Come and work at our place mate, we don't have HR! The directors openly say if we need HR they arnt doing their jobs. We have cake and beer!

The RFL are investigating a charge of homophobia. Not foul and abusive language. As for the police, ask them.


intention may be relevant to punishment of the offender. However, if the word faggot was used, a complaint was made, and your lack of a HR department meant no investigation was made, no diversity training was carried out and no attempt was made to change that. Then said business has failed in its duty to provide a safe work environment free from discrimination. Something all of us have a legal right to, whether lawyers, office workers, cleaners or RL players.

Insults are part and parcel when on the pitch. What if. Hardaker had called a rival player's mother a "sl*t". Would you or anybody on here be remotely bothered by this? Yet probably the player it was aimed at would find that more offensive than being called a faggot himself. Context dear boy, context.



Ok 2/3rd of people don't like team sports. OFTEN because of homophobic bullying, often.....how much does this word OFTEN cover? That's a pretty loose conclusion. Not really a number of percentage.

How many gay people did they ask? 2/3rds of thousands is quite a lot. 2/3rds when they asked 10 people isn't really.

When gay people play team sport do you honestly believe they don't throw insults around too?

Slightly off topic but my experience of HR is that they take common sense and replace it with BS legislation, which serves to hinder a business. As I said the directors at our gaff believe in the culture we have and recruiting people with the right stuff, as people and workers.

Well then you should be quoting Rogues Gallery, not me. I didn't compare the two. But he was right to bring it up, try reading the thread properly instead of coming in all guns blazing just because you thought someone had dared have a go at your idol.

Nice way to massively play one down and defend it while playing the other up though.

homophobia, like racism cannot be part and parcel of our game. The whataboutery is irrelevant. You dont have the right not to be offended. You do have the right to an environment free from homophobia, racism and discrimination.

So your answer to those questions would be, i dont believe the University of Cambridges evidence and will dismiss those concerns, even though that statement is taken verbatim from a press release put out by this very club.

HR do seem meddling and a lot of fannying about, whilst things are fine then they are just an annoyance. But if you ever need them, you will be glad they are there. I would also hazard a guess that when your directors say they dont have a HR team, they do, its simply outsourced.

And as i say, they often have cake, or at the very least some sweets

1600 children were asked in the stonewalls 2012 school report. So not a small number.

I "don't have the right not to be offended". Dear boy, I have the right to feel however I want about the situation. Or do we have to follow your opinion? Doesn't the same freedom you're fighting for mean I'm free to think however I want.

Again would you be offended/bothered if Hardaker called a player's mum a "sl*t"? That you haven't replied to that part clearly shows that you wouldn't be, yet he's offended someone with his words. Just ones that don't bother you as much, hypocrisy much.



No but nice try, I didn't say I don't believe them. I inquired into the figures. "2/3rds" and "often" are fairly loose.

Mate - you work in Australia, the commute would be a right bitch.

You could work on the plane?

i think you read that statement in the wrong way. You can be offended, not offended anything you want.


actually i answered it. You dont have the right not to be offended as in You dont have the right to ban anything just because it offends you. You do have the right to an environment free from racism, homophobia and discrimination. You are allowed to be offended, you are allowed to be offensive. You are not allowed to be racist, homophobic or discriminatory.

Its why i will get in to a lot less trouble for calling a black guy a d1ck than a n1gger, a Jew a t0sser than a kike, a middle eastern person a silly billy than a sand, a muslim a c0ck than a raghead, or a person generally a tit, than a faggot.


yes, you focussed on and questioned the statistics as a means of avoiding addressing the question. 1600 children, 2/3rds of them is 1067. Often means frequently.

Quote ="G1"Interestingly, not according to the Urban Dictionary. [urlhttp://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=faggot[/url Not to mention the earlier reference I provided stating the term was acceptable if used by homosexual men. Of course, many traditional dictionaries say it is an offensive term though, interestingly, not a homophobic term. So I've provided a plethora of authorities which say the word may or may not be offensive but you've provided none that say it's homophobic apart from it is because you say it is. That's another thing about language, it can and often does change and words that were not originally offensive can become so and words that were offensive can become less so. The younger generation do use the term faggot in a non offensive way as described in the Urban Dictionary. Think about the word Bitch. Many people now refer to their bitches including women talking about their girlfriends. People have taken ownership of a previously offensive word and taken the offence out of it, like that gay community has done by their own use of the word "fag" (fag hag etc). Think about calling someone or something crazy. Fairly inoffensive but what about the connotations and stigma with the mentally ill? What about calling someone or a situation lame? Would that cause outrage? What about the negative connotations with disability from which that word originates?'" Southpark. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_F_Word_(South_Park)

Quote ="G1"Interestingly, not according to the Urban Dictionary. [urlhttp://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=faggot[/url Not to mention the earlier reference I provided stating the term was acceptable if used by homosexual men. Of course, many traditional dictionaries say it is an offensive term though, interestingly, not a homophobic term. So I've provided a plethora of authorities which say the word may or may not be offensive but you've provided none that say it's homophobic apart from it is because you say it is. That's another thing about language, it can and often does change and words that were not originally offensive can become so and words that were offensive can become less so. The younger generation do use the term faggot in a non offensive way as described in the Urban Dictionary. Think about the word Bitch. Many people now refer to their bitches including women talking about their girlfriends. People have taken ownership of a previously offensive word and taken the offence out of it, like that gay community has done by their own use of the word "fag" (fag hag etc). Think about calling someone or something crazy. Fairly inoffensive but what about the connotations and stigma with the mentally ill? What about calling someone or a situation lame? Would that cause outrage? What about the negative connotations with disability from which that word originates?'" Southpark. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_F_Word_(South_Park)

Well done on seeing the number someone else put for you.

1600, bit rounded isn't it. Did they have one more kid to interview and say sorry we've reached 1600 now no more.

The things with studies and surveys like these it that they go out looking for the answers they want. Stonewall is hardly going to come back and say we interviewed 1600 kids and only 5% said they had trouble with team sports and acceptance. Doesn't help them make a splash. That's why terms like "often" and 2/3rds are used instead of solid numbers.

(That btw is not me saying the actual figure is 5%, I'm just making an point so no need for any "do you really think the figure is that low" cries of outrage.)

Also 1600 children, sorry but how many children are openly gay back in school?

We had a young lad that worked with us a while ago and he used to refer to anything that was a bit sh*t as 'gay'. He used the term towards software, cars, shoes, in fact anything that he generally disapproved of.

Now he wasn't being homophobic in any sense of the word, it's (apparently) what the young-uns say these days. Weather gay people took offence to it was a different matter, but there was absolutely no homophobic connotations meant, in fact when we raised the point with him he seemed surprised that what he was saying could have been offensive to gay people.

Stonewall didnt do the survey, the University of Cambridge did. Stonewall simply used the statistics, and THIS VERY CLUB put out a press release using those exact words, verbatim.

So now we have impugned the honesty of Stonewall, The University of Cambridge and now seemingly questioned the existence of these 1600 people, is there anything else you would like to do before actually addressing the experiences of these children?

What evidence do you require before these peoples experiences matter? How many kids and how solid do the numbers have to be before you put the victims of homophobic bullying ahead of defending an RL player (allegedly) shouting homophobic slurs out of frustration?

We were happy to say this [iLeeds Rhinos and England international hooker Shaun Lunt said: ‘Rugby league has always been an inclusive game for all parts of the community. It’s great that the RFL can lead the way with an initiative like this, and we’re happy here at the Rhinos to help promote that message.’

Stonewall Deputy Chief Executive Laura Doughty said: ‘Sadly a recent University of Cambridge survey for Stonewall’s School Report 2012 shows two thirds of gay young people don’t like team sports, often because they face homophobic bullying on the pitch and in the changing rooms. Governing bodies and sport teams can help change that by following the RFL’s and the Rhinos’ lead in tackling homophobia and celebrating equality.’[/i Lets follow it through.

and thats probably a very common experience. People use the word 'gay' sometimes just as a synonym for lame, kids call each other fags any time they arent 100% masculine. Mostly without any semblance of homophobic intent. if you were a young gay man then your experience of that word and those attitudes is probably a little different.

Stonwall interviewed 1600 children, right. 1.5% (statistically) of whom are gay, that's 24.

no, they interviewed 1600 gay students. Im not sure how much 1576 straight children had to add to a report on the experiences of gay students

Wonder what Mel Gibson would contribute to this thread?

Drunken anti-semitism and an air of unpredictability? Patsy Kensits boobs? Diplomatic Immunity?

OK, my bad - but where the hell did they find 1600 gay students from. They must have asked over 100,000 students if they were gay.

That's one hell of a survey.

Yeah cool story.

Point is you can read all the surveys and watch all the programmes on the subject of gays and homosexuality. Those are designed to get to an obvious pre-set answer.

Try living though. As one of the youngest on this board and thus people coming out more openly and earlier than previously around me I think the biggest injustice and homophobia is coming from the likes of you and others on here that are rushing to protect gay people just because of one shout of abuse to a RL player.

Maybe it's not me defending Hardaker, maybe it's actually me not thinking gay people are so precious that they'll be wounded by anybody using the word fag or gay or poof in every single type of context. Perhaps just perhaps they're thicker skinned than some on here give them credit for and have more pressing issues concerning their sexuality than one RL player calling another RL player a fag.

But no let's instead make out that they'll be switched off RL for life because of that one Hardaker incident.

maybe a bit off topic, but I was in M&S and there was an old guy with his carer looking at trousers. The carer picked up a a pair of brown trousers to which the old guy said "I don't need another pair of n*gger brown trousers". I have no idea if this man was a racist or was just using and old term for a shade of brown. I was shocked at the loud use of an offensive term in the middle of a store but was not offended as I am not black and I wasn't buying trousers.