Champion Victorian hockey goalkeeper Gus Johnston has publicly come out via a brave and emotional YouTube video, just months after his retirement.

Titled The reality of homophobia in sport, the video has prompted a surge of new media interest about exactly what the landscape is for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex people is in Australia.

Johnston’s filmed relevation comes just months after the elite player’s official retirement from hockey. In it, he says that retiring from the sport freed him from the pressures of being a professional athlete and helped him realize the bigger picture – that hockey players aren’t just athletes, they are people.

“That perspective has motivated me to share my story, because I see such great value in how it might potentially help people,” he explains.

“It’s really important for me to send a message to everyone else, to let them know that what they perceive to be or think of as harmless or inoquious, really hurts… and it contributed an incredible amount of pain and hardship to my life.”

When you’re 25 and you’re afraid, and you’re lonely and you don’t have anyone else to talk to, he adds. “And you feel like there’s no escape from that… for a long time, there would barely be a week that would go by where I wouldn’t contemplate taking my own life.”

Johnston goes on to explain that he feels society’s expectation that young people can easily navigate and overcome the wall of discrimination during a key moment in their lives where they are discovering their identity, is unrealistic, when at the age of 30 he feels he’s only coming to terms with it now.

Check out his powerful video message in full here.

Johnston says that it’s not surprising to find a high level of discrimination and homophobia ingrained in society when governments actively discriminate against gay and lesbian people in law, and its leaders are reinforcing that message.

The hockey star now joins a very small elite number of publically out Australian athletes that include Matthew Mitcham, Daniel Kowalski (retired) and Ian Roberts (retired).

Congrats from Hockey Victoria

Hockey Victoria has weighed in on Johnston’s video, congratulating him on his selfless act of courage and highlighting the work of the Fair Go, Sport project, set up to better understand and respond to the challenges faced by GLBTI people who play mainstream sport, and those faced by sporting clubs and organisations.

Funded by the Australian government, and with an initial focus on hockey during 2011, Hockey Victoria, the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, the Australian Sports Commission and Hockey Australia has teamed up to develop a flexible model for inclusion that can be adapted to other sporting codes and their governing bodies. The project will be evaluated later this year, but has come to the fore since Johnston’s video.

“I would strongly encourage all affiliates to view the video, examine the issues that Gus discusses and consider ways in which you and your club members can make Hockey environments in Victoria more inclusive and welcoming for all participants,” says the CEO of Hockey Victoria Ben Hartung.

“Unfortunately, research shows that sporting environments are a key site for homophobic harassment, discrimination and exclusion for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex (GLBTI) sports people. Hockey Victoria and all Hockey clubs have a responsibility to make the sport more inclusive and welcoming… Gus’s selfless act of leadership and courage is an inspiring example to us all.”

The Come Out To Play study

Caroline Symons is one of the key researchers behind a groundbreaking Victorian study released last year, called Come Out To Play. The study, the first comprehensive survey of the LGBT sport experience in Australia, found that 80% of queer Victorians involved in sport were not out or only out to some.

Studies have shown that not only were GLBTI people in sport more discriminated against and targeted byhomophobic language, but that gay athletes often actively hid their identity and even played straight out of fear of financial and personal loss, public humiliation and of missing out on playing the game they love.

Symons names the AFL as being “the only professional male sporting code in the Western world in which not a single current or past player has come out.”

The media storm is brewing… again

Gus Johnston’s message has already made an massive impact. On the weekend, the Sydney Morning Herald did a massive feature on his coming out, attempting to highlight the realities of homophobia in sport and Australia.

Later this week, the ABC’s 7:30 Report will also do an episode dedicated to the issue and feature Johnston’s story. The ABC was filming at the Justin Faushnau Soccor Cup in Melbourne on Saturday, where gay teams the Melbourne Rovers took on the Sydney Rangers.

“There’s something bad going on when people feel they can’t come out or be themselves,” Lisa Whitehead, the segment producer for the the 7:30 Report, tells Same Same.

“Gus’s video really highlights that, and we are interested in uncovering what is really going on in sport and in Australia. Because it’s a shame… a real shame. I hope we can shed a bit of light on the situation in the show.”