Create an experience with Jason Ball

Jason Ball is the 2017 Young Australian of the Year for Victoria, honouring his work as a passionate community advocate for LGBTIQ equality and mental health.

Since coming out in the national media in 2012, Jason has become a figurehead on combatting homophobia in sport and highlighting the damaging impact of homophobia on the mental health and wellbeing of the LGBTIQ community.

This leadership has seen Jason take up ambassadorial roles at Beyond Blue, the Safe Schools Coalition, the Victorian Pride Centre, the Human Rights Arts & Film Festival, Midsumma Festival, the Melbourne Queer Film Festival and the Bendigo Queer Film Festival.

Jason’s advocacy was the driving force behind the AFL’s first Pride Game played between St Kilda and Sydney in 2016, and in 2018 he co-founded Pride Cup Australia, a non-profit organisation that works with all levels of sport to create pride activations and deliver education to increase LGBTIQ visibility and engagement.

In 2012 Jason was included in The Age’s Top 100 Most Influential Melburnians and was featured among The Advocate’s Top 25 Most Notable Comings Out of 2012.

In 2016 Jason was honoured by the University of Melbourne with the Arts Alumni Rising Star Award and the Council of Australian Humanist Societies named Jason as the 2016 Young Australian Humanist of the Year.

Pop culture and news website Junkee included Jason in ‘The Disruptors’, their list of thirty people “changing the game for young Australia” and Men’s Style Magazine included Jason in their ‘Men of Influence’ list for 2017.