a business strategy — not that of an organization who truly values diversity and inclusion.

“It’s getting a bit farcical, the number of initiatives they’re pushing down people’s throats,” fan Shannon Downey told the Times. “They’re running a corporation that’s trying to capture as much of the market as they can.”