Former Australian Rugby Prop Dan Palmer Comes Out
Former Australian rugby prop Dan Palmer has become the first Wallabies player to come out as gay.
Palmer came out in a newspaper column last week, speaking about the mental health issues and drug problems he faced while coming to terms with his sexuality.
The 32-year-old wrote of the anguish of “living the dream” as an elite athlete while being trapped in a “false narrative”.
“I was incredibly frustrated, angry and desperately sad. I despised myself and the life I was living,” wrote Palmer, a former vice-captain of Super Rugby side ACT Brumbies.
“Most nights, I cried myself to sleep and routinely numbed myself with a heavy cocktail of opioids.
“I fantasised about disappearing, changing my name and starting my life all over again. It is not an exaggeration to say my own death felt preferable to anybody discovering I was gay.”
A recent study backed by Harlequins has revealed that almost half of male rugby players admitted to recently using homophobic slurs while over two-thirds had heard team-mates use similar language.
As ‘Sky Sports’ reports, the study analysed data collected from randomly selected rugby clubs in the south of England in January and February of 2020.
It found that the majority of male rugby players (69 per cent) had heard their team-mates using slurs such as 'fag' or 'dyke' in the last two weeks, while 42 per cent of players admitted to using this language themselves in the same time period.
The study also found this language does not appear to be motivated by 'homophobia' or any malice or prejudice toward gay people, with many of the rugby players who used the slurs also expressing positive attitudes toward gay people, and most (67 per cent) male rugby players reported they have 'close' gay friends.
“It is surprising to see a near-total disconnect between the homophobic language being used by rugby players, and their attitudes to gay people,” Erik Denison said, one of the researchers leading international studies on this issue. He is with the Faculty of Education at Australia's Monash University.
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