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.

NBC’s True Homophobic Colors Shine Through

It was disappointing to see NBC not mention anything about Matthew Mitcham’s sexuality. The biggest reason for me is a journalistic reason: It’s a big story. The only openly gay male athlete in Beijing pulled off one of the great upsets at the Olympics in a spectacular fashion. If he had had cancer, or if his parents had been killed in a car crash when he was 2, or if he had just proposed to his girlfriend, they would have mentioned it. But they never showed him hugging his boyfriend, never mentioned it. They referred to “personal problems,” but I’m afraid they decided Matthew’s sexuality was off limits. A real shame.

Read more at outsports.com.

Our Girls Get the Gold, Olympic Gold!

For the first time since 2000, the U.S. softball team lost the gold at the Olympic games, when they were beaten by Japan 3-1 in the finals last week.

The silver medalists include out lesbian catcher and infielder Lauren Lappin and openly bisexual infielder Vicky Galindo, both of whom came out in an interview with The Advocate earlier this month. Lappin credits Galindo — who says she has been in serious relationships with both men and women — for inspiring her to come out. “[Galindo] seemed very comfortable with her sexuality,” Lappin told The Advocate, “which really inspired me to be less guarded and to share with my teammates things that I wouldn’t hesitate to share if I was straight.”

In response to the news, U.S. shortstop Natasha Watley told The O.C. Register, “This team is very accepting. We don’t care if you’re purple, green, from another planet. We just don’t care. It’s who you are. It’s no big deal.” She joked, “if Lauren went into a hitting slump, then we’d have a problem.”

Read more at afterellen.com.

Sex and the City: A Beijing Perspective

It was not just the guys. The women, too, seemed in thrall to their hormones, throwing around daring glances and dynamite smiles like confetti. No meal or coffee break was complete without a breathless conversation with a lithe long jumper from Cuba or an Amazonian badminton player from Sweden, the mutual longing so evident it was almost comical. It was an effort of will to keep everything in check until competition had finished. But, once we were eliminated from our respective competitions, we lunged at each other like suicidal fencers. There may have been a fair amount of gay sex going on, too - but given the notorious homophobia in sport it was rather more covert.

Read the rest at timesonline.co.uk.

10 out of 10,500 Olympians Prefer to be Openly Gay

Only 10 of the 10,500 athletes competing in the Beijing Olympics are openly gay, according to a study by a gay website.

Some gay athletes fear that coming out would bring disapproval from fans and team mates, others worry about the damage to endorsements, Outsports.com said.

Nine of the gay athletes named by Outsports were lesbians and their sports ranged from fencing to cycling. Just one, Australian diver Matthew Mitcham, was a man.

Perhaps he didn’t make it to the medal podium this year, and perhaps he didn’t mean to become a cover boy based on his sexuality alone, but each time an athlete of his stature comes out—whether it be Mitcham, Judith Arndt, Imke Duplitzer or Norwegian power couple Gro Hammerseng and Katja Nyberg—ironically, the less of a big deal it becomes. By capturing the spotlight, if even only for a few months, the world learns that LGBT athletes are competitive and even commonplace.

We still think Mitcham’s story, along with all the out athletes of the Beijing Games, is a victory for gay sports everywhere. And, at only 20 years old, there’s a good chance we could see Mitcham again in London in 2012!

Read the rest at montrealsimon.blogspot.com.

Next Page »