The Last Closet

We need to address the negative impacts of the culture in Aussie Rules football and mens teams sports in general in Australia & the world. This means exploring the depths of toxic masculinity in the culture and the real life example of fan reactions to when sport and human issues intertwine. Is it political? Or just simply “right vs wrong”?

We need to present the experience of sexually diverse men in sport, the damaging experiences they have had and how they want to see change occur. We need to break down the stigma around queer men and explain that change can only happen when the victims of a toxic culture are heard and respected. We want to shine a light on sexually diverse women who participate in AFLW & have their accounts added to the conversation, in order to make a more diverse and rounded case against gender stereotypes. Finally, we need to conclude with a clear path forward on what needs to be done to create a safer & inclusive environment for all Australians in this sport.

We want people who do not see this issue as an important one to realise that all Australians deserve to love footy, feel safe at the footy and participate in footy no matter who you are.

Visibility for queer men in sport matters, as no person should feel that their sexual identify should hold them back from doing what they love. We want people to hear stories and experiences that cause them to reflect on the culture that exists, but doesn’t treat all of us with respect.

We want the community of football fans to recognise the culture that exists today is unfair for queer men and we want the AFL as an organisation to understand with clarity – from real life experiences and true damaging issues – that the need for diversity, equality and inclusion is needed for LGBTQI+ people in footy and for fans of the AFL and it is non-negotiable.

Ultimately we want to create the groundswell for a movement that drives a cultural change for players (current or future) who are LGBTQI+ people.

This community does not deserve to have their lives or mental health deeply impacted by a culture that doesn’t allow them to be exactly who they are – so they do not feel they cannot do what they love, simply because of who they love.

Reese has been deeply engaged in the advocacy of queer inclusion in the AFL for years, having spent more than three years volunteering on the committee of the Essendon Football Club’s pride group the Purple Bombers. He has been directly impacted by the issue as a queer man and life long member of Essendon and life long fan of footy. His story includes the experiences of homophobia in sport environments, corporate push backs on queer inclusivity and personal trauma as a result of public debate on the subject of mixing sports with politics – a subject he believes should be embraced and not refuted.

Reese is also privileged to have guidance by academic researchers on LGBTQI+ rights issues in sport with the organisation Proud2Play.

‘Fancy Films’ are on board to produce The Last Closet. I have worked with the team previously when filming digital content and I am confident they have the expertise to bring my vision to life and respect my vision to achieve the final result.

We want people who may be LGBTQI+ but also love sports to know that they deserve to and we want to create an environment where they don’t have to worry that being exactly who they are will ever be a seen as a problem.