As an eight-year-old I was called names, bullied and laughed at because of one of the sports I chose to play.
I didn’t wear the same uniform as my teammates, and many players I came up against sniggered at me.
Every time I took to the court I was fearful of being mocked.
It’s because I was a primary school boy, playing netball with girls in Tauranga in the mid-2000s.
So seeing the Aotearoa Men play the Silver Ferns this week in Wellington, up against not only the world champions but a depleted team list due to Covid-19, filled my heart.
Netball in New Zealand is tightly married to the LGBTQI+ community and long has been. A lot of New Zealand’s male netballers are queer.
Maybe my experience as a young player would have been a lot easier if they were on screen back then.
But a recent survey of hundreds of New Zealanders suggests things may not have improved as much as we’d hope.
It found 71 per cent of people believe youth sports teams aren’t welcoming or safe for lesbian, gay or bisexual people.
88 per cent of gay youth said they were hiding their sexuality for fear of being discriminated against by their teammates and others.
I was one of them.
I continued playing netball through to intermediate school, before ditching it at college as I remained in the closet.
My experiences in other sports weren’t much better.
I only recently found the confidence to be myself.
Sport New Zealand says everyone should be encouraged to participate and enjoy sport without prejudice, in a welcoming and inclusive environment, and diversity’s now one of its core policies.
I’ve always loved netball, and it’s fantastic to see the men’s game getting stronger with three successful publicised hit-outs over the past three years.
We saw how the series against the men’s team in 2019 helped the Silver Ferns become world champions.
But it’s not just about that.
I now hope the continued coverage of our male netballers can help to make young boys be fearlessly themselves.
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