Why It's Still Important

Inevitably, this post is all about Tom Daley. This morning, he released a video. "Of course I still fancy girls, but right now I'm dating a guy and I couldn't be happier". It was a wonderful, honest video to wake up to on a particularly bleak looking Monday morning, for more reasons than one, and I am very happy he had the confidence and bravery to do so.

I cannot imagine what being Tom Daley must be like. For years, he has had to listen to people taunt his mannerisms, crack jokes about how "gay" he acts, and question his sexuality when he may well have spent some of his thoughts trying to decipher it for himself. For someone who spent years working it out, I can appreciate how difficult it is, but I didn't have millions of people questioning me about it. I'm not sure I would have coped. Yet this young man has. That seriously has to be commended.

And yet, as we get ever closer to the end of 2013, there are still people out there who choose to be evil about it. Yes. Evil. A strong word, but appropriate as its the opposite of love, and that's all this hoo-ha is about. Love.

...

"You just lost a fan. Go to hell!!! Faggot! @TomDaley1994"

"I can't believe Tom Daley is gay, I'm not a fan of his anymore! It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!"

"Told you all Tom Daley was a dirty fag!"

"Tom Daley is gay and I'm now ashamed of our country, we can't have a bloody fag representing us"

...

This hate is why this is news.

Even Mr. Daley said it himself, "This shouldn't matter". But it does. Oh, it really does. I try not to get too embroiled in it, trying to claim that another celebrity coming out isn't big news, because at the end of the day, we're all equal. But then I remember the pure confusion when I was 15 and then the ever-growing and absolute anguish I felt when I was 16 and growing into adulthood. The fear of facing insults and losing everyone simply because of who I am. Because it does happen. In this world of ours, people are disowned, physically attacked and murdered just because they aren't heterosexual. It's a fact. It isn't a problem consigned to the 1970s or other countries. This happens in the UK. In 2013. Everyone knew who Tom Daley was before today. He was the poster boy of London 2012, the first Olympic Games to be held in the UK in 64 years, and a hugely successful one at that. He is very popular, and rightly so, which makes the unfounded and sometimes outrageous abuse he has received from some stand out even more. No one disliked the guy. And now all of a sudden, some do? There's only one reason for that... Before today, Daley was a straight man. And now he's seen as bisexual. People are scared of that, when they have no reason to be.

I read an article earlier by Owen Jones of the Independent who put it just perfectly. "Its news because a millennia of bigotry cannot simply be eradicated in a few decades".

I've tried to stifle the happiness I feel for the guy all day. I've tried to think as if this didn't really matter. I'm like everyone else, and so is he. But I know there are people out there this evening, who have seen his video today and instantly feel more comfortable because of it. I cannot tell you how much that has, and needs, to be appreciated.

I'm more than likely never going to meet him, but if I could, I would shake his hand and say, "You bloody legend."