<\/p>\n
Mitch Brown came out publicly in an interview with The Daily Aus.\u00a0 (YouTube: The Daily Aus)<\/p>\n
Brown, now 36, said he was not prepared for the immense response to his revelation, saying he had received thousands of messages of support.<\/p>\n
“It’s certainly been a whirlwind, and overwhelmingly, I can say it’s so positive,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t have a role model, so if I can be that role model for young people, it just warms my heart.”<\/p>\n
‘A little bit frustrated’<\/p>\n
Despite saying he had found Australia’s reaction “amazing” and thanking his support network, Brown said he had received “a small amount of hate”.<\/p>\n
He said it escalated when he called out AFL clubs, including Collingwood, Geelong, Adelaide and Brisbane, for being slow to make public statements in the wake of his announcement.<\/p>\n
“As soon as I called out those clubs \u2026 that’s when I started to get the hate,” he said.<\/p>\n
“People who were maybe uncomfortable with me in the first place \u2026 they saw an opportunity there to hate on me for another reason, not just my sexuality.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mitch Brown told triple j hack the AFL is a “hyper-masculine environment”.\u00a0 (Getty Images: Paul Kane)<\/p>\n
‘Visibility does matter’<\/p>\n
Brown insists the motivation behind his call-out was not self-promotion.<\/p>\n
“[I had] frustrations around clubs staying silent and not acknowledging an inclusive environment,” he told hack.<\/p>\n
“Visibility does matter.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mitch Brown (second from right) told triple j hack that some former teammates from the West Coast Eagles reached out to show support.\u00a0 (Getty Images: Paul Kane)<\/p>\n
While the former footballer thanked the past and current players who have publicly supported inclusion within the AFL, he also acknowledged there were many who have not felt comfortable.<\/p>\n
“Is it a fear of being associated with a queer person or a bisexual man?” he asked.<\/p>\n
“Or is it a fear of people thinking that you are gay or bisexual yourself?”<\/p>\n
“It is fear \u2026 of what that might mean for your community that you’re selling videos to or marketing a football shoe to.”<\/p>\n
Loading…<\/p>\n
But Brown said that after 129 years of silence, progress takes time.<\/p>\n
“I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t allow people to take time for this to sink in.<\/p>\n
“For me, to connect with my own identity and sense of self, it’s taken years.”<\/p>\n
‘You’re not alone’<\/p>\n
Brown said he would like to see the AFL become a safe environment for the queer community.\u00a0 (AAP: David Moir)<\/p>\n
While Brown said he was relieved to have finally found a safe environment to embrace his identity, he was concerned about the potential fixation on who “the next player” will be.<\/p>\n
“It has played in my mind, simply because I’ve been asked a lot,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I know they are out there.<\/p>\n
“For that person, you’re not alone.<\/p>\n
“I’ll stand with you, I’ll walk with you, if that’s what it takes.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brown said hyper-masculinity and homophobia in the AFL kept him from speaking out. (Getty Images: Paul Kane)<\/p>\n
Creating change<\/p>\n
Brown said he knew “being the first” would make a difference, even if it may not be fully visible yet.<\/p>\n
“That next player may not even be born yet; they may be just out of primary school or so young that they haven’t even kicked a football yet,” he said.<\/p>\n
“But the environment that we can help to role model will ensure that they can be themselves from a young age, well before they even get drafted or recruited into the AFL.<\/p>\n
“There won’t be any coming out, there won’t be a huge reaction.”<\/p>\n
Until then, he has committed to making sport a safer place for everyone.<\/p>\n
“I don’t have the answers yet, but I won’t stop.”<\/p>\n
And asked whether he would be at Sydney’s Mardi Gras parade next year, Brown laughed.<\/p>\n
“I’m ready.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Mitch Brown revealed to the world he was bisexual two weeks ago, making AFL history, he did…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[92406,64,63,12551,72211,2331,596,63493,46786,38174,588,85,19257],"class_list":["post-133694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-alf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-rules-football","tag-bisexual","tag-culture","tag-football","tag-homophobia","tag-lgbtqia","tag-queer","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-sports-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133694","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=133694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}