Darce Broke Down in Tears After Aussie Rules Matches, Advocating for Changes in the Sport

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Darce always loved Australian rules football. They played sports their entire life, dabbling in hockey, cricket, and footy since they were a kid.

But now, they feel physically sick if they hear the whirl of the AFL siren or pass an Aussie rules field.

The 32-year-old is non-binary and typically played in local women’s leagues. But they say that because of their physical presentation, they’ve been subject to transphobic and homophobic slurs and physical abuse — something they say has ramped up in the last few years.

“I’ve had people just yell slurs from the sidelines while I’m trying to play a game — people who don’t even know me. It’s really alienating and terrifying,” Darce told SBS News.

SBS News has chosen not to publish these slurs.

“I remember playing a game and I could hear the coach just referring to me as ‘he’ … then these players come and they play on you with the mindset that they’re playing on a man, so they start tackling you really hard and hurting you,” Darce said.

Darce says that the last game they played, they were tackled so violently that it led to a concussion. They say an unsafe culture is embedded in local leagues, adding that many of their gender-diverse and queer friends have also been subject to physical and verbal discrimination under the guise of competition and routine sledging.

“Players will get called slurs and it’s treated like a very minor thing [by the league],” they said said. “Any kind of diversity or deviation from what is considered the norm of ‘who plays footy’ is targeted.”

Now, they have stopped playing in their local league and have stopped attending official AFL matches.

“I was taking off so much work after games because I’d be crying in the shower all night, and I wouldn’t be able to sleep. And this is even just local footy,” they said.

“I miss the sport so much and I miss my friends, but I’m at the point where I haven’t physically been able to go to a game since then. Even when I hear the umpire’s whistles at the park around the corner, I get anxiety.

“It was something I really loved and it was causing me so much harm that I had to step away entirely.”

An AFL player in a guernsey with blue, yellow and red bands

Adelaide Crows player Izak Rankine has been hit with a four-match suspension for the use of a “highly offensive homophobic slur” against a Collingwood opponent. Source: AAP / Matt Turner

Does AFL have a culture of homophobia and transphobia?

The sport’s stated aim of stamping out homophobia at the top level to the grassroots was under a spotlight this week.

Adelaide Crows player Izak Rankine was sanctioned on Thursday for using a homophobic slur against an unnamed Collingwood opponent last Saturday night.

The AFL hit Rankine with a five-match suspension, which was later downgraded to four matches, citing “compelling medical submissions”. SBS News has contacted the AFL for comment on what those medical submissions were.

“Rankine rang the Collingwood player to personally apologise and he fully cooperated with the subsequent investigation by the AFL Integrity Unit including by admitting the use of the homophobic slur and being remorseful for it,” the AFL said in a statement.

AFL general counsel Stephen Meade said: “The language used was offensive, hurtful and highly inappropriate. Our players have a very clear understanding of what is acceptable on the football field. Importantly, in this instance it was called out by players and acknowledged by Izak himself as wrong — and that reflects the standards we expect and demand in our game.”

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon said “inclusion and respect are key priorities for the AFL” and acknowleged that there was “much more work to do”.

“I know people in the LGBTQI+ community are hurting when an incident like this happens,” Dillon said on Thursday.

On Monday, Adelaide captain Jordan Dawson denied the incident was a sign of a wider cultural issue in the AFL.

Dr Robert Boucaut, a lecturer in media at the University of Adelaide, however, said the incident was a “symptom of a broader problem” and wasn’t just an isolated incident.

“In team sports, you are often prioritising and valuing traits around hyper-masculinity and aggression — and looking towards methods to undermine opposing teams on those levels,” Boucaut told SBS News.

“Homophobia, misogyny, queerphobia and transphobia all plays into that culture of sledging in the game,” he said. “The language used on-field and, more than likely behind the scenes, is one of exclusion, one of ostracisation, and othering.”

He says it “threatens the safety and viability of diverse communities being able to participate in sport”.

Rankine is the sixth AFL-listed player banned for a homophobic slur against an opponent in the past 16 months.

Boucaut says there has been an uptick in reporting these incidents since 2023, which may indicate a slight cultural shift. But he says the way these incidents are tackled still “misses the bigger picture of a culture of institutional homophobia”.

“The AFL is unique amongst the world’s elite sporting codes in never having had an openly gay male player — that itself supports this picture of the AFL being an unsafe and unsupportive environment.”

Darce says the incident sends the message that Aussie rules is not a safe place for queer people like them: “It’s very clearly saying that we’re not safe playing footy and that we’re not welcome.”

“The AFL tried to brush it off as a single incident, not that it’s a cultural issue.”

The ‘tip of the iceberg’

Dr Ryan Storr from the Sport Innovation Research Group at Swinburne University of Technology is a co-author of the Free to Exist research paper, published last year.

It found that 53 per cent of young LGBTQIA+ people have witnessed discrimination, and 40 per cent have experienced discrimination — mostly through verbal vilification.

Storr says gay men were the largest group to report discrimination, with 76 per cent hearing or witnessing homophobia.

He’s not surprised by Darce’s experience. “In the last couple of years, in particular with the rise of right-wing conservatism, the Trump effect, and what we’ve seen in the UK in changing the definition of a woman, there’s been an increase in anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment.”

“Unfortunately, trans and gender diverse people have been copping this.

“This is just the top of the iceberg.”

He says the environment has led to an increase in body policing — something that Darce has experienced: “In men’s sports and the men’s football, anything that’s seen as feminine — whether it be having longer hair or painting your nails — there’s this assumption of your sexuality that this person might be gay and that’s somehow not masculine.”

“In the women’s comp, it’s less homophobia you face and it’s more transphobia you get,” they said. “If your hair is too short or you’re too tall or your voice is a bit deep, there’s this assumption that, ‘oh, you mustn’t be a girl then’.”

But Storr is cautious to place the blame entirely on politics, saying the AFL needs to take ownership of the culture it has created.

“Sport is a reflection of society, but I think sometimes it can be heightened,” he said.

“In the Izak Rankine case, if you had said this in a work setting, you’re not getting a slap on the wrist — you’d be fired. Sport seems to be immune to this.”

Flow on for community sports

But instances like Rankine’s don’t just take place at Adelaide Oval. It can also have devastating flow-on effects in community spaces and online.

“Every time an incident like this happens, you get maybe four or five days afterwards of just online commentary — and it’s often quite negative,” Storr said.

“Ultimately, what you have is overt homophobia in online environments … it sends the message that LGBTQIA+ people aren’t welcome in sport.”

His research has also led to him speaking to local clubs, with one club manager explaining that incidents like these can lead to a rise in homophobic language on the field.

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon said “inclusion and respect are key priorities for the AFL”, adding that “people in the LGBTQI+ community are hurting when an incident like this happens”. Source: AAP / Joel Carrett

“The large percentage of community clubs and sport volunteers have mentioned that homophobic language is very prevalent and a problem. One club said that the last time this happened, discussion of and use of homophobic language increased,” Storr says.

Boucaut adds that larger cultural attitudes in the AFL can trickle down into local, community, and junior leagues.

“The flow-on effects to communities would be disheartening,” he said.

“If the elite spaces of AFL aren’t leading the charge, it puts community clubs in a stymied position, because it gives a pass for those behaviours to trickle down — to be seen as just part of the game.”

For Storr, that’s particularly worrying.

“When they hear their role models say it, it gives these young boys ammunition to do that.”

“The main perpetrators of homophobia are young teenage boys in groups — that’s why sport is rife for this and it’s an area that promotes it, unfortunately.”

‘We’re not problems to be fixed’

As for what that change might look like, it’s difficult to envision.

Storr advocates for a “multi-pronged” approach, including education, to get to the core of the problem.

“A band-aid solution of giving a ban is not working,” he said. “Culture change and attitudinal change takes a long time, but they need to realise this is a problem and have a carefully curated plan and strategy.”

Boucaut says systemic homophobia and queerphobia can’t simply be fixed through match bans, sanctions, or pride education.

Instead, he urges to shift the conversation away from punishment and look at more holistic efforts to enhance queer representation in the league, especially in the commentary space.

“There is space for the sport and the code to change. The game has made many adaptations over its existence — this can be another adaptation they choose to make,” Boucaut said.

But for Darce, dreams are as simple as wanting to kick a footy safely.

“Queer people are treated as an outside problem to be solved or worked out or tolerated, rather than people who are part of the sport and have every right to simply be included and belong without our existence being questioned,” Darce said.

“The queer community has had such immeasurably positive impacts for the good of Australian sports and society — it’s insulting that the conversation seems to be around treating queer people like they’re the problem, when they are the ones that should be receiving the most support right now.”

“Everyone should be comfortable playing sports. We’re not problems to be fixed.”