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This profile is part of Queerty’s 2022 Out For Good series, recognizing public figures who’ve had the courage to come out and make a difference in the past year, in a month-long celebration of National Coming Out Day on October 11.
Name: Danny Jervis, 26
Bio: Danny Jervis, the British Olympic swimmer who publicly came out as gay right before this year’s Commonwealth Games, grew up in a small village in South Wales. Though rugby was king in Resolven, Jervis gravitated towards swimming. He fell in love with the sport the first time his grandparents took him to the local pool as a young child.
“My claim to fame is that I could do 10 meters without armbands when I was one,” he told BBC in one of his two coming-out interviews.
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As Jervis grew older, he viewed swimming as his personal solace.
“Swimming was my interest. It was the thing I’d gelled to and felt safe in, and I loved that when I went to school, there weren’t any other swimmers I knew of,” he said in the BBC interview. “This sounds so bad, but I wasn’t the most academic and I loved having something that I was better at than the others.”
Jervis wasn’t being hyperbolic. Though he didn’t race outside of Wales until he was 16, he won bronze in the 1500-meter freestyle at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and took home silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. But Jervis didn’t stop there: he dreamed of competing in the Olympics.
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Jervis accomplished that goal in 2021, when he swam for Great Britain in the Tokyo Games. He finished fifth in the 1500-meter freestyle final. Afterwards, he did something unusual for an athlete: he thanked his church.
“I want to thank my village of Resolven. I want to thank my church, Sardis Baptist Church, [and] Ammanford Church in Ammanford, who have been really supportive of me,” he said.
“Everyone back home has been praying for me. The thing I’m most proud of in my life is that I’m a Christian, and obviously God was with me tonight, and I’m just really grateful to be representing him.”
A devout Christian, Jervis was baptized early in adulthood, his pastor told the Swim Wales in 2021.
“I love God, and out of all the things in my life my faith is what I’m most proud of,” he told the BBC.
‘I want them to know the real Dan’ ????
Welsh Olympic swimmer Dan Jervis says he wants to inspire others after coming out as gay pic.twitter.com/jsNFSc9CFg
— BBC Sport Wales (@BBCSportWales) June 29, 2022
Coming out: While Jervis says he always knew he was gay, he didn’t come to grips with his sexuality until he was 24 when he reached a breaking point and could no longer hide.
“It wasn’t affecting my swimming, but me as a human being,” he said. “It sounds quite drastic, but I wasn’t enjoying my life. Yeah, I was smiling, but there was something missing to make me properly happy.”
Jervis told his family and friends, including his best friend.
“I said to her: ‘I think I’m gay.’ I couldn’t even say: ‘I’m gay.’ It was still … I couldn’t say it,” he said. “I was basically punching the words out.”
Two years later, Jervis punched out those words in very public fashion.
Speaking to the BBC this summer, he said he wanted to come out before the Commonwealth Games, so he could be a role model to other LGBTQ athletes (at least 40 out athletes competed in the quadrennial event).
“You know, we’re just before the Commonwealth Games and there are going to be kids and adults watching who will know that I’m like them, and that I’m proud of who I am.”
And who is Jervis? He’s a proud gay Christian man. It’s possible to be both.
“There is this thing where people say you can’t be Christian and gay together, and I was sitting there knowing you can be because I am.” he told the BBC.
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Competing in two previous Commonwealth Games as a closeted person, Jervis wanted to be himself before this year’s competition.
“I’ve got years ahead of me in the sports and it’s a sport I love, and I want to be me when i’m doing it,” he said.
Jervis says it’s important for him to be out on the world stage. There are several countries in the Commonwealth where it’s still illegal to be gay. Many leaders of those countries cite conservative religious teachings as the reason for their institutionalized bigotry.
As a Christian himself, Jervis doesn’t buy it.
“Now is a good time for me because the Commonwealth Games is in a month’s time and there’s going to be a lot of people watching that and there’s so many countries in the Commonwealth where being gay is illegal,” he told the BBC. “And for me to be [visible] on that stage and to inspire people is what I’m here to do.”
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Those who came out to make a difference
Cam
Good for him!!
m
Religion does so much damage to humanity. Never any proof of any deities ever anywhere.
Kangol2
Congrats to him and thank you for coming out!
The real Bruce
The real Dan Jervis has stood up and been counted. So proud of him and his Welsh supporters and team mates. Head down, legs straight and arms stretched ahead, Dan. Go for the Gold!
MusicBoi74
Wow, I love this! As a fellow Christian who happens to be gay, I feel his pain. My father is a retired pastor from a very conservative, Holiness church. It was not easy coming out, but things have come full circle now and life is good and peaceful. I even have a good relationship with my parents, and they accept my husband.