Australian soccer player Josh Cavallo officially came out as gay through social media posts and videos on October 27th.
On October 27th, Australian football player Cavallo made an important announcement regarding his sexuality on social media. From a video captioned "my truth," he appeared incredibly emotional while saying that after a long journey, he's finally able to share he's gay:
"I'm a footballer and I'm gay. Growing up, I always felt the need to hide myself because I was ashamed. Ashamed I would never be able to do what I loved and be gay."
And Cavallo's request is simple: to continue to do what he loves most and be treated equally.
"All I want to do is to play football and be treated equally."
Josh Cavallo has had various successes playing for Adelaide United, who's currently in the top Australian soccer league, A-League Men. His coming out officially marks him as the only openly gay male top-level professional soccer player in the entire world.
We applaud the courage shown by @AndyBrennan36 and now @JoshuaCavallo.\n\nThe football community supports you all the way pic.twitter.com/PDfguKL46z— Football Australia (@Football Australia) 1635319811
But other male athletes have come out as well.
Most recently, Las Vegas Raiders' player Carl Nassib and Nashville Predators' player Luke Prokop also announced they're gay at the beginning of last Summer. Nassib and Prokop became respectively the first openly gay NFL player and the first openly gay NHL player.
Cavallo continued saying that his family and friends have been incredibly supportive... But they're not the only ones -- CEO of Football Australia applauded Cavallo in a tweet that reads:
"We applaud the courage shown by @AndyBrennan36 and now @JoshuaCavallo. The football community supports you all the way."
And now that huge weight has been lifted for Cavallo, the soccer player hopes that his coming out will inspire others to be themselves, especially in the sports' world.
"I hope that in sharing who I am, I can show others who identify as LGBTQ+ that they are welcome in the football community. As the game of football keeps expanding, I want to help evolve the game even further, and let other players in my situation feel that they're not alone."
The journey to love ourselves is extremely long, but if we fully embrace who we are, we might encourage others to do the same.
