After publicly coming out as bisexual, Irish Professional rugby player Jack Dunne has opened up about his coming out experience, citing homophobic and biphobic language at school as one of the main reasons he stayed in the closet.
22-year-old Dunne, who says he had been open about his sexuality in his personal life for years, explained to the BBC that homophobia and biphobia made it difficult for him to come out, adding that as he was by other teenage boys every day who often made hurtful comments about sexuality, resulted in him feeling trapped and feeling that he should keep it to himself.
“When you’re bisexual it’s almost a blessing and a curse because you can hide it way easier – you can still go out with the lads on Saturday night and do all that stuff, but then at the same time it’s easier to hide it and it’s easier to not be true to yourself,” Dunne explained.
“So eventually, I think it was in sixth year, and I told one or two people and they took it really well, so I was like, you know what, I’ll just tell everyone and if someone has a problem with it, that’s on them.”
Currently playing for the team Leinster, Dunne does say that his coming out experience “went pretty well,” and most people’s reactions were “overwhelmingly positive” however, interrogations on whether he was ‘actually gay’ was common.
Dunne who says he’s not afraid to call out people, including friends for homophobia and biphobia adds that he has since lost touch with a friend who was adamant that he was actually gay and not bisexual.
“Yeah, it’s weird cause you’re like, how do you have any opinions on this?” Jack Dunne explained.
“You have no idea, why are you saying this? When I came out, I didn’t know that this was going to possibly be a problem that I would face because you never think, ‘Oh maybe bisexual people don’t exist,’ when you are because it’s not something that’s on your radar, it’s never something that crossed my mind.”
Dunne adds that as he was out in his personal life, word gradually spread about his sexuality, and as a consequence, his teammates were already aware that he was openly bisexual, and says he hasn’t faced any biphobic comments from teammates and nothing has ever been said to him on the pitch about his sexuality.
