Robert Páez is a professional diver from Venezuela. He represented his country in both the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics.
In a powerful new op-ed published by Outsports, the 23-year-old coming out publicly for the very first time.
“Growing up in Venezuela, I knew from a very young age that I was different, despite not knowing what exactly that meant,” Páez writes.
He continues:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
I was born gay. As I got older I became more aware of it, and as I grew–like with so many others–it became my great dilemma. It was a source of worry that I was interested in things like dancing and fashion, things that in my culture were for women and gays. I shied away from doing many things. I was at times ashamed to go out into society, to face who I really was.
Today, Páez says he’s no longer ashamed of who he is. He admits that fear kept him closeted for many years. But he’s no longer going to surrender to that fear.
“In sharing my story, I hope to help make homosexuality as common of a word as heterosexuality,” he writes. “We have to understand that we are all equal.”
“Accepting ourselves and respecting ourselves are big first steps. Life is too beautiful to be hidden in a closet.”
Scroll down for pics from Páez’s Instagram page and read his full op-ed over at Outsports…
Related: This hunky college diver and his Instagram page are making a huge splash in and out of the pool
RnDC
Sexy guy – good for him.
Kangol
Very good for him, and he’s a cutie!
avesraggiana
What is it about diving and gays?
No gay NFL players or NHL players? Or anyone gay in MLB? Now THAT would be news.
startenout
Actually, a diver coming out in a country that still doesn’t recognize gay marriage or allow gays to adopt IS news in and of itself as he sets an example for youth in that country and around the world who look up to him. Many gay athletes have historically participated in individual sports like swimming, diving and tennis to avoid the homophobic attitudes traditionally aligned with team sports. Just because YOU don’t value a sport does NOT invalidate the newsworthiness of these athletes. Thanks.
Bradsman
Maybe it’s because a few have already came out successfully. If one person came out in the NFL and he was shown support, maybe others would follow.
Donston
It is kinda discouraging that we don’t have a single openly gay or gay-leaning player in the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL or, hell, even in professional men’s tennis. I never would have thought we’d still be here five years ago. It is what it is I suppose.
But more power to this dude.
Jaxton
Homosexuality is innate but nobody is born gay.
Gay identity politics can distort the way you think and leads to self-prejudice.
startenout
So I assume you’re saying that no one is born with any sexuality at all; neither homosexual nor heterosexual. Interesting hypothesis. Do you have ANY facts to support your theory?
Donston
It’s actually been proven multiple times that there are certain genes or a manipulation of chromosomes that a significant amount of gay people are more likely to be born with. So, I very much believe that many people are indeed born gay. However, orientation can develop in a multitude of different ways. It’s often a mix of physiology, environment, psychology and experience. People who were sexually abused or assaulted and grow up to be gay, gay-leaning or trans-leaning tend to show more self-resentful, shame, internalized homophobia and are generally more suspect about the develop of orientation.
isxios
How can Homosexuality be both innate and nobody is born with it? Or are you talking about Gay as a modern social construct distinct from homosexuality as an instinctual leaning?
Kieran
Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel is facing criticism after repeatedly making lewd jokes suggesting a homosexual relationship between Fox News host Sean Hannity and President Donald Trump.
During a heated Twitter exchange between Kimmel and Hannity, the ABC funnyman repeatedly suggested that President Trump and Hannity were having a sexual relationship.
“When your clown makeup rubs off on Trump’s ass, does it make his butt look like a Creamsicle,” Kimmel quipped.
Goforit
Kieren, I think that you are reading too much into Kimmel’s tweet. He is simply pointing out that Hannity is an ass kissing, brown nosing servant to the dark lord Trump. Nothing sexual about it.
Kangol
What does a late-night comedian’s joke about the worst, most corrupt, pathologically lying treasonous US president in history and his propaganda station lackey have to do with this courageous, handsome diver? Can we just NOT hear about the monster in the White House for a change?
Kieran
Writes Ira Madison III in the Daily Beast:
Why do “progressive” comedians so readily jump to homophobic jokes when it comes to mocking conservatives? Either insinuating that they like receiving anal sex via bottoming—or any other homosexual sex act—is the surefire way to knock someone down a peg. Because insisting that they’re gay must be the ultimate insult, right? Because the insinuation that a man might want to have sex with another man is somehow funny. The act itself is comical…
…Their use of terms like “bottoming” show that they at least have a casual understanding of gay terminology, which means that when they make jokes about it it’s almost as if they’re trying to show off how “in the know” they are. In the way that “hipster racism” was coined to describe white people being “ironically” racist to show that they weren’t racist (while mostly being racist), comedians employ bottom-shaming jokes to show that they “get” gay culture and are just having fun with it. But if they actually cared about gay people, they wouldn’t resort to clichéd jokes that imply being on the receiving end during anal sex is somehow a shameful, cringeworthy act.
Kimmel and Handler’s jokes specifically target gay sex as worthy of derision while also implying that one particularly gay sexual position is shameful. It’s basic, and gay comics haven’t even made those jokes since Queer as Folk went off the air, so maybe it’s time for straight comedians to move on too.
nm4047
much that same a women golfers, a gay diver, who’d of thought. 🙂