Australian footballer Darcy Vescio becomes second AFLW player to come out as non-binary

Australian footballer Darcy Vescio has come out as non-binary, making them the second AFWL player to do so.

In a simple message posted to followers on Twitter (December 29), the superstar Australian footballer wrote:

“Just popping in to let you know that I am non-binary.

Sharing this feels a bit daunting but brings me a lot of warmth and happiness.

I am most comfortable with they/them pronouns and will always respond to Darcy unless in trouble.

Thank you for reading.”

The message came complete with both a rainbow and a party emoji.

Vescio was signed as a marquee player by Carlton back in July 2016, ahead of the league’s inaugural 2017 season. They have since gone on to selection in the league’s All-Australian team in 2017 and 2021 and was Carlton’s Best and Fairest in 2021, scoring 44 goals in 39 games. 

The announcement makes Vescio the second AFLW player to reveal they are non-binary, after Gold Coast player Tori Groves-Little came out in an Instagram post back in October. In their post they simply wrote: “Normalise checking gender pronouns, mine is they/them! #nonbinary #doyourresearch”.

2021 seems to have been a more positively progressive year for LGBT+ representation in Australian football, after Josh Cavallo sensationally came out in an emotional video back in October, making him the world’s only current openly gay male top-flight professional footballer. He later revealed that talking to another gay pro footballer helped him on his coming out journey, and then fabulously shut down trans-exclusionary group the LGB Foundation in a public tweet. 

Let’s hope all this is a positive sign of things to come for LGBT+ representation in sports in 2022.

Congratulations, Darcy!