Gay footballer and activist Jason Ball reflects on g out | — Atralia’s leadg news se

Contents:

• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS' KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE COACH TO COME OUT AS GAY MAJOR U.S. SPORTS
• GAY FOOTBALLER AND ACTIVIST JASON BALL REFLECTS ON G OUT
• JASON BALL LLS FOR LM THE GAY MUNY OVER MARGARET COURT
• JASON COLLS SAYS HE'S GAY
• GAY ASIE FOOTBALLER JASON BALL OUT, LNCH MPAIGN. AKERMANIS DON'T RE.
• JASON GAY
• GAY GREENS NDIDATE JASON BALL NMNS HOMOPHOBIC ATTACK

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS' KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE COACH TO COME OUT AS GAY MAJOR U.S. SPORTS

The NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars strength ach, Kev Maxen, has e out as gay — makg him the first male ach a U.

While Maxen is believed to be the first male ach to have e out publicly as gay, there have been a few female ach U. When to players, there have only been 16 the history of the NFL to e out as gay or bisexual as of September 2022, per Outsports.

"Growg up, I thought there was no such thg as a gay footballer … I thought beg gay was the worst thg you uld be. Growg up ral Victoria, the realisatn he was gay terrified him.

GAY FOOTBALLER AND ACTIVIST JASON BALL REFLECTS ON G OUT

You n still be put to ath some untri and there are still relig muni Atralia who would do as much if they you don't know how people are gog to react to you, and that means that you censor yourself workplac, social groups, sortg clubs, 's why g out is a thg for gay people a way that hasn't been for straight people.

'No such thg as a gay footballer'Growg up, I thought there was no such thg as a gay footballer, and beg gay was not seen as mascule. They weren't all dickheads, which they kd of seemed to thk they had to be to imprs one another a group a gay kid, I totally didn't see myself reflected football whatsoever, so I felt that I was the only one or there was somethg wrong wh Everyday your boxGet our newsletter for the bt of ABC Everyday each week'Sry, forbidn attractn' too hard to ignoreI had girliends and stuff, until about age at some pot, clicked for me that I was attracted to guys.

JASON BALL LLS FOR LM THE GAY MUNY OVER MARGARET COURT

'The worst thg you uld be'I thought beg gay was the worst thg you uld be, bee of the way people spoke: whether 's the word "gay" meang bad or weak or stupid; or gay boys beg the butt of every joke; or words like "faggot" and "poofter" beg very mon the world that I grew up .

I thought that g out as gay, I would be at that young age I jt flat out ma a promise to myself that I would not act on those feelgs. That I would marry a girl and jt act "normal" to avoid the embarrassment and the shame of anyone fdg out I was gay.

JASON COLLS SAYS HE'S GAY

That self-loathg and tryg not to be gay lasted a uple of pretty rough years. It's a very mon also, I learnt that when they do fd self-acceptance and e out, a lot of people don't thk ls of them and a lot of fears their heads are not out to a iend Jason Ball ntted the 2016 feral electn and was named Victorian Young Atralian of the Year for 2017 for his work tacklg homophobia sport. That's great that you're gay.

I've always wanted a gay iend.

"It was a huge relief and gradually I began to tell more of the girls at school, and I started hangg out more wh my guy iends there was this nstant repulsn about gayns that was ed to assert their masculy: How straight and manly they are was reflected by how much they hate gay people and thk they're many of them, when you got them one on one, they weren't like that, and they didn't want to be like that.

GAY ASIE FOOTBALLER JASON BALL OUT, LNCH MPAIGN. AKERMANIS DON'T RE.

'All of a sudn I realised my teammat weren't gog to hate me'When I was about 22, a teammate reached out to me to say he knew that I was gay and wasn't a big years, there was only so much I uld really hi; they'd heard about or found out via mutual we were the club rooms after trag, and one of my teammat had broken up wh his girliend, I asked him how he was dog. Part of me felt silly for havg to hi for so homophobic language fad om their there, I'd felt more part of the football club than I had my life. "Jason Ball is a mental health advote, former polil ndidate and the send Atralian l footballer at any level to publicly e out as gay the natnal media.

In the locker room, gay was a word ed to mean ‘bad’, ‘weak’ or ‘soft’. Homophobic slurs were seen as part of the game. Most importantly, the homophobic language stopped.

MORE: JASON BALL CALLS ON FANS TO END HOMOPHOBIAWhile our AFL players don’t yet have a gay teammate to publicly support, they have not been silent when to beg seen and heard as straight alli agast homophobia. Carlton Footballer Brock McLean beme the first AFL player to bee an ambassador for Athlete Ally, an anisatn foced on endg homophobia and transphobia sport by tg alli the athletic muny and empowerg them to take a stand. MORE: JASON BALL’S COURAGE WILL TRUMP IGNORANCESiarly, last year durg Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia (IDAHO) some of the biggt nam the AFL, cludg Stt Pendlebury, Drew Petrie, Le Ball and Jobe Watson, took part a social media mpaign ordated by the AFL Players Associatn, makg a pledge never to e homophobic language and raisg awarens about the damagg impacts has on the mental health and wellbeg of young GLBTI AFL players, I n image that they would want to avoid dog anythg that uld risk puttg them at a them, football is their reer.

JASON GAY

Wh the public and media’s tert the story of a gay footballer g out so strong, a football club uld view this as an unnecsary admistrative I me out publicly, I felt was my duty to talk through wh my team. Read more: #StandTall #CBR #MarriageEqualy— GWS GIANTS (@GWS_Giants) December 9, 2013For any gay AFL player, there uld be some trepidatn that g out would mean that their homosexualy may fe them for the rt of their playg reer. Would you rather be known as a great footballer, or ‘the gay footballer’?

GAY GREENS NDIDATE JASON BALL NMNS HOMOPHOBIC ATTACK

For me, I don’t thk beg gay f me. However, there is no nyg that is a huge part of who I am, and hidg was mentally I was 13-years-old, stgglg to e to terms wh who I was a blokey, macho, football environment, if I had’ve known of such thg as a gay footballer, that he uld be out to his teammat and that wasn’t a big al, that would have ma a world of difference to my story h the news, the most rewardg thg has been receivg letters, emails or tweets om young GLTBI people, who tell me that hearg my story has given them the urage to e out to their iends, e out to their parents, or even e out to their football an amatr footballer like myself has been able make posive a difference a few people’s liv, jt image the impact that an AFL player, beg open and proud about who they are, uld also Jason Ball on Twter @jasonball88 Jason Ball is an ambassador for beyondblue. As the most well-known male Atralian l footballer to e out as gay, his story has multiple layers that add up to him now beg wh strikg distance of takg the Liberals’ blue-ribbon Melbourne seat of Higgs for the Greens at the next feral story starts his fay home at Christmas Hills one of the tall lypt forts that borr Melbourne’s north-eastern suburbs.

“In footy culture, beg lled gay or a ‘poofter’ was an sult. The followg weekend, he me out the Sunday Age newspaper as gay. A iend associated wh had asked him to do so for the sake of an anti-homophobia mpaign.

By then, he was a way down the road towards g out but not as far as he was later that day when four televisn crews turned up to the Yarra Glen football club trag to terview media had searched for years for the first gay AFL footballer. Jason Ball thought bee he was not a gay AFL footballer but merely a gay footballer there would be no tert him.