As part of the Our Pride by Mr Gay Pride Australia, today we continue the Out Athlete Series where Dion will interview athletes who have come out of the closet and are still competing in their sport.
This week Dion chats with Australia’s only openly gay male hockey player at a national level, David Atkins.
Davis is in the Australian men’s hockey team squad and is the only international player to be openly out on any of the national teams.
Hear Davis’ experiences and how he has fostered some great work within hockey in Australia.
Welcome back to Our Pride by Mr Gay Pride, Australia.
In this episode, Dion caught up with the Secretary of FabAlice Thomas Coelli-Donaghy in Hay NSW.
Now, if you’re sitting there thinking, I’ve got no idea what the FabAlice Festival is you are not alone, Dion was invited to the launch party in Sydney earlier in the month and it looked great, but he still really had no idea what the festival was about.
Dion can’t wait for you to listen to Tom as he explains what this absolutely fabulous FabAlice Festival is all about.
For more information about FabAlice visit the website here and go and follow their Instagram here and Facebook here.
As part of the Our Pride Podcast series by Mr Gay Pride Australia, Dion Alexander is starting a new series interviewing Out Athletes.
This series will interview athletes who have come out of the closet and are still competing in their sport. Dion will find out a little bit more about them, about how their journey was and what their experiences were like both as an athlete that was in the closet and then an athlete who has come out of the closet and also the coming out experience.
This week in the first in the series Dion chats with openly gay Australian Ten Pin Bowling star Jamie Carroll. Jamie Carroll was an openly out ten-pin bowler and was the person behind the Pride Monarchs team, the first pride team in the national ten-pin bowling competition.
Welcome back to Our Pride by Mr Gay Pride, Australia.
In this episode, I caught up with the president of Hay Mardi Gras, who put on the amazing regional festival Rainbow on the Plains, Will Miller.
Last year, the Mr Gay Pride Australia final was at the Rainbow On the Planes Festival and as the winner at Hay, I’ve gotta say I’ve got a very, very strong connection with people of Hay and the Rainbow on the Plains Festival. It was great to catch up with, Will to find out what’s happening this year and get a little more insight into the festival fam.
For more information about Rainbow on the Plains visit the website here and go and follow their Instagram here.
Firstly, let me introduce myself. My name is Dion Alexander and I am the current Mr Gay Pride Australia. I have been an advocate in the LGBTQIA+ space for over five years being heavily involved with the Rainbow Swans who are the official LGBTQIA+ supporter group of the Sydney Swans.
I aim to end homophobia in sport and have been working heavily with the AFL pride collective to campaign the AFL for a pride round in the men’s division. Recently, I represented Australia at the Mr Gay World contest in South Africa. And after the contest, I had the absolute privilege to sit down with the two gentlemen that outpaced me for the crown. That’s right. Your boy right here came in as second runner-up. So that’s third, making it only the second time Australia has made the top three. Special mention here to the very popular Jordan Bruno, who not only made the top three but took out the title for Australia in 2018.
Now, if you’re wondering what the My Gay World Contest is, you are not alone, but it is about explicitly seeking to highlight discrimination against LGBTI people and to select positive role models. There are several challenges contestants go through and the challenge that is weighted the most is the social responsibility campaign. Now you’ll hear more about these campaigns as I caught up with the freshly crowned Mr Gay World 2023 Troy Michael Smith and the Mr Gay World 2023 runner-up David Ord. It was so great to sit down with both boys.
After what was a long week, you can hear the passion they have for their causes and their projects and the work that they plan to continue to do post Mr Gay World.