David Pocock is defying the world's most powerful sports manufacturers, religious lobbyists, and his parents.

By launching his own brand of football boots to protest against slave labour, and campaigning for same-sex marriage, Pocock has gone well beyond rival players and referees to take on the church and a multi-billion-dollar empire run by Nike, adidas and the rest.

It is an unparalleled stand by one of the world's best rugby players, but Pocock says: "Desmond Tutu, who was huge in South Africa in fighting apartheid, said that to be neutral in injustice is to merely support the status quo."

The Wallaby flanker's stance is sure to infuriate the influential sports manufacturing industry but Pocock welcomes the attention to his cause.

Being raised in a Christian home does not stop Pocock highlighting the hypocrisy of his own religion. And it won't compel him to legally marry partner Emma Palandri unless their gay friends have the same rights - even if the law is not changed by the time they have children.

"Witnessing the injustice upon a minority group, and to have the opportunity in some small way to stand in solidarity with them, was really important for us," Pocock says.

Pocock is sitting at a cafe that serves only fair trade coffee, wearing a self-designed T-shirt featuring reggae musician Lucky Dube, and carrying a university handbook on the health benefits of indigenous food.

He runs his own charity, EightyTwenty Vision, which helps a remote community in Zimbabwe. He freely admits that sport is the one section of the newspaper he doesn't read. Not your average 23-year-old star athlete with global adulation.

In an era of tailor-made fluorescent boots, Pocock chooses to ignore six-figure sponsorship deals, instead painting over the logo of his boots.

His brand, Heroes Boots, will be releasing rugby balls in two months, with the ethically produced boots to follow later.

Pocock must be the only athlete who can be ranked among the top five players of a global sport not to have such an endorsement deal.

"What sort of living and working conditions do those who make the boots have?" wonders the Western Force captain, who faces the Waratahs tonight in Sydney.

"As consumers in a country like Australia, we often feel powerless to issues happening in other parts of the world. But we don't realise the powers we have being consumers. You can really vote with your dollar.

"If you buy things, companies will make them. But if you stop buying things - like chocolate that isn't fair trade - companies are going to move toward practices that help everyone benefits from the production, like the farmers and workers.

"I read that in West Africa 200,000 children are working in the worst forms of child labour conditions in cocoa fields. That is just ridiculous."During the interview he flits between quoting American intellectual Cornel West and feminist author bell hooks, to wondering why the 90 million people who have watched the Kony 2012 documentary are not dedicated to righting injustices every day.

Pocock's greatest pause comes when asked how his devout Christian parents feel about their son refusing to legally marry Emma, despite them having a ceremony to marry spiritually in late 2010.

"We have made that commitment to each other, and if we do decide to have children that won't change," Pocock says.

"It causes some debate with my parents. They may not support my view, but they are very supportive of me and know this is not an issue I've taken lightly and something I'm blase about. They know it is something very important to me.

"One of the things I really appreciate is that my parents always encouraged my brothers and I to think for ourselves.

"That takes a lot of courage because you want your kids to believe everything you believe. I don't hold all of the beliefs my parents do."

The church released a statement this week urging followers to oppose the idea of same-sex marriage, saying: "There would be no recognition of the complementarity of male and female or that marriage is intended for the procreation and education of children."

Pocock brushes off the suggestion that legalising same-sex marriage will lead to the destabilisation of family structure.

"I find it such an interesting argument because there are so many problems with the breakdown of family in society already. It seems like a poor argument," he says.

"To say people with different sexual orientation will be less capable of parenting seems crazy to me.

"The lobbyists who oppose it often try to sensationalise the issue, but we must realise that firstly, we are dealing with people.

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but for me looking as a Christian, I just don't see the Jesus that I follow collaborating with the persecution of an already oppressed minority group.

"The New Testament clearly supports the subjugating of women, slavery was common, divorce was clearly forbidden.

"It just seems hypocritical for the international church to have progressed with all those issues, then pick out marriage and make it an exclusive club.

"Friends of ours who weren't heterosexual didn't have the same opportunity. To see how loving they were towards each other, how much good came out of their relationships, it just made no sense to join this club that didn't accept other people."

Above all, Pocock wants debate and a conscience vote on the issue.

"We are all part of the human family. Everyone should have the opportunity to love one another with honour," Pocock says.

"The LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersexual) community are often not just after their fair share of the status quo and equal rights in marriage, the movement as a whole is doing some great things in trying to change conditions for so many oppressed minority groups and bringing attention to their struggles, which is often overlooked."

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Originally published as David Pocock takes a stand