Cricketer James Faulkner’s ‘boyfriend’ post slammed as ‘puerile locker room behaviour’

A former Aussie Rules player who came out as gay in 2012 has slammed James Faulkner’s “puerile locker room” joke.

James Faulkner admitted his Instagram post about his ‘boyfriend’ Rob Jubb had been ‘misinterpreted’. Picture: Richard Jupe

A former Aussie Rules player who was the second in his code to publicly come out as gay has slammed James Faulkner’s “boyfriend” post as “puerile locker room behaviour” that made it harder for closeted young people.

Jason Ball, who is now Greens candidate for Higgins, came out in 2012 and described the Aussie cricketer’s post as “making a mockery” out of the intense struggle that gay people went through in revealing their sexuality.

Faulkner faced a fierce backlash today after clarifying an Instagram picture posted last night of a birthday dinner with his mother Roslyn and a man called Rob Jubb who he described as “the boyfriend” accompanied with the hastag #togetherfor5years.

James Faulkner. Picture: Richard Jupe

The all-rounder was initially showered with support when it appeared he was coming out until in a statement released this morning, Faulkner admitted the doting post was a “joke that has been taken out of context”.

But many people did not see the humour.

“James Faulkner making a joke about being in a same-sex relationship may seem like a bit of fun to him and his teammates but the reality is that for thousands of young people struggling to come to terms with their sexuality, coming out is one of the hardest things they’ll ever do and this makes a mockery of that struggle,” Mr Ball told news.com.au.

“It’s no wonder that we have so few out and proud men in the macho world of sport when being gay is still seen as something to be ridiculed.

“This type of puerile locker room behaviour is disappointing and just makes it harder for closeted players to have the courage to be themselves when their sexuality is turned into a punchline.”

Greens candidate Jason Ball has described Faulkner’s tweet as ‘puerile locker room behaviour’ that could make it harder for young gay people to feel comfortable ‘coming out’. Picture: David Geraghty/The Australian.

Erik Denison, lead researcher of Monash University’s sport inclusion program, went even further and said the joke made by Faulkner was “dangerous”.

“The reaction to Faulkner’s comments speak to this desperation of young gay people for a role model in elite sport. There really are no gay role models for young people in elite sport,” Mr Denison said.

“For him to make this joke it’s very dangerous, we’re not talking about it in a ‘haha’ way. Gay people aren’t slapsticks and are not the object of stupid banter — which they often are.

“Gay people are often the target of humour and while I’m confident he isn’t a homophobe, the harm of this joke and the harm of gay people being a joke in sport is very real.

“Gay people who are the target of homophobic language are twice as likely to self-harm and gay people overall are four times as likely to attempt suicide.

“He’s not meaning to be homophobic; he’s meaning to get a laugh out of everyone. But there are very real victims of these jokes. Using gay people for humour is pretty standard fare.”

In his statement today, Faulkner wrote: “There seems to be a misunderstanding about my post from last night, I am not gay, however it has been fantastic to see the support from and for the LBGT (sic) community,” he wrote.

“Let’s never forget love is love...Good on everyone for being so supportive.”

The original post garnered more than 20,000 likes and 1000 comments in less than 12 hours.

Faulkner added the “best mate!!!” bracket to his Instagram post after people began to assume Mr Jubb was, as his post suggested, his boyfriend.

A tweet, which also shared Faulkner’s Instagram post, is unable to be edited.

James Faulkner's original caption. Picture: Twitter

Faulkner’s teammates and fellow cricketers flocked to the post to “congratulate” him on going public.

“Happy birthday mate! Great courage,” cricketer Glenn Maxwell wrote.

Ex-Australian fast bowler Brett Lee added: “Good on ya mate. Have a lovely birthday Jimmy.”

Former Test quick Shaun Tait also said: “Great courage mate, bet u feel better. Happy birthday.”

If Faulkner’s birthday post was him going public with his boyfriend, it would’ve made him the first professional male cricketer to come out publicly.

The supportive posts from Faulkner’s teammates only added to the confusion — and it was that confusion that left a bad taste in people’s mouths.

Seems this was a false start. A joke in very poor taste if that was what he was going for. I look forward to his response/apology. https://t.co/9AMhbsUa9C

— Casey Conway (@caseyconway_) April 29, 2019

also, i think a lot of people may mistake people's reactions to this story as offended when most of us are prob just disappointed. out queer men are still so rare in sport, why WOULDN'T we rush to champion the very few who would come out?

— mat whitehead (@matwhi) April 29, 2019

For those confused why the story ballooned so quickly, why so many saw this as a groundbreaking moment and were so eager to report: there are still few, if any, publicly open LGBT+ men in professional men's sport.

— Matt Johnson (@matte_johnson) April 30, 2019

But despite the backlash, other athletes weren’t phased by Faulkner’s post.

Former NRL star Ian Roberts, who came out as gay in 1995, told news.com.au the post seemed like a “real nothing event”.

“It’s just a guy who’s made a bit of a joke. I call my straight friends ‘boyfriend’. It seems pretty harmless,” Roberts said.

“There are going to be those people who find it in a bit of bad taste but there’s a lot of people who need to be offended sometimes.

“The teammates were supportive of it and that only reads good for sport. It’s just my opinion but it seems like a real non-event.”

Ian Roberts described the post as a ‘non-event’. Picture: Sam Ruttyn