Schutt endures homophobic abuse

Each day, Megan Schutt collected the fliers from her letterbox and set them on fire. It was the height of the same-sex marriage debate and the Australian swing bowler, with her partner and now wife, Jess Hollyoake, was campaigning for the ‘‘yes’’ vote. The backlash on social media was relentless, the vitriol demoralising. Then there were the fliers.

‘‘They were saying same-sex marriage is going to influence children, going to change school programmes,’’ Schutt said.

‘‘All the b ....... . Jess and I would literally burn those papers. It was a pretty horrible thing. I remember putting out a rainbow flag on our balcony and Jess didn’t want to have that up there at the time. She said, what if someone targets our house because of that?

‘‘And I said, ‘Well, f... let them. I don’t give a s .... We can’t hide, this is a time to show support for everyone else around us. No one who is trying to fight for same-sex marriage is having a good time right now so we need to stick together more than ever.’’’

Schutt goes into this week’s Women’s T20 World Cup as the No 1 bowler in the world in that format. While team-mates Ellyse Perry, Meg Lanning and Alyssa Healy attract most of the attention, Schutt is known for changes of pace, deft cutters and extravagant swing – her most formidable weapon.

‘‘I’m never going to be someone that makes a batter jump back in the crease from a bouncer,’’ Schutt said.

‘‘I’ve always seen myself as that bowler who, if I’m not taking wickets, I’m containing them and a lot of time containing leads to wicket-taking.’’

Schutt’s straight talking is refreshing in a sport where players, particularly women, are often conscious of projecting a safe image. But the same-sex marriage debate had a personal impact; after keeping her sexuality largely to herself in fear of judgment, Schutt had found happiness and confidence with Hollyoake and wanted to use her growing platform.

‘‘It was honestly a pretty horrific time, I got called some really nasty things. The usual stuff was go to hell and I don’t really care that much, but I had people who call you [a] paedophile or say you’re worse than an animal and just things that are really extreme and you think, how does your mind even work like that, that you’ve so much hatred about something that doesn’t have any effect on you?

‘‘And that was why I wanted to campaign, obviously for myself, but for everybody else in the sense that I just could not and still can’t really understand hatred.’’

While the campaign was a success, Schutt believes recent incidents in which two Australian players, James Pattinson and Marcus Stoinis, were sanctioned for casting homophobic slurs on the field highlight the need for further awareness and education.

‘‘I think it’s important to talk about it. I wasn’t angry as much as I was disappointed, which is such a dad thing to say. It’s disappointing that we still use that language, and I don’t believe that those boys actually are homophobic, I truly don’t. And they wouldn’t be saying it with that intent, but they’re still using the wrong words. Why can’t you just call someone a dickhead?

‘‘I haven’t been attacked for being a lesbian but I know men that have been for being gay. And the fact that it’s always men that are still using those derogatory terms is the most disappointing part of it because they’re going to have gay friends, whether they’re out to them or not.

‘‘Calling this person this, that’s going to make them not want to come out to you and that just puts us back in the closet where we don’t want to be.’’

Part of Schutt’s compulsion to use her voice comes from the firm belief that, but for a quirk of fate, she would have died as a child.

She was just six when her father, Brian, was involved in an accident that threatened to leave him without the use of his legs.

‘‘I remember the night really clearly because I normally would go with dad and he got rear-ended by a truck,’’ Schutt said.

‘‘Had I gone with him I would have been dead because I used to sit in the back. He was going to town to get a haircut and I would go with him all the time. I was a kid and I was bored, I wanted to go with Dad everywhere. This time, I think it was later at night and it was like, don’t bother, we won’t be back in time for dinner. I think he didn’t want me to run amok. I was a bit of a shithead kid. I was lucky in the end.

‘‘They said to us he’ll never walk again and it was pretty severe at the time. He’s pretty fine now and can do all the daily activities that most can, just not for long periods of time before his back gets sore.’’

While Australia are strong favourites to defend their world title, losses to England and India in the recent tri-series highlighted the competition they will have to overcome to reach the final.

The campaign to sell out the MCG on International Women’s Day has heaped pressure on the team, but Schutt maintains it’s no greater than self-imposed expectations. She believes Australia’s semifinal loss to India in the 2017 World Cup was a catalyst in exposing complacency.

‘‘That was a real kick up the a... to go, ‘all right, you are the best in the world but hey, the rest of the world is catching up’.

‘‘Not long after we sat down as a group and we went through the emotions we had at the time and how we were going to avoid being in that situation in the future, and it made us take a good hard look at ourselves: are we training the hardest and doing all that we can each game? That’s been a really good lesson for us.’’

Schutt wasn’t always so fearless in expressing her opinions. But with the World Cup beckoning and the confidence born of a supportive family, a happy relationship and the skills that have taken her to the top, she is comfortable in her own skin. And her early brush with death has spurred her to make the most of it.