Leigh Ryswyk Makes AFL History As The First Gay Male Player To Come Out
Former Brisbane Lions player Leigh Ryswyk has made history, becoming the first male Australian Football League (AFL) player, past or present, to come out as gay publicly. Mitch Brown came out last year, but as bisexual.
Ryswyk, now 41, shared the news on 25 March on GayFL, a show broadcast on JOY 94.9, the LGBTQIA+ community radio station. It wasn’t a grand announcement. He had already been out to close friends for five years.
“To people who know me, my closest friends, this is not new,” 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. It can be a bit of a shock to some people, they might not know, 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.”
Who is Leigh Ryswyk?
Ryswyk was selected in the rookie draft and joined the Brisbane Lions for the 2005 season, where he played one match, recording four disposals. A quad injury curtailed his opportunity at the top level, and he was delisted at season’s end.
That wasn’t the end, though. He moved to South Australia and played 226 games for North Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), including a reserves premiership in 2018. He has since been inducted into the AFL Queensland Football Hall Of Fame.
“Why not?”
When asked on air why he was speaking up now, Ryswyk’s answer was simple: “Why not?”
The decision took time, though. He described a roughly three-year mental process before feeling ready to go public. His parents’ reaction was emotional, and entirely supportive. “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.
Mitch Brown responds
Ryswyk follows former West Coast Eagles defender and DNA #311 cover model Mitch Brown, who came out as bisexual in 2025, making Brown the first male AFL-connected player to identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community publicly. Brown congratulated Ryswyk on Instagram, calling him an “absolute legend.”
Brown wrote that “speaking their truth” like Ryswyk helps shift perceptions of who a footballer is supposed to be. “It makes the game more honest, more human, and more reflective of the communities who love it. There will be young players and kids hearing Leigh’s story who feel a little less alone because of it. That matters more than anything.”
What this means for the AFL
No active AFL player has yet come out publicly as LGBTQIA+. Ryswyk is optimistic about when that day comes. “I think the AFL, and the community, will wrap their arms around that player,” he told JoyFM.
