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27-year-old scrum half for Toulouse and captain of the French national rugby team, Antoine Dupont he openly spoke out against homophobia in sport.
“From now on, if a player makes homophobic comments on the pitch I will stop the match because things have to change“, specified the transalpine star, captain of the France team that won the legendary Six Nations in 2022. Antoine was interviewed by the LGBTQ+ magazine Tetu. Dupont recalled how rugby is a historically welcoming and inclusive sport, underlining however that even if not above all the players must speak out more, openly supporting queer people.
In all of France only one professional rugby player, Jeremy Clamy-Edroux, is openly gay. Obviously Dupont does not believe that “there is only one gay rugby player”, but all teams should show their closeness to the community, to give other rugby players the strength to come out.
“The goal is for all players to feel good about their sexuality and be accepted by others. Even though rugby can be seen as a macho sport, we are very open-minded and today I think we are all capable of accepting other people’s sexual orientations”.
A 2020 study found that almost half of UK rugby players have used homophobic slurs, while two-thirds have heard teammates use similar language.
“It is surprising to see an almost total disconnect between the homophobic language used by rugby players and their attitudes towards gays“, he said Erik Denisonone of the researchers. “Most rugby players say they use homophobic language to make others laugh, or to fit in with their team, and they don’t seem to realize how damaging this is to gay people or to team culture in general”.
Dupont concluded: “If there’s a gay person on our team and they hear these jokes it won’t help them speak up and come out. We still assimilate rugby, which is a sport of strength, of combat, to this slightly macho side where you have to be a man, a real one. But today I think we have overcome all these constraints”.
Last month the Bingham Cup 2024, the most important inclusive rugby tournament in the world, was held in Rome.
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