First openly bisexual man in AFL calling for cultural change

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BRISBANE, Australia — Mitch Brown finally had enough as he watched unfolding coverage of yet another case of homophobic abuse in the Australian Football League, and decided it was time to change the narrative.

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Brown contacted the Daily Aus with a message that the online news site published Wednesday: “I played in the AFL for 10 years for the West Coast Eagles, and I’m a bisexual man.”

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In almost 130 years of topflight competition in Australia’s homegrown football code, no past or active male player had publicly identified as bisexual or gay.

Aussie Rules was a long way behind other types of football, including NFL, rugby league, rugby union and soccer.

Brown, who was drafted to the Eagles as a teenager and played for the Perth, Western Australia-based club from 2007 until 2016, said he arrived in a “hypermasculine culture” and became “very, very good” at concealing himself.

“Not just about my sexuality, but… everything,” he told the Daily Aus. “My anxiety, my worries in life.” He retired at age 28, in part because he was struggling to juggle his life and his career.

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Safe space

That has changed. Brown said he wants his story to help create “safety, comfort, and space” for players in the league. He wants the AFL to focus more on structural change than on the length of suspensions for players guilty of homophobia or discrimination.

“The reactions that I hope for are the ones I won’t hear,” he said. “They’re the ones of those young men around Australia going, ‘I feel seen, I feel a little bit safer, and I have a role model — albeit just ordinary old Mitch — a role model I can now look to,”‘ he said.

“I don’t believe that this is about me. It’s not about Mitch Brown being the first at all. It’s about sharing my experience so others can feel seen.”

Calling it out

Brown decided to speak out after Izak Rankine, a star player for the league-leading Adelaide Crows, was last week banned for four games for a homophobic slur against an opponent. He was the sixth AFL-listed player suspended for a similar act in 16 months.

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Observers in Australia who’ve long documented the inherent discrimination are hopeful that Brown’s candid take on the cultural problems in the AFL, as a respected and relatively recently-retired player, will make a difference.

“He’s talking about the problems,” said Dr. Erik Denison, behavioral scientist with Monash University’s Faculty of Arts, and “talking about the problems as an AFL player.”

“It’s one thing for players from other sports to talk about problems in the AFL, or researchers like me or journalists,” Denison told The Associated Press. “It’s another thing for a respected AFL player talking about problems in his sport because he’s one of the guys, he’s one of the blokes and he’s also a recent player. That could mean that his words will have a greater impact than others.”

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Denison said the relatively small global footprint of Australian rules football and the fact that most elite players are of a similar height and build meant it was very conformity focussed, possibly why it was slower than other sports to have openly gay or bisexual men at the top flight.

Pride

Having a so-called Pride Round driven by the leading players at the elite clubs and proper messaging from the top level to the grassroots would help the AFL become a more inclusive and diverse for players and supporters, Denison said.

The AFL women’s competition has a Pride Round, where all clubs participate, but the Sydney Swans are the only AFL men’s club to host a pride game each year.

“It can’t be changed from the outside and the reason for that is exactly what Mitch is talking about, which is it’s this day-to-day language and banter and culture that exists that needs to be basically short-circuited,” Denison said. “Every club needs to be involved in the process of change and because (Brown) is calling out specifically what needs to change.”

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Australian rules reaction

The West Coast Eagles reacted hours after Brown’s announcement with a social media post that stated: “We love you, Mitch!”

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon described it as “an important moment for our entire game.”

“Building on Mitch’s story we hope that others feel encouraged to be their authentic selves and share their own journeys,” Dillon said, “and that these stories are met with support from teammates, clubs and the wider football community.”

Australian rules explained

It’s a dynamic contact sport played by teams of 18 on an oval field and involves a lot of kicking. It was established in and around Melbourne in the 1850s and is one of the most popular sports in Australia. The top-tier national league features 18 clubs.

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