Then he told a girlfriend that he had feelings for guys. "She told the whole school. That changed everything." He went from being immersed in school sports, to being the butt of gay jokes, "the faggot". In the "hyper-masculine" environment of the Christian school's sporting community, the change room became a nightmare: he was slammed into lockers, his clothes were stolen, insults were scrawled on his belongings.

"It was just relentless." Eventually, a gym teacher told him the school couldn't guarantee his safety in the locker room. "Don't come to gym class anymore," the teacher recommended.

Denison stopped playing sport. He started to party, hanging out with a bad crowd, going to raves. "Party people always welcome everyone ... I felt accepted."

His exclusion from sport taught him a lesson that had profound implications, and not only for Denison's own mental and emotional health. "There were many points where I thought, 'well, why don't I just kill myself because that would be a lot easier and I wouldn't feel the pain anymore'."

More than a decade later, living in Sydney and kicking a ball again — for Australia's first gay rugby union club, the Sydney Convicts, which plays in the NSW Suburban Rugby Union competition — Denison, now 36, would become one of the prime movers behind a multi-faceted campaign to end homophobia in sport which this month received two major international awards.

The International Public Relations Association gong and the gold prize for the "public education campaign of the year" at the PR Week Asia awards in Hong Kong recognise the volunteer efforts of activists including Convicts' founder Andrew "Fuzz" Purchas and retired players Duncan McGregor and David Whittaker.

Their efforts, which aim to challenge the stereotypes about gay people and sport, and educate people about the homophobic climate in sport, were built around last year's Bingham Cup Sydney, the world cup of gay rugby. Initiatives included "You Can Play", an ad that screened on television and at sporting events; a commitment from Australian Rugby Union, the Football Federation of Australia, the AFL, the NRL and Cricket Australia to adopt policies to eliminate homophobia; and "Out on the Fields", an international study that, for the first time, quantified the issue of homophobia in sport.

For the Convicts' activists, one of the campaign's happiest results has been the media coverage the study has received in developing nations such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. "To get coverage about this issue there, where the only time they ever talk about gay people is in a really negative way, and in relation to sport which is like a religion for them, I think that was the most important thing to us," says Denison.

"Imagine being a young gay kid in India who's never even heard about the concept of being gay except in a negative way. When you're going through your early adulthood and you've got all those hormones … all that teenage angst, having that team environment is really helpful."

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