CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
In the middle of a volatile pre-election news cycle that has seen countless political scandals, mass killings and documented examples of highly corrupt environmental vandalism – the world has stood still today after a fast bowler from Launceston made the type of joke that is kind of expected from a fast bowler from Launceston.
On Monday night Faulkner posted a photo suggesting he was in a five-year relationship with “boyfriend” Rob Jubb.
It seems it wasn’t just the gay community was prepared to recruit Faulkner as one of their own, with former players and ex-team mates leaving comments praising the ‘courageous’ Tasmanian player, who played 69 ODIs and 24 T20Is for Australia, as well as one Test against England in 2013.
The news spread quickly around with world, with outlets in India, the UK and Australia all running the story – and the 29-year-old briefly becoming an LGBTI icon.
But today Faulkner issued a statement on Instagram to clarify his comments.
“There seems to be a misunderstanding about my post from last night,” he wrote on Instagram.
“I am not gay, however it has been fantastic to see the support from and for the LBGT community.”
This has come to a shock to the gay community, with many LGBTI cricket fans quickly scrambling to unsend some spicy Instagram DMs they slid in with late last night.
However, it the misunderstanding seems to have rubbed some woke twitter users the wrong way, with waves of people who didn’t know who James Faulkner was 12 hours ago calling him out for being problematic, and the cause for everything that is wrong in the world.
“I just can’t believe he would blur the lines of gender and sexual binaries” said one user, IntersectionalAlly1986
“I mean, if that’s what he meant to do, good on him, but in my personal opinion I think what he was doing was making a homophobic slur with the aim of purposefully hurting gay people”
However, one prominent homosexual community leader and degenerate lower-grade park cricketer from Betoota’s affluent French Quarter says Faulkner is only in the bad books because he’s embarrassed by how excited he got for a minute there.
“Godammit” says Pete, the gay 4th-grade wicket keeper.
“In hindsight, I would never make a move on anyone with a head like that. But the whole coming-out on Insta thing got me”
“If he was gay, I would. But otherwise, he’s just another Coke Zero drinking nerd like these blokes I play with”
