Mitchell Brown in Perth, Australia, in 2013.


The Australian Football League (AFL) witnessed a historic moment: former West Coast Eagles defender Mitch Brown came out as bisexual on a Wednesday, becoming the first player (either active or retired) in the league’s history to publicly disclose his bisexuality. He stated that he hoped this move would encourage more footballers to bravely express their true selves.


Brown played 94 matches for the West Coast Eagles over a decade-long career before 2016. Prior to this, in the over 100-year history of Australia’s top-tier Australian Rules football league, no male player had publicly identified as gay or bisexual. In an interview with the Daily Aus website, Brown revealed that he had hidden his sexuality during his playing career, partly due to the "hyper-masculine" cultural atmosphere within the AFL.


"I remember overhearing two people talking about how they would feel showering next to a gay man, and one player said, ‘I’d rather be in a cage full of lions than shower next to a gay man’," Brown recalled. He also mentioned that he had seen or heard similar remarks countless times in life but chose to stay silent, "because I was afraid people would suspect I was gay or bisexual."


Now, by coming out, Brown hopes to provide others with "safety, comfort, and space to speak up." "The reactions I hope for are probably the ones I won’t hear," he added. "Like young men across Australia thinking, ‘I feel seen, I feel safer, and now I have a role model — even if it’s just ordinary old Mitch — someone I can look up to now’."


Notably, less than a week before the 36-year-old Brown came out, Izak Rankine, a forward for the Adelaide Crows, became the sixth AFL-listed player in two seasons to be suspended for using a homophobic slur during a match.


For a long time, the AFL has positioned itself as a leader in promoting inclusion and diversity in sports, and has collaborated with LGBT organizations on campaigns advocating for equality. However, the absence of male players in the league who openly identify as gay has raised questions about whether the sport is doing enough to ensure safe environments in clubs and locker rooms.


Advocates for diversity in sports pointed out that Brown’s coming out is a landmark event. It not only fills the gap in the representation of sexual minorities in the AFL but also may break the constraints of "hyper-masculine" culture on players. Some fans commented on social media that Brown’s courage "lets more young players see that their true selves should not be an obstacle in their careers." The AFL has not yet made a public response to Brown’s coming out, but sources say the league is internally planning to further optimize its inclusion policies for sexual minorities and strengthen multicultural training for players and staff in light of this incident.


Oceania Editorial Department: Jack