Ellia Green, Australian Olympic gold medalist and former rugby union player, came out as transgender on Tuesday. Green, the first Olympian to come out as a transgender man, represented Australia in the women’s rugby sevens, winning Gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics and Silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Green came out in a heartfelt speech at the opening of the Bingham Cup’s international summit on ending transphobia and homophobia in sports.
Bingham Cup also known as the Gay Rugby World Cup, is the world’s largest amateur rugby union tournament, and is named after Mark Bingham, a hero of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The 10th Bingham Cup is being held at Ottawa, Canada.Green lives in Sydney with his wife and their newborn child. He said that coming out as transgender in public was a difficult decision.“Being open about my gender identity is a really difficult thing to do these days.