A Manly Lifestyleby Peter Blazey (in his "Rear End" column in Outrage, November 1995) Talking about stars and role models, it seems to me that the long, slow coming out of Rugby League football star Ian Roberts is one of the most brilliant PR jobs we've ever seen. Instead of "flinging his handbag at a TV camera" or running around the Manly stadium in a skirt, he went in for a softly, softly approach when he first appeared almost naked in Blue earlier this year. After that it was a long tantalising drip feed of hints and suggestions: a media strip tease, in fact. He largely avoided gay magazines, although getting himself photographed, interviewed and becoming a columnist on this esteemed mag. But to the mainstream press, especially in a profile in the Sunday Telegraph, he has continually used such euphemisms as "inner urban" and "lifestyle" while refusing to say "I am gay." Indeed, he's used the "L word so often you wouldn't be shocked to hear him talking about "the lifestyle and lesbian Mardi Gras." Nevertheless, it was petulant of the Sydney Star Observer's gossip columnist to moan about his using crafty euphemisms. Roberts is not a scene queen or a ghetto queen with nothing to lose, he's a football champion and he's testing the waters on behalf of all of us. By eschewing the G word, he has being much more provocative. He had the Murdoch ocker journo Mike Gibson admiring his courage, praising football's diversity and saying people who rubbished him were bigots. Not bad from Gibbo!
Roberts is loosening up all the time: coming out at his own pace. Now he's doing promotional work for the Bayswater Gym, and he's signed a deal to write his autobiography. Although this last fact is a major reason for his media shyness, he has given his most revealing interview to date to former Campaign editor Greg Callaghan in The Good Weekend. Roberts talked a bit about his live-in boyfriend of three years (called a "partner") in the following words: "I didn't think I was the type to settle down, but it suddenly hits you between the eyes." He made a few corrections to the media bullshit: he's not a Buddhist, and he didn't deck a junior player who called him a "fag." Further, he has received 200 letters from young gay men living in the outer suburbs and country thanking him for demolishing a stereotype. He pointed out the spectators were much worse than the players. "Rugby league has this boofhead, homophobic yobbo image but it's really nor homophobic at all," he said. How could it be with all that body contact and those bums? If you really want a homophobic sport, try cricket. Ian disclosed that he had few intimates and that he listened closely to his father. Let PC queens sneer at Ian's pace, but I think Dad has been a very sage adviser to one of the most subtle and powerful comings out in sporting history. Editor's note: Roberts finally used the C word in an interview for The Advocate tn October. |
