Former West Coast Eagle\u2019s player Mitch Brown has hit back at social media trolls who accused him of seeking attention after he came out as bisexual. Brown, the AFL\u2019s first openly bisexual male player, has clapped back at online critics who accused him of being \u201cattention seeking\u201d after publicly sharing his sexuality and calling out homophobia in the sport.<\/p>\n
In an Instagram story on Tuesday, the former West Coast Eagles defender directly addressed comments from trolls who questioned his motives.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey I just wanted to address one thing plenty of people are saying, writing directly to me that I\u2019m making this about myself and attention seeking, narcissistic all that stuff… I think isn\u2019t that kind of the point, though?\u201d Brown asked.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to create attention, attention about a message around homophobia and hyper masculinity in places where we consider, Australians consider a safe space. So it\u2019s kind of the point. So, yeah, I am attention seeking.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown, who played 94 AFL games between 2007 and 2016, made history last month when he became the first male footballer in the competition\u2019s 129-year history to come out as bisexual.<\/p>\n The 36-year-old has previously spoken about the overwhelmingly positive reactions he\u2019s received from fans, but has also been candid about some of the backlash \u2014 including silence from several AFL clubs he once supported.<\/p>\n In his most recent comments, Brown made it clear that raising awareness about toxic culture within the game is central to why he\u2019s speaking out.<\/p>\n His response to trolls is the latest in a growing dialogue around inclusivity in the AFL, and comes amid wider calls for the league and its clubs to move beyond symbolic gestures and commit to meaningful action.<\/p>\n It comes as Adelaide star Izak Rankine has opened up for the first time since being banned over a homophobic slur.<\/p>\n Rankine says he is \u201cin no way a victim\u201d after he arrived back in Australia from Rome to face a media storm.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to start by saying how sorry I am for what I said. There was no excuse. It was wrong, and I take full responsibility,\u201d he said at Adelaide Airport.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m disappointed in myself, and I know I\u2019ve let a lot of people down.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to apologise to anyone I\u2019ve hurt, and to my family. I understand that the word I used is offensive, harmful, it\u2019s hurtful, and it has no place in our game or our society.<\/p>\n Rankine – who looked visibly distressed as he read the prepared statement after flying in from Italy where he had spent more than week to avoid media scrutiny – made clear he wanted no sympathy.<\/p>\n READ THE FULL STORY HERE:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former West Coast Eagle\u2019s player Mitch Brown has hit back at social media trolls who accused him of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-114158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}