Manly Pride – Should Rugby Players Be Forced to Wear Rainbow Jerseys?

In an upcoming match, the Manly rugby league club are going to make their players wear a gay pride jersey with rainbow stripes and trim. Unsurprisingly, seven current players and an undisclosed number of potential new recruits have refused to wear it and therefore will be forced to sit out of Thursday’s match.

Manly Jerseys: https://ebay.us/hgBr4Z (affiliate link)

“Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.”
~ Voltaire (1694–1778), French Philosopher

If you know me, you know that I’m all for people living their life as they see fit. I don’t care what people do as long as they don’t harm others. Live and let live, right? If somebody wants to dress up in a gorilla costume handing out free balloons, go right ahead. If you want to put on makeup, wear a top hat, and prance around the street, be my guest. You should have the freedom to do so, but equally, I should have the freedom not to.

The official narrative is that the Manly players’ refusal is based on religious and cultural grounds. You know what, it doesn’t matter what their reasons are – If they don’t want to wear it, they shouldn’t have to. Just because Brad Pitt wants to wear a skirt, doesn’t mean that we should all be forced to wear one.

Actually, a couple of years ago, the university I work for had a rainbow day or whatever to celebrate the LGBT community, and they were asking everyone to wear a rainbow armband. I just told my supervisor, “Nah, I’m right mate” and went on my way. So did a lot of other people. It doesn’t mean I’m against the LGBT community, it just means I don’t want to wear a rainbow armband. The same thing happened during NAIDOC Week. They were asking us to wear an Aboriginal flag wristband. I just said, “Nah, I’m good thanks mate”. That doesn’t mean I’m against Aboriginal people. It just means I don’t want to wear the wristband. Actually, me wearing the wristband might even be confusing. People might mistakenly think that I’m claiming to be Aboriginal. To be fair to Aboriginal people, it wasn’t even Aboriginal people handing these out. It was a white lady from human resources.

When I was working in Japan as an ambassador (no, not THE ambassador – I was a sister city ambassador for a small town), I was asked to attend a German Oktoberfest celebration, which I was happy to attend. But just before the festivities began, the organisers asked me to don some lederhosen. I just said, “Nah, I’m good mate”, went on my way and enjoyed the festivities. Does that mean I hate Germany or hate the German people because I refused to wear some lederhosen? No! It just means I didn’t want to wear lederhosen. The same thing happened at the Australia Day march. They asked me if I could drape the Australian flag over my shoulders, and in typically Aussie fashion I just said, “Nah, I’m good mate”. Does that mean I hate Australia? Does that mean I am less of an Australian? No, it just means that I don’t want to wear the Australia flag around my shoulders. There was also that time that I marched in the New York AIDS walk, but I refused to wear the AIDS ribbon and consequently got beaten up because of it. Oh hang on, that was an episode of Seinfeld.

The point is, if a few big Manly rugby players don’t want to wear a rainbow jersey, they damn well shouldn’t have to. It doesn’t matter what their reasoning is. After all, they’re there to play football, not to be pressured into supporting all these other causes. If they want to support these causes in their own time, so be it, but the football field should be for playing football, not politics. However, a few members in society have decided that if you don’t do what they tell you, then you’re the enemy! That’s the unfortunate thing about society, especially of late. People are being browbeaten by their peers to do something that they don’t even want to do. It’s very much a dark side of human nature. A number of people have unleashed a level of anger and hostility against those who choose to follow their own conscience instead of the decrees of the collective. “Do what we say, or else!”. Extremism can take many forms, but it’s important to understand that the people who tried to force Kramer in Seinfeld to wear a ribbon, or the people trying to force rugby players to wear a gay pride jersey, they share a common trait. Both groups are absolutely convinced that what they are doing is good. Wanting to do good is a noble human instinct, but the instinct ceases to be noble and good when the perpetrators begin to use aggression and coercion to make others do what they think is right. There’s only one way to deal with these people. Simply stand your ground and say “No!”.

MUSIC
Melancholia by Godmode

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