Donal Og Cusack’s highly anticipated documentary on attitudes to being gay airs tonight on RTE TV and will attract plenty of open support as well perhaps as private discomfort.
The fact that former Minister for Sport and the man charged now with the health of the nation spoke openly yesterday of his being gay ratchets up the prominence given to what Cusack says is something that is important and at the same time unimportant.
Being gay is a lot more comfortable in Ireland now that it would have been some 20 years ago. Tolerance is much more evident in most areas of society and it was perhaps indicative of that change that Varadkar and others can now speak openly without fear of it being the only thing that defines them.
Sport has a poor record when it comes to such tolerance though. Up until a couple of years ago there were only three openly gay professional soccer players in the whole world. Three out of hundreds of thousands would be statistically some way short of the mark but there was an obvious homophobia in sport which prevented the truth of many lives being expressed in public.
It is important that people judge themselves in how they react in discussing tonight’s programme among friends and within sporting clubs.
There is still too easy a fall back to macho stereotypes and ‘funny’ comments and it is only in confronting that within ourselves that it will hasten towards being as completely unacceptable as it should be
Cork football star Valerie Mulcahy speaks openly in tonight’s programme about the challenges she faced as a young person coming to terms with her own identity.
Sexuality is part of what we are as humans. Because the considered norm is to be heterosexual that means anything different is seen as somehow challenging both for the individual going through their own life and for those who know them.
Society should be supportive but society is not some nameless idea. It is you and me and those we know, those we hear and those we live and play with.
We need to support diversity not just in words but in actions to say it is OK to be different.
It seems so obvious but many will hear comments, supposed to be humorous, about what will be seen tonight. It’s up to us to stop them in their tracks, to make people feel uncomfortable if they make what they think is a wise crack but which could cut to the core of people in their company that are going through the process of living life on a different path to them.
Many in sport will argue that sports stars should be asked no more than to be good at their sport. When they are articulate and impassioned however they can be real agents for social change.
Their words and actions as role models can cut through to young fans in a way that would dwarf the work of well intentioned public campaigns that speak at rather than to young people.
Coming out of the Curve is on RTE 1 TV tonight at 21:35.
Image Credit: Inpho.ie
