This interview contains discussion of homophobia and queerphobia in sport - if you find any of this distressing, you can receive specialised peer support via QLife on 1800 184 527 or head to switchboard.org.au for more info.

Last week, Mitch Brown became the first former male AFL footballer to come out as gay or bisexual, following Adelaide player Izak Rankine becoming the 6th player in 16 months to be suspended for using a homophobic slur against another player.

Dylan Bird is joined by amateur footballer and LGBT advocate Michael O’Donnell who offers his thoughts on the importance of Brown telling his story, and current efforts to tackle homophobia in sport.

“What’s important is normalising … normalising the capacity for a player to be themselves in all environments. We don’t want to have these big deal ‘coming outs’, but it’s so important to have them now so it can be normalised in the future, and hopefully what Mitch has done will slowly help that become the norm.”

Photo credit: The MCG’s website.