ABC Four Corners To Investigate AFL Culture And The ‘Last Taboo’ – Out Gay Male Players

A decade after AFL signed a pledge to tackle homophobia, it remains the only sport where an elite male player is yet to come out as gay. 

The ABC Four Corners episode on August 21, will look at anti-gay bigotry and the so-called “last taboo” in AFL – out gay male players. 

“I’ve been so moved by the bravery, decency, and honesty of so many people in our next Four Corners story, The Silence, on why no elite AFL male player has ever publicly identified as gay. It’s a difficult conversation many in Footy now acknowledge must be had,” reporter Louise Milligan posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

A Safer Place For Gay Players

I've been so moved by the bravery, decency, honesty of so many people in our next 4 Corners story, The Silence, on why no elite #AFL male player has ever publicly identified as gay. It's a difficult conversation many in #footy now acknowledge must be had. Watch Monday, @abctv. pic.twitter.com/YHZ0z2SOqA

— Louise Milligan (@Milliganreports) August 17, 2023

Milligan spoke to former players, advocates and supporters “who all say the code’s lack of leadership on the issue is baffling.”

“Current and former players speak openly with Four Corners about the anti-gay bigotry that they say lingers in the AFL. They call for change and say the league needs to be a safer place for gay players,” ABC Four Corners said. 

In April, AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said that there were gay players in the AFL, but they were apprehensive about coming out as they wanted to avoid the “pressure of being the first” to do so.

McLachlan revealed that there were gay AFL players who were out to their teammates. 

“I am very comfortable there are gay male players and I am very comfortable… they are known to their teammates,” McLachlan said at a Leadership Matters lunch in Perth in April.

“What they are choosing is to not be the first person. “The female cohort (AFLW players) came out at once, they had safety in numbers. There was no first… So the pressure and the weight on that person being the first AFL player who comes out and plays as an out gay man.”

“That weight, frankly I can understand why they would choose not to have to carry that burden around forever,” McLachlan added.

Catch Four Corners episode The Silence on August 21, 2023, at 8.30 pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.