The Daily Aus<\/a> that the weight of hiding his sexuality played a “huge” part in his decision to retire.<\/p>\nHe added that he hopes his decision to speak out will create the “safety, comfort and space” for others to come forward.<\/p>\n
The news marks a pivotal moment for the AFL, which before Brown’s announcement, was the only major professional men’s sport globally to never have had an openly gay or bisexual player, even after retirement.<\/p>\n
Brown first shared the news in a direct message to The Daily Aus’s social media account after watching coverage of recent incidents of homophobia in the AFL.<\/p>\n
“I played in the AFL for 10 years for the West Coast Eagles, and I’m a bisexual man,” he wrote.<\/p>\n
The decision to speak out came from a “feeling of peace… comfort and confidence” that he didn’t have while hiding his sexuality when he was an active player, Brown said.<\/p>\n
“It was never once an opportunity to speak openly or explore your feelings or questions in a safe way,” he added.<\/p>\n
Brown described a culture of “hyper-masculinity” in the AFL, where he heard “countless” homophobic comments hurled at him on the field.<\/p>\n
“When I was growing up at school, the word ‘gay’ was thrown around constantly\u2026 For a man in Australia, [it was seen as] probably the weakest thing you could be.”<\/p>\n
He also recalled having a conversation with teammates about how they would feel having to shower next to a gay man.<\/p>\n
“One of the players said ‘I’d rather be in a cage full of lions than have a shower next to a gay man.'”<\/p>\n
Brown, 36, is currently in a relationship with a female partner and was previously married to former netball player Shae Bolton, with whom he shares two sons.<\/p>\n
The announcement comes after several high-profile homophobic incidents in the AFL.<\/p>\n
Last week, Adelaide Crows player Izak Rankine received a four-week ban for using a “highly offensive” homophobic slur during a game.<\/p>\n
Addressing the incident, Brown said he would like to see a “sense of change” in the league through the lifting up of “positive male role models”.<\/p>\n
“My advice to the AFL would be, let’s celebrate the players who may not be the most successful, but they’re the most important players in our community.”<\/p>\n
Brown said he believes there are currently gay and bisexual players in the AFL who remain closeted.<\/p>\n
He encouraged fans to have empathy for all players and shared a message for those who still don’t feel comfortable enough to speak out.<\/p>\n
“I see you and you are not alone.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Aussie Rules player has come out as the first openly gay or bisexual man in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-99062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99062","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=99062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}