Former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou has denied claims the league is unsafe for gay players, following Mitch Brown’s landmark coming out and multiple instances of on-field homophobic slurs.
ICYMI, Brown — a former West Coast Eagles player — made history last month when he became the first current or former AFL player to come out as bisexual.
At the time, Brown described the culture of the AFL as “hyper-masculine”, and claimed his decision to retire in 2016 was partly due to hiding his sexuality.
Brown’s admission came after Adelaide Crows star Izak Rankine became the sixth player in two years to receive a suspension for using a homophobic slur.
But Demetriou — who served as the AFL’s CEO from 2003 to 2014 — has now insisted the sport is welcoming of gay players in a recent interview with ABC Sport.
“I think that any player who feels it’s necessary and important to reveal their sexuality will be embraced,” Demetriou said.
The former AFL boss paid particular credit to the AFLW — which is home to many openly gay couples — for the accepting culture, saying it’s a league where “everything is accepted, no one comments and there’s no backlash”.
Demetriou went on to say that while the rejection of gay AFL players may come from some “sectors of the community”, the league itself is not “unsafe” for players from minority groups.
“I think they will be embraced, welcomed, and I don’t think there is an unsafe space in the AFL industry,” Demetriou said. “The AFL is a very welcoming place across all areas.”
He later congratulated Brown and said he hoped the Eagles star felt the warmth of the public’s mostly supportive response.
“I hope he felt the warmth and the comments in the social media where he was embraced,” Demetriou said. “Of course, you had a minority of people who were small-minded, but in the main, Mitch Brown was thanked.”
In the wake of his announcement, Brown took to social media to call out some of the AFL clubs which had not sent public messages of support, later saying that while he received a “small amount of hate” for that move, the response to his coming out has been “overwhelmingly” positive.
“As soon as I called out those clubs … that’s when I started to get the hate,” Brown said earlier this month.
It all comes as the AFL continues to face scrutiny for its decision to enlist Snoop Dogg as this Saturday’s grand final headline performer, given his past and recent homophobic comments.
Lead images: Getty Images and Triple J/Instagram
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