A new series celebrating LGBTQIA+ stories in sport is being hosted in Sydney this weekend.
Sport Talk: Raising the Rainbow Flag is bringing together four athletes who have each brought their full selves to their respective fields.
The event, being held at Paddo RSL on Sunday at 1pm, also includes an exclusive meet and greet with the athletes participating in the panel.
The panel includes Ian Roberts, the first Australian to come out publicly while competing in elite sport; Matt Mitcham, the first openly gay male to win an Olympic Gold Medal; Ellia Green, the first trans male athlete to win an Olympic Gold; and Ash Golden, a trailblazing force for equality in women’s sport.
Hosted by comedian Jackie Loeb, the panel will share their stories and how each other’s journeys have helped to shape their own.
Roberts, considered by many to be a godfather of LGBTQIA+ sport, told Gay Sydney Daily that the event was a way to tell others about the obstacles queer people faced in sport.
“It’s really to give an insight on being gay in a professional sporting sense and the obstacles that we face and how we’re forced to deal with them,” he said.
“Unless you’re part of the queer community you wouldn’t understand.”
Ian Roberts was a professional rugby league player when he came out in 1995, and to this day no other professional men’s NRL, AFL or rugby union player has come out.
“Women’s sport seems to be very much embracing of same-sex attraction but that hasn’t followed through to men’s,” he said.
“It’s a really difficult conversation to have with men, there is still that persona that gay men are weaker or are somehow less tough when that’s just not the case.”
This is why conversations like Sunday’s are so important, he said, because visibility and talking about stories was the only way to move forward.
“My three favourite words are education, education, education, we like to think we’ve progressed but in many ways we really haven’t and that’s why we need to speak about this stuff,” he said.
Roberts said sport was such an important part of Australia’s psyche, which is why the conversation needed to keep happening.
“You’ve got to keep poking the bear…all the sporting corporations, all the main bodies, they’re still afraid of it so that’s why you’ve got to keep talking about it,” he said.
Green, who played for Australia’s Rugby 7s team, told GSD that he was excited to share his story.
“We are in a minority as trans men, and what I’ve learnt is being invited into spaces to tell your stories is the biggest breakthrough to me in terms of giving power back to the trans community.”
Since his transition, Green said he’s been invited into spaces he never thought possible and realised the power of stories.
“There’s more power in telling my story than I even really ever realised and even though I put myself in a very vulnerable position every time I do speak I get a lot out of it,” he said.
“My cup is also full when I have people who message me after and speak to me and tell me how they related to it and that’s why I do what I do.”
The panel is also raising money for the upcoming documentary ‘Light – The Ian Roberts Story’, which tells the dark side of his coming out story.
“It’s taken me nearly thirty years to feel comfortable enough to talk about it,” said Roberts.
Tickets are still on sale with a discount code IANST20 for $20 tickets for adults.
