TL;DR

• Former West Coast Eagles defender Mitch Brown comes out as bisexual.
• He’s the first AFL player—past or present—to publicly identify as gay or bi.
• Brown hid his sexuality due to AFL’s “hyper-masculine” culture.
• He hopes his story inspires young players to feel seen and safe.
• The announcement comes amid a string of homophobic incidents in the league.

Mitch Brown Changes the Game

Mitch Brown didn’t just play 94 matches for the West Coast Eagles—he’s now rewriting the playbook for an entire sport. At 36, the retired defender has become the first Australian Football League player, past or present, to come out as bisexual. And in a league that prides itself on toughness and tradition, his announcement is nothing short of groundbreaking.

Brown admitted he kept his truth hidden during his playing career because of the AFL’s “hyper-masculine” locker-room culture. “I remember two people having a conversation around how they would feel having a shower next to a gay man, and one of the players said, ‘I’d rather be in a cage full of lions,’” he recalled. For years, those words silenced him.

Breaking the Silence

Coming out now, Brown said he hopes to give younger athletes the courage to embrace who they are. “The reactions that I hope for are the ones I won’t hear,” he said. “They’re the ones of those young men around Australia going, ‘I feel seen, I feel a little bit safer, and I have a role model—albeit just ordinary old Mitch—a role model I can now look to.’”

This personal declaration isn’t happening in a vacuum. It comes just days after Adelaide Crows forward Izak Rankine was slapped with a suspension for hurling a homophobic slur during a match. For a sport that likes to pat itself on the back for rainbow jerseys and Pride Round, the silence in the men’s locker rooms has been deafening—until now.

A Culture Under Scrutiny

The AFL has spent years branding itself as a champion of diversity, partnering with LGBTQ organizations and promoting inclusion campaigns. But Brown’s story reveals the gulf between PR and reality. For more than a century, no male player has dared to publicly identify as gay or bisexual. That’s not a coincidence—it’s a culture.

Brown’s courage forces the AFL to reckon with whether its clubs truly offer safe spaces for queer athletes, or whether the rainbow tape is just surface gloss over deep-seated homophobia.

Why This Matters for the LGBTQ Community

Brown’s coming out isn’t just a personal milestone—it’s a cultural earthquake. For the LGBTQ community, visibility in hyper-masculine arenas like professional football chips away at the old stereotypes that queerness and toughness can’t coexist. It signals to young fans and athletes—queer or questioning—that their identities don’t make them outsiders on the field.

The real test now lies with the AFL. Will it step up to ensure locker rooms are safer, or will it leave the heavy lifting to brave individuals like Mitch Brown? Either way, Brown’s name is now in the history books—not just for his defense on the field, but for defending the right to live openly and proudly off it.