LGBT News Ian Thorpe comes out as gay?

I think that I'm 100 x happier now since I looked him up. He's hot and he's gay. Yayy!

 

Maybe people would have respected him less and lose the good reputation that he had already? I'm sure that his reasons are very plausible.

 

Glad he's public about it now. What a shame there is a need for coming out.

 

Well when I read this, it kinda mirrors the rumors and events that circulated with Ricky Martin. He didn't want to come out due to a potential loss in his reputation and people trashing him for it. Granted, he represents Puerto Rico, which is very Roman Catholic oriented, but I can see a mirror effect happening here with Ian Thorpe.

 

Probably because the press has viciously been goading him to come out for most of his career merely so they can sell more papers. Same as with Ricky Martin and many other gay celebrities.

Its simple. If someone aggressively asks "are you x?" it can be a self-defence mechanism to say "no I am not". The media pushing these people and acting like scavengers waiting to get their next bit of juicy gossip acts to reinforce the idea that being gay is newsworthy, scandalous or shocking and clearly pushes many celebrities further into the closet.

For me the actions of the press right now are less a positive force for change and more a regression back to Victorian freak-shows. "Roll up, roll up, heres another gay-celebrity we've outed for you hungry readers!".

Anyway, best wishes to Ian Thorpe. It is just a shame in this day and age we are still having to come out in confessionals.

---------- Post added 12th Jul 2014 at 03:36 PM ----------

Clearly we were both thinking the same thing!

 

My only thought is 'who the hell is Ian Thorpe?'

 

He does have a "gay smile," so I had already suspected that he was probably gay.

 

Ain't that the truth. Celebrities and other important public figures, especially male, who are single and uninvolved are hounded by the press and the paparazzi. He probably did it because eventually he'd get caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Well, he's out now. And it's more of a yawn, since his personal life is none of our business. Now, it's going to be "So, who is he seeing and who is he hooked up with?" And I'm sure we'll be seeing more of Ian Thorpe when going through the checkout line at the supermarket.

I didn't know much about him. I took a quick look. At 6'4", he's a tall guy. Holy smokes, what a body - this is better than most swimmers' bodies, which are too sinewy sometimes:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xOBiNmeitwM/TzZVXAkkC9I/AAAAAAAAAhM/KwEjj0_zC3Y/s1600/Ian+Thorpe+e11.jpg

As for his face pics, he looks great in some and not so great in others. Some people are inconsistent in how they photograph whereas some people, such as George Clooney and Dermot Mulroney, for example, seem to look good in every picture they take.

 

Cool. I'd say he is pretty good-looking too.

It's interesting that he said "I was accused of being gay..." as if that is so heinous. Maybe if there weren't so much pressure about it he could have considered it much sooner.

 

I saw him once say in a interview more or less that he was offended by people assuming he was hiding the fact that he was gay. So he was offended by people assuming the truth.

 

He is getting a hard time online (not so much here) for taking so long, for saying he wasn't gay in the past.

I think it's worth remembering, especially for anyone younger who doesn't know his history, that a bit like Tom Daley he was first in the public eye at just 14 when he likely would have been still figuring things out himself. I can understand that once you've been asked and said no, that's a really tough position to come back from, and the pressure just builds from there. If I remember rightly, he's been asked the question since he was a teen. Back in the 90s it was still unthinkable for a top flight gay male athlete to come out. He would have lost sponsorship, he would (as far as I remember) have been the first at that level.

He has suffered terribly with depression and admits self medicating with alcohol. The pressure cost him career while he was still in his early twenties, and he is widely considered to be the greatest swimmer of all time.

In short, while I understand why people are saying 'but he's lied all these years', I think the key here is do not judge. He painted himself in a corner a long time ago when he was very young and under god knows what advice, and his road has been a really tough one where he's clearly been pretty tortured. I can't imagine the courage it took to not only come out after alll these years, but admit he has been lying. I feel he deserves nothing been compassion and respect, and then to be left alone.

My son's face lit up when I told him Ian Thorpe had come out - he is sporty and has a big problem with self image and lack of role models in this area. If he makes my son life, and that of other young teens, a little bit better then it's all good.

 

Erm, yes he did:

Ricky em Barbara Walters - YouTube

Barbara Walters continually using a feminine pronoun and Ricky Martin dodging the questions and not correcting her, that to me is equivalent of denying being gay. I don't blame him, he had every right to and I feel he handled it all very well.

And the truth is he was accused of being gay. Remember, an accusation is all to do with how the question is asked: its intention and tone. The intrusive and almost bullying way the question was routinely put to him (and with its intention to gain some "sordid" gossip) was tantamount to accusation and no doubt made being gay seem heinous in his mind. You can take something as harmless as "do you like cake?" but if you ask it constantly and in a threatening or harassing manner it can become an accusation carrying other conotations (i.e. cake being bad, calling the person fat etc).

See above. He's lived his life under scrutiny, with the press haranguing him for something they apparently feel they have the "right to know" - a matter of "public interest". The question being put to him as if it is vitally important or even shameful. The question "are you gay?" is shaped almost as bad as "did you have an affair?" or "are you guilty?" in the mind of the recipient.

I agree, its absolutely vile, is it any wonder these people stay in the closet? Harrassed and baited by the press "just admit it!, just come out already!" until they finally break and go public and then they get the inevitable "well durr, we already knew", "big deal, nobody cares, stop being an attention seeker", "why didn't you come out sooner, you could of helped people, you are so selfish" from both gay and straight people alike. It just sickens me.

The way I see it, the press are like like predators itching for their next gay celebrity they can hang up like a trophy. Why else would these things still make front page news? And they always come with headlines like "X finally admits he is gay". ADMITS! Does that not strongly imply an attitude that they see being gay is something wrong that needs to be "confessed"? It is the same language they use for criminals and sex offenders "X admits he killed three kids", "Y admits she robbed the taxpayer".

 

That's cool! But Damn those comments.

 

But did Ricky Martin say himself in any form, written or spoken, that he was gay?

 

But do you even think it's fair for an entertainer, an athlete, or a politician to be interviewed on TV and be asked point blank if they are gay or lesbian? I don't. The ordinary person on the street is not asked this if someone wonders. Barbara Walters excels at this. Good riddance to her. It's something entertainers, athletes, and politicians need to address on their own and if they want to. They only time it's a little trickier is if they are doing the beard routine. If they are not, they are free agents and free to be who they want to be in their private lives, especially if no one is IN their private lives.