AP

Romans 1 Before Our Eyes

            There was a time when heroism was linked with deeds of self-sacrifice in the face of danger. The bar has been considerably lowered. There was also a time when the sports pages tried to get the scores right and analyse the games. That is now so passé. The Australian has recently treated its readers to a sports article by Jessica Halloran on the heroism associated with ‘coming out’ (‘Coming out so an active player finally can’, 28 August 2025).

            There is the mandatory appreciation of Ian Roberts who took his then partner Shane on the 1994 Kangaroo tour of England. A glass ceiling was smashed. By 2022 a Cronulla prop, Toby Rudolf, was offering vocal support of the LGBTQIA+ cause, while informing us of his own exploits, which seem rather reminiscent of Suetonius’ description of the Roman Caesars. ‘Sexuality is very fluid,’ Rudolf tells us, ‘I’ve been out and kissed many gay men, kissed many straight women and kissed many gay women. You could say I’m open to both genders but only attracted to one of them.’ If only he had learned that there are a multitude of genders. But in his case, that will surely be forgiven. Rugby League forwards are rarely known for their nuanced thinking.

            Rudolf’s boast at the very least should have been treated as embarrassing. One could hope that he was completely drunk at the time, and this was some sort of excuse. Not now. The problem is not even that revved up men can do whatever they like sexually, with no consequences, but that more of them have not ‘come out’. It is a modern tragedy. The ever hopeful Ian Roberts has not given in to despair. In fact, he is unable to contain his excitement at where it is all heading: ‘The next male person to come out in the NRL, ARU [rugby] and AFL will be a superstar. He will be championed. I’m getting goose-bumps thinking about it.’

              Have we completely lost our senses? Is our moral compass so distorted that Toby Rudolf is now regarded as akin to Francis of Assisi, and Ian Roberts like Mahatma Gandhi? In a decadent age, it does not take much to be a moral hero. Nor a journalist apparently.

– Peter Barnes