>> Australian Football Cuts Ties With Brunei Airlines
Suite à la campagne internationale de Boycott insufflée par l’organisation All Out, la ligue de football australienne a décidé de “réévaluer” ses accords de parrainage avec la compagnie aérienne nationale du sultanat.
“Un soutien pourtant très important,” dévoilé d’ailleurs en juillet dernier, mais qu’il était impossible d’assumer compte tenu de l’application de la charia dans l’État.
“Ces lois vont à l’encontre de nos convictions : l’inclusion et de la diversité. Lors des négociations, nous ignorions que le sultanat prévoyait notamment de sanctionner des personnes parce que leur orientation sexuelle.”
Andre Banks, co-fondateur et directeur général d’All Out, s’est félicité dans un communiqué de presse du courage de la commission pour cette décision : “L’homophobie n’est pas le meilleur argument en affaires. La ligne australienne de football était déjà l’une des premières organisations à dénoncer l’homophobie dans le sport et ils renouvellent ici une position ferme. C’est un enjeu considérable dans notre combat. Avec le Boycott de ses hôtels de luxe, le Sultan devrait finir par réaliser que la lapidation, la flagellation et cette obstination de vouloir amputer des gens, c’est également très mauvais pour l’économie.”
Terrence Katchadourian
@stop_homophobie
>> The Australian Football League says it is “reassessing” a sponsorship agreement with Royal Brunei Airlines because it was unaware that Brunei had introduced harsh penalties against homosexuality four months earlier.
“We have decided that the sponsorship deal will be terminated possibly within days, at most within a few weeks.”
The Sultan of Brunei is losing a lot of friends thanks to his new law that legalizes the stoning of gay people — the Australian Football League is close to ending a sponsorship deal with Royal Brunei Airlines because of the harsh Sharia law.
AFL said in a statement, “These laws are counter to everything the AFL stands for in regards to inclusion and diversity.”
The sultan’s luxury hotels are already being boycotted from London to Los Angeles, and now AFL Europe is telling Royal Brunei Airlines to beat it; the sponsorship pact was AFL Europe’s largest such partnership. The AFL was encouraged to cut ties with Brunei following a Twitter campaign led by the global LGBT advocacy group All Out.
“We applaud the Australian Football League for this courageous move,” Andre Banks, All Out’s co-founder and executive director, said in a statement. “This is a game changer in the push against Brunei’s proposal to mandate inhuman punishments like stoning, whipping and amputation for being gay and other offences. The AFL has taken a strong stand against homophobia today that shows the Sultan of Brunei that killing people because of who they are is not only wrong it’s very bad for business.”
AFL was one of many Aussie athletic organizations to recently condemn homophobia in sports.
