But this is different: it's Olympic diver Tom Daley, in his own words:
What interested me about this is that it's quite deliberately not a big deal. As he says:
We're getting closer and closer, I think, to the time when a celebrity normally handles the whole thing in this way -- "Oh, by the way, that 'special someone' is another man."
And then, shortly thereafter, the time when they don't need to bother.
Update: Two points: I've edited the headline and the post to avoid the "coming out" thing: it's too easily read as "coming out as gay" and that's not what Daley is doing. I like the way he's avoided labels.
And point two, on that score, there are several discussions at various blogs that have posted on this story on that very topic that are pretty interesting -- see this one at AmericaBlog.
And point three -- right, there are three points -- there's also a lot of speculation about whether Daley is bi or is just using that as a stepping stone to coming out eventually as gay. I think that's pointless. What he's talking about is a specific relationship in terms that sound as though it's the first serious relationship in his life (and at 19, that's entirely possible). There are too many men, including yours truly, who have gone the stepping-stone route to discount the idea (remember, we are all raised with "straight" as the default cultural norm), but that doesn't mean that Daley is following the same pattern. I'm perfectly content to let him be what he is, with the full realization that what we are is not carved in stone.
What interested me about this is that it's quite deliberately not a big deal. As he says:
People are going to have their own opinions and I think people are going to make a big deal over this. Is it a big deal? I don’t think so. I wanted to say something and I wanted to do it.
We're getting closer and closer, I think, to the time when a celebrity normally handles the whole thing in this way -- "Oh, by the way, that 'special someone' is another man."
And then, shortly thereafter, the time when they don't need to bother.
Update: Two points: I've edited the headline and the post to avoid the "coming out" thing: it's too easily read as "coming out as gay" and that's not what Daley is doing. I like the way he's avoided labels.
And point two, on that score, there are several discussions at various blogs that have posted on this story on that very topic that are pretty interesting -- see this one at AmericaBlog.
And point three -- right, there are three points -- there's also a lot of speculation about whether Daley is bi or is just using that as a stepping stone to coming out eventually as gay. I think that's pointless. What he's talking about is a specific relationship in terms that sound as though it's the first serious relationship in his life (and at 19, that's entirely possible). There are too many men, including yours truly, who have gone the stepping-stone route to discount the idea (remember, we are all raised with "straight" as the default cultural norm), but that doesn't mean that Daley is following the same pattern. I'm perfectly content to let him be what he is, with the full realization that what we are is not carved in stone.
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