Leigh Ryswyk makes history as the first AFL player to come out as gay
Leigh Ryswyk (JOY Media)
Leigh Ryswyk has made history as the first male Australian Football League (AFL) player to come out as gay.
Speaking on radio show GayFL on 25 March, Ryswyk shared that he has been out to close friends for the last five years.
“There will be people though, if they do listen to this, it will be the first time they know about this,” he said. “I’m a very private person, so it’s not all over my social media, and things like that, and that’s fine.”
He continued: “It can be a bit of a shock to some people, they might not know what, but that’s life right? In the end, the people who are nearest and closest to me know, and that’s what’s most important.”
Ryswyk also shared that both of his parents had been very supportive of his sexuality which he shared the news with them.
“When you come out to your family it’s always a massive experience, there’s a lot of things going on in your head,” he said. “It took me a little while where I was comfortable enough to do this, probably a three-year period to be honest, so there was a lot of the mental side of things going through at the same time.”
Ryswyk is retired, having played for the Brisbane Lions from 2005 before suffering a quad injury and being delisted from their senior side. He then went on to play 226 games in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) before receiving a rib injury and fully retiring in 2018. He has since been inducted into the AFL Queensland Football Hall of Fame.
Ryswyk followed in the footsteps of Mitch Brown, who came out as bisexual last year after he retired from the AFL.
There is yet to be an active AFL player to come out as LGBTQ+, but Ryswyk believes whoever does will receive massive support. “I think the AFL, and the community, will wrap their arms around that player,” he said. “I think the community itself, obviously the queer community, the fan base, I think in the whole they will celebrate that when the time comes.”
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