Mitcham Gives GLBT Athletes Cause to Celebrate

A cheerful and unintentional smack in the face to the repressive Chinese regime and to homophobia in sports, out gay diver Matthew Mitcham won the gold medal in 10-meter platform diving in Bejing today. The Sydney Herald Sun included mention of Mitcham’s being the first out gay gold medalist in Olympic history. The Sydney Morning Herald also did an honest feature on him. The Advocate did a cover feature on him. Gay paper the Sydney Star Observer posted a short article about his success.

Read more at cyclizen.blogspot.com.

UPDATE:

It takes a lot for me to weep while watching sports, but that’s how moving his gold-medal diving performance was Saturday in Beijing.

I teared up when he first saw the score from his final five and looked on in disbelief. Then again when a female friend ran up to him backstage at the Water Cube, hugged him and said, “Matthew, you just won the Olympics!” Mitcham looked stunned, and started to sob. The tears flowed later when I watched the medal ceremony and saw someone who had conquered a lot in his 20 years looking like the happiest person on Earth. An openly gay male athlete won an Olympic gold medal. With his boyfriend cheering in the stands. Wow!

By winning the gold medal in the men’s 10-meter platform diving, Mitcham struck a golden blow for gay people everywhere who’ve been told they’re flawed or not good enough, especially in the athletic arena. For all the gay men who have been called weak, sissies, pansies, too emotional, not tough enough to compete in sports, that final dive was for you. Mitcham helped to shatter those stereotypes and brought me to tears thinking about what was possible.

Read more of this at outsports.com.