Although the former-NRL star, Kane Evans, isn’t the first male to come out as gay, he is the first Pasifika (Fijian) man to do so in the league’s history.
Evans is the second NRL player to publicly come out, following Ian Roberts in 1995. At the time, Evans would have been just three years old.
So, why is Evans’ coming out different to Roberts and what does it mean for current Māori and Pasifika players and the next generation coming through?
For those athletes currently navigating their sexuality, they may no longer feel alone, according to Lefaoali’i Dr Dion Enari.
“It helps give permission for other Māori and Pasifika to claim their identity and all types of identities when and how they want to claim it.
“[It’s] a very powerful message to our Māori and Pacific athletes as someone that looks like them and someone that whakapapa’s similar to them [or] whakapapa’s with them has come out as gay,” Enari told Te Ao Māori News.
For Takatāpui athlete Luke Orbell, who plays for the Tāmaki Makaurau gay and inclusive rugby team, the Falcons, the news came as an “amazing” shock.
“Seeing someone from a Pasifika heritage is even more special because you get to see people who look like you from similar cultures and who understand what it’s like to be indigenous.
“When I saw [Kane come out], I was connected with him, I knew what he was going through, and I really understood the significance and the intersections of coming out as not only a queer person, but as Indigenous as well, and what that means for you, your culture, and your whānau as well.
“He’s actually opened the doors, I think, for a future of acceptance for queer Pasifika and Maori people,” he said.
Homophobic and masculine culture
The MIT Unitec Ngā Wai a Te Tūī Māori and Indigenous Research Centre’s Associate Professor Dr Enari said Evans’ disclosing his sexuality had exposed a well-known culture in ‘masculine’ sports.
“It highlighted the homophobia that still occurs as he’s also received a lot of negative homophobic comments.
“So, this really does show that this is not only a newsworthy topic, but that homophobia is still alive and well, and we need to address it and tackle it head-on in the sports space.”
He is calling for sporting organisations to invite queer indigenous leaders to the table, like Lousia Wall and Seuta‘afili Associate Professor Dr Patrick Thomsen.
“So, their systems and their initiatives are more inducive to a culture that’s more inclusive to rainbow communities.”
For Orbell, who has only recently returned to sports after dropping them in High School due to becoming self-conscious of his queer-identity due to the “masculine or locker room culture” in sports, said people can’t deny there is homophobia in “masculine sports”.
“I hope what [Evans’ coming out] does is that it shines a light that there are so many players hiding themselves because of this [masculine] culture, and if we want to see acceptance and more people feeling comfortable to be themselves that we need to deconstruct our ideas of what it means to be masculine and what it means to play sports and kind of make ways and create the pathways for people to be themselves,” Orbell said.
He pointed out that many players in women’s professional rugby are authentically themselves, like Ruby Tui, Portia Woodman-Wickliffe and Renee Woodman-Wickliffe.
The future of LGBTQIA+ players in mainstream sports
While Māori and Pasifika players make up 51% of professional NRL players, there are currently no openly LGBTQIA+ male players.
The Falcons player hopes more queer players come out, while also maintaining their sporting careers.
“I hope that they can see Kane as an example and go, ‘I can be authentically myself from now and not have to hide it for 20 years to get to that professional level’, because a lot of the time we hide ourselves to be able to reach those top levels ... we shouldn’t have to sacrifice our identities to reach success.
“We can be successful as queer people without this being a detriment to our careers.
“In 10-20 years, we can say here we are, we’re proud, we’re walking this thing, we are decolonising ourselves, our minds and our country and see the success that can happen because queer people are successful and they’re beautiful,” Orbell told Te Ao Māori News.
While Dr Enari believes this is just the beginning.
“The fact that the first [gay Pasifika former-NRL star] happened this year, like this week - When you know there’s a lot more than just him - is a clear indication that we have a long way to go.”
