Mark Robinson: Danielle Laidley deserves all of our acceptance and admiration after overcoming a harrowing life

Danielle Laidley will become a hero to many and deserves acceptance and admiration from us all, writes Mark Robinson.

Why are people scared of people being different?

If not scared, then wary. It must be leaving our comfort zones, like taking a walk through the bush at night.

That visceral feeling in the pit of your stomach.

We all like solace and calmness of what we know — and who we know.

Danielle Laidley finds that warmth and calmness being Danielle and not being Dean, the person we thought we knew through football, as a player at West Coast and North Melbourne and then coach of the Kangaroos.

It’s enlightening because Danielle the person, the actual heart and soul of the person, has not changed from Dean the person.

Danielle Laidley should be hailed for her incredible survival

We spoke for an hour on the telephone this week, with Danielle in Perth.

Danielle is different. Of course, she is. She’s a transgender woman — the first I’d spoken to — and she’s a full-on super chic woman blazing a trail for all transgender people.

There was a touch of anxiety at the end. Glenn Archer and David King had spoken occasionally about their former teammate, mainly to extol the incredible bravery of Danielle sharing her story.

Book cover - Don't Look Away.

I knew Dean Laidley, but apparently not that well.

The first question was to ask what should I call her: Danielle? Dani? Laids?

From that moment, the smidge of anxiety disappeared.

Danielle spoke with the same voice, the same elongated sentences and with the same pauses between words that I’ve always known about her.

She always was a considered person.

She sniggered the same. She still had that authoritative manner that most AFL coaches love to portray. And she was polite, funny, forthright and, at times, diabolically transparent.

The major difference was the topics of conversation.

ON ICE FOR 8 DAYS: INSIDE LAIDLEY’S TRAGIC SELF-DESTRUCTION

Danielle Laidley at the Kangaroos clash with Sydney Swans

Where once it was about how best to use Boomer Harvey, and how to beat Geelong, or stop Chris Judd, today Danielle talks about parts of her harrowing life story.

Very quickly, one person was doing the talking, the other was doing the listening.

The point is it was simply two people telling stories. Not a bloke and a transgender woman. Just two human beings, one talking about her fears and escapades and triumphs, and the other with a curious ear.

There’s nothing to be wary of Danielle Laidley. In fact, she will be a hero to many and she deserves all of our acceptance and admiration.

DON’T MISS: Exclusive extracts form Danielle Laidley’s memoir ‘Don’t Look Away’ in this weekend’s Sunday Herald Sun