Why Should You Care About Tom Daley?

So, I've taken a day to think this over.  Try and get a measured response to adequately explain my feelings.

Why should I care about Tom Daley?  I don't give a damn about most sports, diving even less so, so why should I care about the sexuality of this one young man?  And really, I don't.  He dives, he's pretty good at it.  That should be all we need to know.

Nevertheless, I applaud him.  I wish I didn't have to.  But the fact remains that being anything other than a hetrosexual "normal" person will still find you being ridiculed, beaten up, even killed in this country.  In 2013.

Things are even worse in other countries of course.  Russia, of course, where the next Olympics is going to held, where Mr. Daley will be testing himself to the highest level, is notoriously behind the times on LGBT rights.  I don't think that the attitudes displayed in Russia are any different to those displayed in most other countries, sadly, it's just that in Russia, they're state-sponsored.  Just ask Pussy Riot.

Oh, wait, you can't.  No-one can anymore.

Russia, America's Deep South, most of Africa...  all of these are not going to be accepting of Daley's announcement.  They'll see it as a sign of our sinfulness, a further example of the decline of Western values and morals.  And that is, with all due respect, bullshit.  From all I've seen, Tom Daley is a decent, dedicated young chap.  He's the sort of person we should be holding up as an example of how high we can reach.  Not how low we've fallen.

A lot of people in this country aren't accepting it, I've already this morning seen an awful lot of Tweets about his coming out.  "We don't want our country represented by a fag," seems to be the jist of it.  It's sad.  And that's what makes me aware of how far we, as a society, have fallen.  How far we have to go.

I don't understand this reaction.  I guess I'm lucky that way.  I don't get why people are so afraid to the point of violent hatred of things that they don't understand, that they can't accept.  I've been a victim to it, to people who saw me as different, and therefore somehow less than them.  Less than human?  Sometimes,  it's felt like it.

And I'm one of the lucky ones.  I'm white, I'm male. And still I've had to endure some of the worst of humanities traits.  I cannot even begin to imagine what might be going through the minds of those who hurt me when they saw this news.  I don't want to really.

I wonder what made Daley announce this?  He says he's been in this relationship for a year, near enough.  Did he feel like he was living with a dark secret?  Had he been 'found out'(urrgh)?  Was a newspaper ready to spill the beans for him?  In the public interest, of course.  I mean, look at him, doing his sport in his tiny Speedos, who knows how many innocent boys he could turn?

Maybe he just felt, that as a sportsman, as a celebrity, he owed his fans the truth.  Maybe he felt that it was his duty to come out and show that you could be bisexual (as I understand his statement) and a sportsman.  I certainly cannot think of many outwardly gay sportspeople, maybe only Claire Balding.  A little research has shown that there's a few more out there (If you'll pardon the expression), but nowhere near as many as statistics say there should be.  Maybe if his announcement helps people see that nothing has changed about him, then more in the LGBT/sports community will feel comfortable enough to accept/admit it.  And if enough do, then it won't be anything special anymore.  And if that should be the case, then maybe more people, ordinary people, will feel like this isn't some secret they have to hide, that this is how they are, and that's not a bad thing.  Maybe one day.

Maybe.

So, yes, I congratulate Tom on his announcement, and wish him all the best.  And I really cannot wait for the day when this isn't news at all.

<edit>Just to show my ignorance of all things sporting, I've just been informed that Russia is hosting the WINTER Olympics, and as such, diving is not going to be represented.  Regardless, the point about the attitudes in Russia to LGBT people still stands.