Jason Ball
About
Jason Ball is the 2017 Young Australian of the Year for Victoria, honouring his work as a passionate 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 LGBTI 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 hold pride events and deliver education to challenge homophobia and transphobia. With major government, corporate and philanthropic backers, Pride Cup is now one of Australia’s largest LGBTI organisations with a vision to roll out Pride Cups and education programs to every sporting league in Australia.
Jason has appeared widely in the media including on The Project, Sunrise, The Morning Show, FoxFooty, The Age, The Herald Sun, 774 Melbourne, 3AW, ABC Radio National, SEN, triple j and VICE Magazine.
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. He was named LGBTI Sports Person of the Year in the 2015 GLOBE Community Awards and was a finalist for LGBTI Person of the Year at the same event.
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. Jason was also presented with the Out Role Model Award for Sport in the 2017 Australian LGBTI Inclusion in Sport Awards hosted by Pride In Diversity.
In 2016 and 2019 Jason stood as a candidate for the Greens in the Federal seat of Higgins, where he campaigned for strong action on climate change, compassion for people seeking asylum and LGBTI equality.
Professionally Jason has worked in numerous roles across the not-for-profit, government and community sectors to drive meaningful social change, specialising in diversity & inclusion, advocacy, policy, research, campaigning, communications, media, fundraising and project management.