Monday, December 02, 2013

Tom Daley

Matthew MitchamTom Daley
Last year, I blogged about whether I should support Matthew Mitcham or Tom Daley in the 10 metre platform diving event at the London 2012 Olympics. I said in that post that I felt I had to support Matthew Mitcham, because Matthew is one of the few openly gay athletes.
However, the news today is that 19 year old Tom Daley has had a boyfriend since spring 2013.

If you listen to what Tom says, he doesn't say that he's gay, he just says that he's very happy dating a guy at the moment and that he still fancies girls. Nonetheless, his announcement makes me very happy too. There's a noticeable lack of athletes who're prepared to be honest like this about their relationships, so having a successful guy like Tom Daley make this kind of announcement is a major step forward.

I'm not going to join the huge chorus of people praising his decision to be honest about his personal life, because so much is already being said, and of course I'm not going to be one of the homophobes who're condemning him. Suffice it to say that even if he's dating a girl by the time the 2016 Olympics comes along, I'm still going to be one of his strongest supporters!

6 comments:

William said...

Tom Daley has much to prove in term of his sporting credibility. A single bronze medal at the Olympics, in London, could be attributed to home ground advantage. Let's hope his personal life doesn't overshadow his career as a professional diver.

Mind Of Mine said...

There has to be some kind of relevant social experiment awaiting dissection of the focused and mob attack on Tom after his 'coming out'.

Unfortunately my friend, an out and proud gay man, had a tweet appear on Buzzfeed - which said something along the lines of 'Tom Daly is a faggot. Eeeee!'

Sebastian said...

I don't like the part when he said of course he still fancies girls but feels great dating a guy. That sounds offensive to me. Being gay is not a lifestyle or choice and Daley is not being serious about this.

Mind Of Mine said...

Serious enough for who?

Maybe he does like girls still. He never once said he was gay. Most likely, he is 19 and still confused and dealing with his feelings. It is not for you to comprehend or understand how he feels, certainly you should only ever be disgusted by something which effects you.

Gossip Boy said...

For those who still don't know, he's apparently dating Dustin Lance Black (the guy who won an Oscar for writing Milk's screen play). An Olympics medalist + an Oscar winner = over achieving couple! :)

m4m said...

Tom is hot! LOL