Insight Sport: Cricket star Megan Schutt slams bigots that say she was ‘coerced into being gay’

Australian cricket star Megan Schutt says the nation’s cricketing body needs to do more to promote inclusivity across the sport and stand up for gay rights.

Megan Schutt has revealed her personal fury at being told as a young player that women’s cricket had “coerced” her into being a lesbian, as she called on Cricket Australia to lift its game in promoting inclusivity.

The star fast bowler wants CA to start by permanently adding a pride symbol to the national playing strips of Australia’s men’s and women’s cricket teams, just like the Walkabout Wickets logo that promotes Indigenous culture.

Schutt believes the divisive stances taken by FIFA at last year’s soccer World Cup in Qatar and players at domestic sporting teams the Manly Sea Eagles and Cairns Taipans has only heightened the need for Cricket Australia to use its voice and reach to more visibly stand up for gay rights.

Overall, Schutt is grateful to be part of an Australian women’s dressing room where someone’s sexuality simply does not matter – but she knows that is a bridge wider society, and sadly, men’s sport is yet to cross.

But Schutt has hit out at the highly offensive whispers which still circulate around the edges of women’s cricket and make her blood boil.

“Some assholes can say the things like, ‘you’ve been coerced because your teammates are same sex’ … lots of cricketing boys used to say that when they found out I was gay,” Schutt said.

“Coercion – everyone in cricket is gay, that’s why you’re gay.

“That comes back to thinking that gay is a choice. Which, obviously, it is not. It’s also a way to bring you down and say, ‘you already shouldn’t be here, and you’re gay.’

“It’s the double. And it’s kind of hard to listen to.

Australian international cricketer Megan Schutt poses with her wife Jess and their daughter Rylee

“The coercion one used to piss me off the most, because it is also implying lesbians are predators and that we’re just out there to turn all these straight young girls into lesbians.

That one infuriates me because that goes down to some really deep roots in thinking homosexuals are pedophiles.”

It’s those ignorant or in an many cases, bigoted comments which is why Schutt feels so strongly about the damage done by players from the Manly Sea Eagles and Cairns Tapains when they refuse to wear a pride jersey.

“I’m not going to lie, it makes me angry,” Schutt said.

“It’s not that hard to be inclusive. A lot of it is hidden behind religion, and they can hide behind their little reasons, but it’s pure bigotry really.

“If they could step into our shoes for a little while, and being a gay female – I’m on the easier side of it. The fact we still don’t have any gay male cricketers out – says we’re not quite there in cricket or across a lot of codes to be honest.

“It shows the purpose of why we have it.

“I think back to when I was younger and I knew I was gay from a young age and I hid it all throughout high school because I just didn’t want to deal with it. I was like, ‘get through high school, then be yourself.’

“But there were some gay older people on my state cricket team, and they were just super comfortable in who they were … so you’d go, ‘oh shit, they’re just like me.’

“Just how wholesome that felt for me knowing there are other people who felt the way I did – that is huge – and that’s what those people who are against it can never truly understand. That it is such a welcoming thing. And if it’s going to save a kid’s life, then gee, you’re doing the right thing.”

Schutt wants Cricket Australia to stand up and use its global platform to do more to promote inclusion on the national team shirts – more so for the benefit of male cricketers than the women’s team, where sexuality is not even a talking point in the dressing room.

Australia's Megan Schutt celebrates after the dismissal of New Zealand's Suzie Bate

“I don’t really like half-arsed diversity. It’s great Cricket Australia goes with Pride month. They change their logo for a month on twitter and that’s great. But they’re not probably doing enough outside of that to continue that inclusivity,” Schutt said.

“The Cairns basketball team didn’t want to wear their logo – that’s where CA can jump in and say, ‘well hang on, we’re inclusive and this is what we’re going to do.

“If I did have the chance to talk to Nick Hockley (CA chief executive), I’d love to talk about that.

“It doesn’t have to be an entire (Pride) shirt. But imagine, the Pride flag. Not just the rainbow, but the proper one, the trans-inclusive, everything inclusive flag.

“Put that on the collar or the sleeve and keep it constant.

“We’ve finally got there and put the Walkabout Wickets logo to do with our indigenous background. And how many years has that taken. That’s a constant now on every single jersey, the way it should be.

“Why can’t we do something similar in terms of Pride stuff?”

In the women’s dressing room there is Schutt and her wife Jess and their daughter, Rylee – and on the other side heterosexual married couple Alyssa Healy and Mitchell Starc.

In the England women’s team, stars Nat Sciver and Katherine Brunt are married to each other and now have ‘Sciver-Brunt’ as the name on the back of both of their shirts.

And no one bats an eyelid.

“100 per cent, everything is normal. You just don’t think twice. It’s not even until I have these conversations that I realise not reveryone is lucky to have that environment,” Schutt said.

“You don’t really think about sex. That’s how I believe society should be in general. Sexuality is fluid. Imagine if everyone could be that way. Just to freely talk about whatever, without fear of judgment. It would be a wonderful place.”

Schutt hopes for a similar future for closeted gay male cricketers.

“As I said, gay women have it easier and until men can feel comfortable that’s going to be the true barometer really,” Schutt said.

“The fact there’s no gay cricketers out is sad because statistically there has to be many of them.

“I think those barriers are starting to come down. I would like to think most of the men (Australian players) I met at the Australian Cricket Awards recently don’t care I’m gay and they wouldn’t care if their teammates were gay.”

Read the latest edition