Matthew Mitcham: I Don't Mind the Attention Paid to My Sexuality
Out Australian diver Matthew Mitcham is about to make another big splash at the London 2012 Olympics and tells the Sydney Morning Herald that he's still a very proud advocate for LGBT rights:
''I certainly don't see it as a burden. I never did, especially with how much attention the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered] cause has been getting lately with marriage equality … and with how few openly gay sports stars there are around at the moment. I don't mind attention being put on it. Ideally I would like one day for sexuality to be as unimportant and uninteresting as hair colour, or eye colour or even just gender in general. One day it will get to that. But until it is easy for sports people to come out without fear of persecution or fear of lost sponsorship income and stuff like that, or fear of being comfortable in the team environment, I don't mind attention being brought to my sexuality in the hope that it might make other people feel more comfortable … in being comfortable enough about who they are in their sporting environment.''
He is so lovable.
Posted by: Paul R | Apr 18, 2012 11:32:49 AM
I adore this guy - I love to read his interviews, he just makes sense.
Posted by: CJ | Apr 18, 2012 11:39:16 AM
With an a$$ like that, attention will always be paid to his sexuality. And some lucky guy has access to it every night. Damn!
Posted by: Rick | Apr 18, 2012 11:58:27 AM
Love that guy...
Posted by: Michael in Toronto | Apr 18, 2012 12:14:02 PM
I wonder if NBC (carrying the programming in the US) will COMPLETELY ignore him like they did four years ago in Beijing after he made the highest-scoring 10 meter dive ever to win the gold. They probably will.
Posted by: Anastasia Beaverhausen | Apr 18, 2012 12:21:57 PM
@Anastasia Beaverhausen NBC and other networks have historically "ignored" Olympic athletes/champions who are not Americans, unless their achievements are just totally over-the-top incredible (like Usain Bolt's). Mainly because Americans generally won't watch a competition unless American athletes are in serious contention for medals.
Pathetic, really, but that is just the way it is.
I don't think they ignored him because he is gay (after all, they turned Greg Louganis into a national icon when he was diving, although, admittedly, he was not "out" at the time).
Posted by: Rick | Apr 18, 2012 12:34:49 PM
he simply gets it. the vast majority of Out people "get it", and that why we're Out - we dont' mind the attention paid to our sexuality because we know that it will take "us" having the spotlight on it in order for future generations to NOT have the spotlight on it.
they pay attention to our sexuality, and we accept it, because it means that the next wave of LGBT people won't be seen with the same heightened curiosity.
this is how it works, folks.
Posted by: LittleKiwi | Apr 18, 2012 12:44:50 PM
Thank you , thank you ,thank you, Matthew for being a brother, a proud outspoken athlete and most of all for just being a decent, upstanding, unafraid character.
Posted by: JackFknTwist | Apr 18, 2012 12:49:41 PM
It is much easier for athletes in individual sports to come out than it is for those in team sports because they do not have to deal with the social dynamic that athletes in team sports do, who may have team members who are extremely homophobic and can make trouble for them. Individual athletes, by contrast, are judged entirely on performance.
This is why just about all the gay athletes that have come out have either been those that compete in individual sports like diving or swimming or tennis....or those that have retired from the team sports they competed in.
The same is true of the business world, where it is much easier for an entrepreneur like David Geffen or Peter Thiel to come out, since they are totally in control of their own careers, than it is for those who are employed by companies they do not own to do so......which is why virtually all the prominent gay business executives who have come out are entrepreneurs rather than being employed by someone else.
It has nothing to do with "getting it" vs. "not getting it" but instead with the practical question of whether you can come out without potential doing great damage to your career.
And most people who live in the social mainstream understand this without having to have it explained to them.
Posted by: Rick | Apr 18, 2012 1:01:49 PM
actually, all one has to do is read Rick's posts to see "Excuses Grown Men With No Balls Give for Being Cowards"
"oh, I can't come out! it'll be hard for MEEE. because everyone else who is out has had it easier!"
this is what insecure wimps say. it was b.s. when i said it myself at age 16 in the mid 1990s, and it's b.s. when grown-adult men say it now in 2012.
this is why the insecure closeted men with no balls come onto websites to spew fury from a place of anonymity. they hate addressing the reality that they have capers for testes, so they come on to give their lame excuses.
those of us who are Out, get it - we take the heat so that one day others won't have to. closeted adults who give excuses? they're the reason closet culture still exists - a collection of grown-up adults who keep saying "i can't do it, someone else has to"
people that think only about themselves are destined to never have others think about THEM.
this is why the angry-naysayers on these sites can never put a face and name to their angry comments. they're still living wholly closeted existences.
and as of yet, none of them has ever showed up when their bluff gets called. it speaks volumes.
*elegant curtsy*
never blend in
http://littlekiwilovesbauhaus.blogspot.ca/2011/05/never-blend-in.html
Posted by: LittleKiwi | Apr 18, 2012 1:15:06 PM
@Rick ;
So what if you have a point ?
Do you have to undermine Matthew's valid, confident, unabashed security with his sexuality ?
I think he is an inspiration to all gays, not just oppressed kids.I feel pride in his self confidence.
But you, Rick, have to explain to me how much easier it is for him to be out ......and maybe he doesn't deserve all our admiration after all.
Well,I don't agree. And furthermore your bucket of cold water thrown on every uplifting event or person is not an endearing characteristic.
But thank you for calling.
Posted by: JackFknTwist | Apr 18, 2012 1:20:26 PM
Yawn, LittleNaziKiwi with his "Show the URL! Show the URL!" screeching. It never occurs to you, does it, that some people don't show their URL's not because they're closeted, but because they don't want screaming harpies like you to know it.
As for Matthew Mitcham, great quote.
Posted by: Henry Holland | Apr 18, 2012 1:21:08 PM
@Rick - His medal-winning dive in Beijing was the HIGHEST SCORING 10 METER DIVE BY ANYONE ON EARTH, EVER. I'd say that's "just totally over-the-top incredible" as you put it.
Here's a quote from OutSports:
"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."
http://outsports.com/olympics2008/2008/08/24/nbc-media-ignore-mitchams-sexuality/
Posted by: Anastasia Beaverhausen | Apr 18, 2012 2:05:31 PM
@Rick
I do agree with you. Everything you said appears to me to be logically consitent and it is a cogent argument. I note you did not say it was bad for him to come out. Very good. I don't have to talk about how anyone anywhere being out is a good thing. I think it may be a lack of interpretation of yourself on your own part they miss. Because while you are correct in what you say, you forgot to point out you are just observing here how things work; first people for whom it is easier come out, and by coming out thereby make it easier for others who find it harder right now to come out. Then those people come out and you will say "Of course they came out! It's easy for them to do it now!" and you will fail to point out at that time that it is great that they find it easy.
That is to say, everybody who can come out does so just as soon as he can, given his life conditions. Greg Louganis did us no good because he waited until he retired to come out; except he did us huge good because he was seen to be wildly successful at what he did and he came out. Period. He is a hero for doing it when it was safe because he made it safe for this young man to do this now, early in his career. And everybody will know he is gay when he goes on to be wildly successful.
After that, sometime, it won't matter anymore.
It gets better.
If you added all that and pointed out how we can rejoice in this young man's good fortune that he is able to do this and be happy at the same time then more people would be on your side and love you.
Posted by: H8Str8s | Apr 18, 2012 2:55:02 PM
if you won't stand up to be counted, you can't complain that others are "misrepresenting" you. truth.
they don't want screaming harpies like me to know "what"? that they're gay? they don't want gay people to know that they're gay?
that's incredibly odd. oh, the logic cowards convince themselves makes sense...
Posted by: LittleKiwi | Apr 18, 2012 3:03:42 PM
i don't think there's such a thing as "easier to come Out" as much as there's "easier to stay in"
i've yet to meet anyone who found coming out easy.
Posted by: LittleKiwi | Apr 18, 2012 3:06:54 PM
@littlekiwi
I don't know anything about url's or what you are talking about showing yourself, but if I may venture a guess, perhaps if one puts their url up it will identify how to contact them in some way? I think if he is making refrence to your shrillness, perhaps that is what he is saying. Of course if 'showing ones url' couldn't lead to you contacting them directly this explaination doesn't make any sense. What is a URL? How does this showing yourself work?
Posted by: H8Str8s | Apr 18, 2012 3:13:07 PM
@littlekiwi
Of course easier makes sense. When you came out, you turned every straight person you ever knew into a fierce advocate of gay rights. Do you really think you could have done the same thing coming out in the 70's, 60's, 50's? Really? You don't understand such a simple concept as "it gets better?"
Posted by: H8Str8s | Apr 18, 2012 3:21:28 PM
@littlekiwi
When you say in one post that you have turned every straight person you have ever known into a fierce advocate of gay rights, and then in another that you never met anyone who found it easy to come out, you hurt your own credibility by directly contradicting yourself. I have never known anyone on this green earth to have it half as comfy and easy and just plain sheltered as yourself.
Posted by: H8Str8s | Apr 18, 2012 3:38:54 PM
aint nobody contacting me, sugar :D
and i in no way contradicted myself.
i've never met anyone who found coming out easy. and every straight person in my life is an advocate for LGBT Equality.
those aren't contradictory.
do the work, get the results.
i don't think you know what you're talking about anymore. it's certainly not making any sense.
THIS is how we win: http://youtu.be/qiloehlRthM
Posted by: LittleKiwi | Apr 18, 2012 3:47:13 PM
@JackFknTwist Dude, calm down. I was not criticizing Matthew. I love the guy (and not just his perfect a$$). I have seen him interviewed and he appears to be a fine, young man with a good head on his shoulders (in addition to the finest a$$ I have ever seen).
I was just pointing out, in contradiction to the claims of some in this thread, that the key difference between prominent people who come out and those who don't is related to circumstance rather than to how they feel about themselves or whether they understand the value of being out.
Chill.
@H8STR8S Thanks. You understood what I meant and that I was not being critical of Matthew as I am sure most people of good will who read my comment did. If we could get rid of the hotheads on this site (and we all know who they are), it might be possible to have some worthwhile discussions.
@Anastasia Beaverhausen Well, NBC did show his dive because I remember seeing it (and that memorable a$$ of his). I think the big "controversy" was not over not showing his dive or acknowledging his accomplishment (if memory serves me correctly, he was even interviewed by Bob Costas afterwards).....but over the fact that, yes, NBC diverted the cameras from him hugging his boyfriend in the stands after the dive.
Again, I don't know if there was necessarily a conspiracy at work there. There may have been, but the networks are generally the province of very progressive-minded people, so who knows? If they did divert the cameras out of homophobic motives, then they deserve the criticism.
Posted by: Rick | Apr 18, 2012 4:32:53 PM
@Littlekiwi
It cost Mathew Shephard his life to come out. It has cost you a whole bunch of love and support. It is not Mathew Shephard's fault that he did not turn his attackers into fierce advocates of gay rights. Things are easier for you than anyone I have ever heard of.
Of course it is a direct contradiction, unless you want to say you never met yourself. It was easy for you to come out because you had a non-violent environment to come out in. You got love and support from everyone around you instead of shame and violent physical attacks. Are you saying you got attacked physically for comming out? Are you saying that if you didn't get attacked it wasn't easier for you than it is for somebody who is physically attacked for comming out? Do you think nobody has been physically attacked for comming out? what in the world do you mean? Do you think people do not get messages their whole life whether it is safe or not to come out? Do you think that everyone reads those just as easily as each other? I don't understand what you mean?
You don't actually realize how completely sheltered safe and easy your entire life has been? You admit you are a male white in a completely supportive environement, and your denial that others have had it harder than you is nothing less than trivializing other peoples greater accomplishments. You are untested in the face of the slightest adversity, I am afraid, and by your own admission; yet you claim it was just as hard for you to have come out as it was for people in an entirely hostile envirenoment.
Why do you have no respect for the greater accomplishments of those who have had a harder fight? Do you think the gay experience is as easy for other gay people as it is for you? Do you think? I mean at all?
Posted by: H8Str8s | Apr 18, 2012 4:41:09 PM
@littlekiwi
If you want me to show myself explain to me about this URL. I call your bluff. Put up or shut the F*ck up.
Posted by: H8Str8s | Apr 18, 2012 4:42:35 PM
Matthew Shepard isn't dead because he was Out, he's dead because every other gay person in America wasn't.
that's the reality, and that's why it's important for us adults to be Out.
this is a URL: http://youtu.be/d-ZnUO2pv4o
there you go. you can see how "easy" I had it as a child.
i'm aware of how lucky I was to be born into a family that accepted LGBT people. But I'm *ALSO* aware of WHY my family was accepting of LGBT people - they KNEW other lgbt people.
There were men and women who made it their business to Come Out to people in our community, including my parents. My father had a few openly gay co-workers, and he's a former CFO and businessman.
This is why it's important for us adults to be Out - to everyone. You could literally save a life, and change many for the better, by being Out to the people you're currently giving excuses to not Come Out to.
I'm living proof.
key word - LIVING.
Posted by: LittleKiwi | Apr 18, 2012 4:50:28 PM
But you are saying you don't understand the idea of it being easier for some to come out than for others. Are you saying now that you do think that the more people who are out the easier it is? Then you do understand the concept. You say right there that you were lucky. You admit you had it easier coming out than a person who's entire family is hostile to them. How can you admit you had it easy but not understand the idea that it is easier for some than for others. Surely you must realize some people are not in such a thoroughly privileged position as yourself. Don't you feel like a complete snob saying you don't understand the very idea of it being easier for some people to come out? Have you no humility?
Posted by: H8Str8s | Apr 18, 2012 4:59:59 PM