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Speaker 2: Got anything good? Hey? This is the Christian O'Connell show podcast.
Speaker 1: Now. Over the last four days there's been a ongoing
Speaker 1: mess legal bs involving Adelaide and the AFL and the
Speaker 1: player as it ranking, And yesterday on the show, we
Speaker 1: were talking about this when it looked like it was
Speaker 1: going to be a five game ban, and then the
Speaker 1: club worked starting to prepare statements and they were talking
Speaker 1: about Snoop Dogg and all kinds of other things, giving
Speaker 1: mitigating circumstances why that word was used. And I actually
Speaker 1: feel like we owe you are an apology rear because
Speaker 1: when I went home, I felt really bad because there
Speaker 1: are too many voices like mine, all the media commentators
Speaker 1: weighing in on this, and I can't speak for the
Speaker 1: a community. It's actually I want to hear your voices
Speaker 1: because you know four well the power of that word
Speaker 1: and those slurs and why there are bands in place
Speaker 1: for behavior like that. I actually felt like on the
Speaker 1: show yesterday we let you down. I want to know
Speaker 1: what you're taking is. It's not like, whenever there's going
Speaker 1: to be a gay story, we need to go to
Speaker 1: our chief gay correspondent, chief of Gay's Rio. But I
Speaker 1: actually think it's really important. Actually the most important voices
Speaker 1: in order of this are those in the gay community
Speaker 1: to tell us really how they feel, not how Eddie
Speaker 1: McGuire feels, or even me for that matter. So Rio,
Speaker 1: if you're happy to, i'd really know what do you
Speaker 1: think about this? But now the band is down to
Speaker 1: four games?
Speaker 2: Yeah, mate, thank you. It's been a I would say
Speaker 2: it's been an upsetting week. Like it's just on a
Speaker 2: just personal level. I've loved footy my whole life. I've
Speaker 2: followed the Swan's my whole life. I've played footy my
Speaker 2: whole life. It's just upsetting for a whole week to
Speaker 2: be reminded that there are elements of the game that
Speaker 2: maybe don't accept you or that don't make you feel welcome.
Speaker 2: And for I still have a very you know, that
Speaker 2: wide eyed view of footy like I did when I
Speaker 2: was a kid, Like I just love it on such
Speaker 2: a really deep, you know, almost childlike level. And to
Speaker 2: be sort of dragged back to reality for a whole
Speaker 2: week with this kind of stuff has been pretty upsetting,
Speaker 2: to be honest. But the most frustrating thing about it
Speaker 2: isn't the four weeks or the five weeks or the
Speaker 2: you know, getting hung up on you know, should we
Speaker 2: wait finals games differently to a regular game for this
Speaker 2: kind of stuff, because I think the whole conversation has
Speaker 2: missed a very important element of it. And it's not
Speaker 2: the football impact, the impact on Grand Final Day or
Speaker 2: the Adelaide Crows or rankin that's all anyone's spoken about
Speaker 2: for the whole week. I think there's a human impact
Speaker 2: that people just hasn't been talked about for seven days.
Speaker 2: And the reality is there are gay players in the AFL.
Speaker 2: Clubs are on record about that. There's a four Call,
Speaker 2: four corners sort of documentary on it that came out
Speaker 2: last year, The Gay Yeah, it was brilliant. There are
Speaker 2: gay players in the AFL that do not feel comfortable
Speaker 2: to come out and to be their true selves in
Speaker 2: the place that they work, playing the game that they love.
Speaker 2: And it's because of things like this. This has happened
Speaker 2: five times this year where these slurs have happened, and
Speaker 2: people wonder why don't people feel comfortable coming out? It's
Speaker 2: because of things like this. If there were you know,
Speaker 2: if you told me five people in our workplace had
Speaker 2: used that word at work, I would not feel comfortable
Speaker 2: being in a meeting room with them. I wouldn't feel comfortable,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: Having they wouldn't employed, they fired, should.
Speaker 2: Be exactly, and my heart made That was just where
Speaker 2: my heart went to this whole week. Those players there
Speaker 2: that have to be sort of living a lie essentially
Speaker 2: and every day putting on a mask, trying to hide
Speaker 2: who they are, living in fear, probably because it's just
Speaker 2: such a hostile environment for them to step into, and
Speaker 2: for me personally, especially as someone who is really lucky.
Speaker 2: I mean, it shouldn't be lucky, but it is that
Speaker 2: I come to work every day and I can be
Speaker 2: my full self and I don't have to hide any
Speaker 2: part of it. And actually, the the monday after my
Speaker 2: first ever date with a guy, I told you guys
Speaker 2: about you were the first people I told It was
Speaker 2: the in between time waster, in between the long ad break.
Speaker 1: Aria just came out in the studio off air, and
Speaker 1: I was like, Wow, this is amazing. I wish i'd
Speaker 1: known advance. I would have dressed up. I don't know
Speaker 1: you it's just an invite. So I've never been to
Speaker 1: a coming out party and it just happening in the
Speaker 1: middle of a radio show. But I felt very honored.
Speaker 1: I was like, but this is how it should be,
Speaker 1: you know. I felt proud and actually of the work
Speaker 1: environment that we are all parts of, where everybody's welcome
Speaker 1: and all voices are welcome. You should be hiding away
Speaker 1: any part of who you are. It's not like it's
Speaker 1: a choice or it's anything like that. It's like, this
Speaker 1: is who you are. Yeah, there was an amazing moment
Speaker 1: for you to come out like that, really in the
Speaker 1: mid of the middle of a show. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: just felt yes, and I do an apology rio is
Speaker 1: because I just thought, you know, we could talk about
Speaker 1: it from our point of view, but our point of
Speaker 1: view is irrelevant. You know, I don't speak for the
Speaker 1: gay community. You know what that's like. And I can
Speaker 1: imagine how this is incredibly hurtful. You're right, not that
Speaker 1: maybe the reduction from five to four just embarrassment of
Speaker 1: the AFL saying it's five games. There's precedent here, then
Speaker 1: a club going can we have three? And then what
Speaker 1: negotiating over this? And then I know, there's these medical
Speaker 1: statements that we're not going to see because obviously they're confidential.
Speaker 1: But surely there can't be any mitigating circumstances for using
Speaker 1: a word like that. What do you think about that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I don't know enough probably about Isaac's personal
Speaker 2: situation to comment, but I find it, you know, very
Speaker 2: difficult to certainly think of a situation where we would
Speaker 2: make it acceptable. To be honest, I'm not particularly hung
Speaker 2: up on the going down from five to four. I
Speaker 2: know the precedents there and all that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: It's the impact, Yeah, it's the impact. I think, Oh,
Speaker 2: just prefer people to you know, this has happened. Can
Speaker 2: we have a conversation about the actual culture of the
Speaker 2: AFL and what are we going to do to actually
Speaker 2: improve it beyond worrying about weeks and punishments and stuff
Speaker 2: like that. I would love I would much rather Isaac
Speaker 2: have two weeks and go out to a gay outreach
Speaker 2: program and you know, talk to the homeless gay kids
Speaker 2: that have been kicked out by their families and he
Speaker 2: wouldn't use that word again or go talk you know,
Speaker 2: every single club has a gay element of their like
Speaker 2: a gay cheer squad. Go and hang out with the
Speaker 2: you know, the guys and girls who you know bleed
Speaker 2: for your club and who live for you and your club.
Speaker 2: Go have a chat with them for a week. Go
Speaker 2: hang out with them, and I promise you they won't
Speaker 2: use that word again. And I'd just love to see
Speaker 2: action and actually going out of your way to you know,
Speaker 2: involve yourself in these communities that really look up to
Speaker 2: you and and that are a big part of the
Speaker 2: football world get chunned a lot. I would love to
Speaker 2: see that sort of action and that sort of conversation
Speaker 2: happen so that you know, the sixteen year old kid
Speaker 2: running around, you know that might think they're gay or
Speaker 2: is gay and is watching this and isn't thinking, Okay,
Speaker 2: do I have to choose between chasing my dream and
Speaker 2: living a lion and hiding my true self? Like to me,
Speaker 2: that's that's much more important to me than the weeks
Speaker 2: or the Grand Final or the waiting or any of that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's what I'd really love to see come from this.
Speaker 2: And to be honest, unfortunately I haven't really seen much
Speaker 2: of that.
Speaker 1: Beautifully said rio you you're talking about that it's just
Speaker 1: not a safe space for people, is it, you know,
Speaker 1: and you look at like the AFLW that does appear
Speaker 1: to be the opposite, a very very safe space where
Speaker 1: I can't speak for it, but I'm sure you wouldn't
Speaker 1: hear words like that, you know, And then they wonder
Speaker 1: and scratch the hands away. Right while there are no
Speaker 1: openly gay payers. You see this week, an entire week,
Speaker 1: an entire week, this has been in the headlines. It's
Speaker 1: a terrible decision by a terribly run organization. At times
Speaker 1: it is rio. Thank you so much for giving us
Speaker 1: the real perspective what we need to hear this week.
Speaker 1: And you're right, there's a lot of mums and dads
Speaker 1: and kids listening to the show this week. You know,
Speaker 1: what would you be saying to them, because you know,
Speaker 1: right now you've got this opportunity. There are going to
Speaker 1: be people listening right now who are struggling with their
Speaker 1: identity and how they feel about and they would have
Speaker 1: seen this week and this huge kind of everyone on
Speaker 1: TV going, oh, it should just be one round or
Speaker 1: two rounds as Wokenes's gone mad. What do you say
Speaker 1: to that? If someone's listening, maybe like when you were
Speaker 1: like fourteen or fifteen, and you've got these really big,
Speaker 1: what feel like big secrets. What would you say to someone.
Speaker 2: I think this is exactly the reason why we need
Speaker 2: to have Pride rounds, Why we need to you know,
Speaker 2: have people I see people in comments getting pissed off
Speaker 2: because there are rainbow flags in the Swan's cheer section.
Speaker 2: They keep politics out of sport, blah blah blah. Well
Speaker 2: people are still saying these horrible words professional players five
Speaker 2: times this year. The fact that we're having this conversation,
Speaker 2: the fact that we're even talking about Isaac Rankin, is
Speaker 2: the reason we need to be having these rounds and
Speaker 2: be talking about these things. And I would have, you know,
Speaker 2: to any you know, gay players or kids out there,
Speaker 2: as much as probably a harrowing week this has been,
Speaker 2: I have you know, I've found a huge sense of
Speaker 2: community and identity and belonging within football and within my
Speaker 2: football club and within the Swans and all that kind
Speaker 2: of thing. So I would I still think it's the
Speaker 2: greatest game in the world and I love it so
Speaker 2: so much, So I would say, you know, it will
Speaker 2: get better, and you know, the more of us that
Speaker 2: are able to feel confident enough to sort of step
Speaker 2: out into ourselves. The you know, the easier it's going
Speaker 2: to be for everyone. So yeah, don't don't give up
Speaker 2: on the AFL as well.
Speaker 1: Thanks Reren beautifully said okay, we'll take a break back
Speaker 1: in a moment. Thanks mate. Christian O'Connell show go On
Speaker 1: podcast