And it’s not about those weird rules! Someone got very upset at those gays flaunting their sexuality at games.
Lest you think that maybe she’s homophobic, she added this in an interview later:
“I am not homophobic. I know lots of gay people.”
Ah, classic!
Obviously, this issue needs a poll. I would have thought the obvious one would be something about the apparent total lack of women cheerleaders in skimpy outfits at Australian football games, or possibly something expressing incredulity that Australian football players don’t grab each other’s asses when they score a goal, but no…it’s about supporting gay players. And it’s tied.
Should there be a gay pride round in the AFL?
Yes 50%
No 50%
Ooh, I hate to see a tied game. Go break it.
Voted. I find the fact that it is exactly 50/50 to be highly suspicious.
In the UK, in the unlikely event of a goal, the players often appear to be having sex on the field! Does that count?
While we’re at it, let’s ban the players’ wives and girlfriends from the Brownlow awards ceremony. After all, they’re visible evidence of heterosexuality, which is very clearly a sexual preference.
@2
Only when they have no imaginary cocaine to snort!
Let’s face it, gay “pride” or anything similar title is directly relevant to the daily lives of young men playing footie. The Indigenous round and the local “derbies” – more like tribal enmity – rounds are obviously relevant to players. I’d suggest that acknowledging the possibility of gay team members is valuable – esp as we already have a Breast Cancer round which is, by and large, much more about mothers, partners, family members and team supporters than it is about the people who actually play the game.
Hi PZ, I voted “No” just like you wanted me to….
I just voted and it’s still 50/50. The comments make me sad to be an Australian.
I don’t think this poll is moving, it seems to just say 50.0% each whatever the result, also there’s a comment about the results of open ended polls not being displayed (whatever that means…)
Leach says “we don’t want issues such as homosexuality, or any sexuality, thrusted in our faces in the name of anti-bullying”.
They just can’t help the unintentional humor, can they?
Why is it always “thrust in our faces”? Don’t the butt-hurt homophobes know any less amusing phrases? I know, I know! They could use “jammed down our throats”!
Privilege strikes again. Being a straight person Ms. Leach doesn’t notice how much sexuality is being “thrust” on everyone by straight people. Like talking about boyfriends and girlfriends, marriage, children etc.
“Results for open-ended questions are not displayed.”
The poll appears either to not be functioning or rigged to always show 50/50. If intentional, it would be a diabolical way to keep making an issue out of something that, chances are, most people feel isn’t an issue anymore.
Yep, poll doesn’t move. Stays at 50.0 / 50.0.
Anyone feel like being depressed? Read the comments at the foot of the poll. The poll which is still at 50/50.
Helen Leach needs to be more flexible. Maybe this is a cure:
“Flip of a single molecular switch makes an old brain young” http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-flip-molecular-brain-young.html
Sorry, I think you have been gamed.
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3688053.htm
If that does not work, search for “polls rorted Phillips” and look for “News get gamed”
I voted yes, but I long for the day when such a thing is no longer necessary; when not liking someone because of their sexuality is on par with no liking someone because of their hair color.
@10 Zeno Or they could say “…rammed up our asses”, ’cause you know that’s the part they don’t like (or afraid they will like).
@17 Follow up. I suspect the poll has been rorted.
This is the blog site of the author. http://www.ubermotive.com/?p=68
Homophobe. Lives in Bendigo. Bend I Go. No one? Really? No one? Obvious bend over based joke. Not homophobic. Ironic. Really? Easy one. Cheap laugh.
See also: nothing homoerotic about a group of large, sweaty men, wrestling with each other and then taking a big communal shower/bath together. (Says the ex-rugby player!)
Really? No opportunity to mock the living bejeezis out of this bigot with this stuff?
I’m going for a sulk. It’s far too much work keeping up this level of quality* material.**
Louis
* Really? Quality? Well that’s one word for it I guess.
** See *
I didn’t realize there was a statement more sad than “I have lots of gay friends”. But there is: it’s “I know lots of gay people”. Doesn’t even like them, just knows them.
Carlie,
Well I know I can’t be a homophobe because I’ve heard of a lot of gay people.
Louis
My personal “favourite” over there at the comments:
Vandalism! To public toilets! It all makes perfect sense now. My university has a gay pride club on campus. That’s why toilet stalls say, “u sux dick homo.” It’s all the gays fault.
I second the banning of girlfriends, wives, boyfriends, and husbands of the heterosexual players from being remotely visible within the sport. I mean, how am I gonna explain to my kids that people have sex?
OT tech complaint/question for anyone using RSS (specifically, Google Reader): For several days now, I find that Pharyngula notifications show up in a bunch of about half-a-dozen, about once a day. Is anyone else noticing this? Not sure if this applies to other FTB feeds (wouldn’t be as obvious, as the other bloggers I read aren’t as loquacious).
skeptomai – Thanks for that interesting read.
The results of the poll weren’t really important anyway. Most of us recognize online polls are useless and are usually just introduced as a way to reaffirm views which readers of the source already mostly have (as evidenced by the article.) And that’s what polljacking usually is meant to do (except for the serious ones) when PZ links them here. So someone beat us to the punch at proving how ineffective online polls are? This is good news!
Not sure if you’re new to Pharyngula but welcome regardless!
FTFM.
I’m so tired of this. I hate it so much. I hate these people and I hate being Less Than Human. Over and over and over for years and years and years and years.
When it comes to gays though many bigots seem to do the Bigot Two Step, just like they do with Jews. In one breath they’ll talk about how subhuman and horrible gay people are, how they’re unable to have a “normal” life, the horrible unnatural things they do and so on. But then in the next they’ll attribute superpowers to them, like the incredible influence on society, business etc. they supposedly have.
Ahh, the old ‘I don’t want it thrust’ argument.
Nevermind, what did you do last night? Something with the wife and or husband? What about last weekend? Wife and or husband took the kids camping, eh? What about…
Our language is of course loaded with heterosexual ‘in your faceness’. We even basic titles ‘Mrs’ to denote heterosexual conditions.
You don’t want it thrust in your face? Duh. But you did it anyhow.
I was going to say this is a pointless tiny town rag, not a serious newspaper, but then I realised the letter-writer is not some total nobody but a town councillor. Ew. It must suck to be gay in Bendigo.
The good news, thought, is that AFL are even considering doing a gay pride round. I hope they do; that would be excellent.
Eamon Knight @ 25
I’ve noticed the same thing, others have as well.
I think 50:50 is the default position until the poll closes. And the real results revealed. Perhaps it’s to prevent the bandwagon effect? Or the underdog effect?
Yeah, it works like an immune-system response—exposure to [gay people/black/jewish people, what have you] confers immunity to the dreaded [homophobic/racist/anti-semitic, what have you] condition. Sometimes a single exposure suffices, and sometimes, you will have to be exposed to the existence of [what have you] again later…when your “immunity” has worn off.
Oviously, in the interest of Public Health, we must ensure that everyone gets their exposure.
And this is why there is YouTube.
.
.
.
(Sorry. Drifted off-message. Won’t happen again.)
–
It still says 50-50, so I don’t think it’s connecting to real results.
Can’t find the story but there’s a programmer in Melbourne who’s been tweaking polls in Newscorp polls to be exactly even using a program he wrote. He initially swayed it the way he wanted but when News, surprise surprise, used the swayed polls for stories and failed to retract he’s been going around setting polls to exactly 50% by voting the opposite of every valid vote.
News of course failed to acknowledge the faking of results in order to fake stories about the shock horror.
Yep wolja @ 37, those 50-50 polls are all fixed by this programmer guy. Which fits in nicely with PZ’s general point about online polls. I think Media Watch did a story on it… *search*
Here it is: http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3688053.htm?site=midnorthcoast
So I am really the only one who sees
under the results?
ohmy
Bendigo has an Easter Festival with a Chinese Dragon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bendigo_Easter_Festival
lol
really, this isn’t hard to do. please, don’t think it’s only one guy doing this!
Hell, when we first started gaming polls on Pharyngula, i recall at least 3 different scripters here who offered instructions on how to easily make a vote bot.
Jason Ball is doing a great job with rising awareness and getting homosexuality in sport out of the taboo zone. There is much left to be done here in Australia, where it was only a few years ago that a former AFL player pointed out that coming out may not be very healthy for current players, and where the blokey bloke culture is still going strong.
It’s goldfield territory. Lots of Chinese immigrants/workers came there in the 19th century.
@Rawnaeris#1: It’s probably gamed. There’s this dude in Melbourne who’s rightfully annoyed by online polls and busts pretty much every one he learns about within Australia. It takes all of 2 minutes of his time and he hasn’t grown tired of it yet.
The good ol’ Bendigo Advertiser. The work of a friend and I was described as a “sophisticated forgery network” on the front page in 1989. We were making fake ID’s on the school photocopier.
It’s the discrimination against gay people that thrusts sexuality into people’s faces. Get rid of the discrimination, and you can go back to ignoring people’s sexuality.
Apropos of nothing much, they don’t actually have women cheerleaders in skimpy outfits at Australian Football games. Well not at AFL games anyway, AFL being the biggest, most successful professional sports league in Australia, and the one under consideration here. AFL is really a remarkable phenomenon, there’s a very diverse fanbase compared to most professional sports, with huge interest and attendance amongst women. AFL is an Australian Rules football league. Avis to their Hertz is the NRL, another league that plays a quite different sport, Rugby League. NRL (most teams anyway) does have women cheerleaders in skimpy outfits. I remember at least one team used to have male cheerleaders too. As I say, apropos of nothing.
But as far as ass grabbing after scoring goals (NRL: tries), yes there’s no qualifiers on that. Practiced universally in all Australian football games as far as I know.
@Louis,
May I mention Dieux de Stade — ok, it’s French and Rugby instead of Aussie and AFL, but so what?
Also, AFL after-match photos often are of the “handsome athletic men in various states of undress” kind, and very clearly meant to appeal to a viewership who appreciate nice male bodies (thanks dear photographers, keep up the good work!). Surprisingly, this seems to be totally lost on a good proportion of straight male Aussies, whereas it was blindingly obvious to every Euro person I ever saw looking at such pics.