Australia

This is the best summary I could come up with:

I can't know just how corrosive it is to walk in the hyper-masculine world of football as a gay man, hearing deeply offensive homophobic slurs used when someone instead means "weak" or "annoying", as current players have told me they've heard.

Media managers offer vague reasons like, "We feel this is a wider AFL conversation and should be led by the league," or they've already done their rainbow event for the year, or the (highly articulate and intelligent) player we ask for simply doesn't know what to say.

The words of encouragement and love we heard in The Silence from former Bulldogs captain Bob Murphy (now Fremantle Dockers' head of AFLW and leadership) and former Melbourne Demons midfielder Brock McLean, demonstrate all the great things about AFL culture.

UNSW Eastern Suburbs Bulldogs player Michael O'Donnell, who chose to go public with his sexuality to Four Corners, and his predecessors in the amateur competition, Jason Ball and the late Matt Hall, showed great courage, but they are far from typical.

Most people I speak to in club land blame social media: they say the AFL system is a great place to be, but some fans are terrible trolls and it would be devastatingly difficult for a young gay man to be exposed to that, especially the first one.

Danielle Laidley, formerly a player and coach for the Kangaroos — and the first transwoman in the AFL — experienced this after being publicly outed at her lowest ebb by Victoria Police officers when she was arrested on drugs charges.

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