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Speaker 1: It's a special Will and Woody podcast Mini Woods last night.

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Speaker 1: One of the most impressive brave videos I've certainly seen

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Speaker 1: in a really long time. This is really like just

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Speaker 1: a seminal moment for sport for all sorts of reasons,

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Speaker 1: and not just sport, for anybody who is gay or

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Speaker 1: who you know as a hidden sexuality. The fact that

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Speaker 1: they need to come out sucks, to be honest. I mean,

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Speaker 1: we wish it wasn't that way, but the truth is

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Speaker 1: they're in the minority, and years of persecution and ostracizing

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Speaker 1: these people who's made them feel as if they need to,

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Speaker 1: you know, expose themselves effectively, which is something you and

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Speaker 1: I can't empathize with. We're both straight guys and so

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Speaker 1: to see this and we are so supportive of this.

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Speaker 1: Josh Cavallo, the first male professional Australian footballer to come

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Speaker 1: out during their playing days, was just extraordinary. If you

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Speaker 1: haven't seen it, have you listened to the audio?

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Speaker 2: It's awesome.

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Speaker 3: Hi everyone, as Josh Cavalli here. I'm at my home

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Speaker 3: here in Adelaide. There's something personal that I need to

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Speaker 3: share with everyone. I'm a footballer and I'm gay. Growing up,

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Speaker 3: I always felt the need to hide myself, you know,

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Speaker 3: because I was ashamed and shamed I'll never be able

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Speaker 3: to do what I love and be gay, you know,

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Speaker 3: hiding who I truly am to prosure a dream I

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Speaker 3: always wished for as a kid. All I want to

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Speaker 3: do is play football and be treated equally. I'm tired

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Speaker 3: trying to perform at the best of your ability and

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Speaker 3: to live this double life. It's exhausting. It's something that

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Speaker 3: I don't want anyone to experience.

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Speaker 1: Josh joins us on the show right now. Welcome mate,

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Speaker 1: Hey there, you're going to.

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Speaker 4: Be awesome, mate. An obvious question, but twenty four hours on, Josh,

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Speaker 4: how are you feeling? Obviously the last twenty four hours

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Speaker 4: has been, no doubt pretty intense for her.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and those twenty four hours has been pretty hectic.

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Speaker 2: But I'm very overwhelmed at the support of recent in

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Speaker 2: a stroll and on a global scale. Ed just most

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Speaker 2: importantly waking up and I just had an incredible buzz

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Speaker 2: and a good feeling on the inside that I could

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Speaker 2: live my real life now and not hide anything from anyone.

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Speaker 1: Oh that's huge, mate. Well, geez, you've done twenty four

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Speaker 1: hours in media, You've had the biggest moment of your

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Speaker 1: life and you still sound better than what he does, So.

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Speaker 2: I love it.

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Speaker 4: Just say as well, mate, you've just said there that

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Speaker 4: you know it feels better for you personally, Like, no

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Speaker 4: doubt there's a lot of freedom within you now that

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Speaker 4: you've publicly come out, but you've also done incredible things

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Speaker 4: for no doubt a lot of people that are probably

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Speaker 4: still in the closet within professional sport, and that's across

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Speaker 4: all the codes there. How does that make you feel

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Speaker 4: to know that, you know, this is a huge moment

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Speaker 4: for sport going forward, and you've just made it so

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Speaker 4: much easier for anyone in the future who's also going

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Speaker 4: to publicly come out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, Like this is this is something that I

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Speaker 2: thought about him coming out. You know, growing up, I

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Speaker 2: always dreamed to be a footballer, but I always you know,

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Speaker 2: I was gay. From six years ago, I knew, so

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Speaker 2: it was something that I struggled with and I didn't

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Speaker 2: have anyone to look up to in the football industry

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Speaker 2: that was gay and was successful. So I have the

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Speaker 2: opportunity now to show people that it's okay, and I

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Speaker 2: want to inspire and show the younger generation and the

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Speaker 2: kid that watched my film or the person that's listening

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Speaker 2: to this radio station that it's okay to be yourself.

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Speaker 2: And I was myself to the world, and I love football,

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Speaker 2: and I get to be myself now and that is incredible.

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Speaker 2: I honestly can't explain to you the joy it brings

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Speaker 2: to me. It just saddens me a little bit that

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Speaker 2: I had to live six years like that. But look,

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Speaker 2: I'm twenty one now and I've got so many years

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Speaker 2: ahead and I can't wait to get going.

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Speaker 1: But it's such good stuff years right, honestly, mate, You're

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Speaker 1: making it so emotional. This is phenomenal. Yeah, Josh, can

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Speaker 1: you stay with this. May let's go to a song.

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Speaker 1: We've got more with Josh Cavallo right up next. I'd

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Speaker 1: love to talk to you more about why you think

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Speaker 1: this is the case for people sporting all over the world.

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Speaker 1: Josh Cavallo the first male footballer to come out. It's

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Speaker 1: Willin Woody. Josh Cavallo joins us on the phone right now.

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Speaker 1: He's the first Australian male footballer to come out as

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Speaker 1: gay while still playing the game. An extraordinary story. Twenty

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Speaker 1: one year old Josh joins us on the phone right

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Speaker 1: now playing for the soccer RoCE. Josh, can you just

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Speaker 1: explain to me why you think you are in such

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Speaker 1: a minority, Like we know the science tells us that,

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Speaker 1: you know, one in ten people are gay. Why why

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Speaker 1: is it that so few of them come out playing sport.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, it's something that I want to send out

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Speaker 2: with my message and encourage. You know, in the normal

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Speaker 2: world that you know, being gay is pretty normal, and

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Speaker 2: we just haven't seen it in the world of sport.

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Speaker 2: I mean, especially in football. The culture is quite old

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Speaker 2: fashioned and passionate. Thing wrong with that, But I do

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Speaker 2: think we're in twenty twenty one here and it's time

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Speaker 2: to evolve the game. And honestly, I've been dealing with

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Speaker 2: these problems over six years now and it's time I

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Speaker 2: set myself free and I stopped living the life of

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Speaker 2: lives and you know, I go to training and I'm

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Speaker 2: happy and I don't have to light in my teammates

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Speaker 2: what I'm doing or what girl I'm seeing, or I

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Speaker 2: can be my authentic.

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Speaker 1: Did you have a fake girlfriend? Were you going in

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Speaker 1: there with fake names about with girls?

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Speaker 2: There was definitely a fake girlfriends Oh.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, God, wait what name? What name were you using.

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Speaker 1: Were you just going through the phone book and just

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Speaker 1: sort of picking them out, or were you using the

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Speaker 1: names from the board game Guess who You're right now?

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Speaker 2: On that one, bro, I just got to I just

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Speaker 2: go to a guessing games to go for it. No,

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Speaker 2: it was, it was. It was quite I look back now,

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Speaker 2: and it was quite a journey. I went on looking

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Speaker 2: as times where I was on the field and I

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Speaker 2: was worried about what I'm going to have in the

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Speaker 2: conversation I'm going to have in the change room, and

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Speaker 2: it was a huge distraction to me. It made me

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Speaker 2: isolate and separate myself from from my teammates and look

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Speaker 2: Adelaide united on my family. I treat them like my brothers,

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Speaker 2: all the teammates so much respect that them treat them

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Speaker 2: so highly, and to light of them every day and

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Speaker 2: to make up stories and sometimes they didn't even add up.

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Speaker 2: I don't like that. It's so painful and athlete, I

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Speaker 2: want to be performing at the top of my level

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Speaker 2: and not have to think about this. So it was.

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Speaker 2: It was huge when I told my coaches. I told

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Speaker 2: my coaches about four or five weeks ago, and I

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Speaker 2: already felt that I had so much weight off my

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Speaker 2: shoulders that were just people knowing. And now that my

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Speaker 2: peers know, my family, no, my friends, no, my teammates, no,

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Speaker 2: the whole world known, they're supporting me so much. It's

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Speaker 2: actually ridiculous. I can't wait to put my boots on

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Speaker 2: it and have a free mine while I'm playing. That's awesome.

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Speaker 4: So happy to hear your energy.

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Speaker 3: Man.

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Speaker 4: Can I say that you did mention that the sporting

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Speaker 4: world can be old fashion at time at times and

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Speaker 4: a little bit backward. And I think the reason why

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Speaker 4: this is so courageous, mate, is because you potentially will

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Speaker 4: be treated differently, as wrong as that is. Is there

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Speaker 4: a concern Do you have a concern at all about

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Speaker 4: the first time that you are, you know, out there

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Speaker 4: on the field and you know potentially you've got a

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Speaker 4: crowd there that are supporting the opposite team for example.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, that's something that look was in the time

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Speaker 2: of me coming out, in the whole six years process.

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Speaker 2: Is it a type of thoughts that were going through

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Speaker 2: and it's discussing So this is something that I've always

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Speaker 2: been thinking in the back of my mind. Of course,

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Speaker 2: you're going to get hate regardless of who you are.

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Speaker 2: So look, I've had nothing but positive energy online and

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Speaker 2: I can't. I can't. I'm just so overwhelmed with the

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Speaker 2: response of the world. I was not expecting this, but honestly,

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Speaker 2: I just I'm really doing this statement to show that,

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Speaker 2: you know, to the person listening to this podcast, So

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Speaker 2: whoever out there that needs this help, that's feeling the

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Speaker 2: same pain as me in this silence, that it's okay

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Speaker 2: to be yourself.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 2: Unfortunately I wasted six years of my life. I wouldn't

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Speaker 2: say wasted. I learned about myself six years and it

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Speaker 2: wasn't someone I wanted to be. I wanted to be myself.

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Speaker 2: And today was the first day I've got to open

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Speaker 2: that new chapter. And my god, did I wake up

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Speaker 2: with a big sile tod. I just can't wait to

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Speaker 2: continue this journey.

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Speaker 1: Josh, do you know do you know of anyone else

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Speaker 1: who's playing professional football right now who is also gay

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Speaker 1: that you know you're hoping will sort of like follow

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Speaker 1: in your footsteps here?

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Speaker 2: I currently no, I don't know of any I've seen

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Speaker 2: some articles that there was a Premier League player that

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Speaker 2: got advised to not come out. I couldn't tell you

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Speaker 2: the identity I have no idea, but look as examples

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Speaker 2: through myself that you know, I'm ready to take that step.

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Speaker 2: I want to be that step and that leader, and

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Speaker 2: to show that it is okay to be yourself, doesn't

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Speaker 2: matter who you are or where you come from. So

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Speaker 2: I think it's a proud moment for football. The way

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Speaker 2: they responded, I'm very incredibly grateful and I'm just happy

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Speaker 2: I could be myself now.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, oh mate, I mean that's the message, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: You know, I think any pain for anyone in their

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Speaker 1: life is always created by a disconnect between who they

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Speaker 1: are and who they pretend to be. So for you

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Speaker 1: to fly that flag at the age of twenty one

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Speaker 1: for the most popular sport in the world, mate, I

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Speaker 1: mean I can comfortably say I was nowhere near as

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Speaker 1: brave or as mature as you are. And the fact

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Speaker 1: that you're the one who's willing to bear the flag

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Speaker 1: for everybody else who might even be considering it, and

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Speaker 1: there'd be a whole bunch of people who are teetering

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Speaker 1: on the edge or who are hiding it for so long.

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Speaker 1: Like I really hope I pray my religious person at all,

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Speaker 1: but I really pray that this is sort of like

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Speaker 1: the first domino to fall, and we just see an

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Speaker 1: absolute cascade of people that are inspired by you because

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Speaker 1: you're the right sort of talisman. Mate, You're made of

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Speaker 1: the right stuff. It's been brilliant to talk to you,

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Speaker 1: so thanks for coming on the show Man, Thank.

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Speaker 2: You so much.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for having me hear more of the boys on

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Speaker 1: the full show podcast.

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Speaker 3: You know you want to