Matthew Mitcham, who in August will be the first openly gay Olympic athlete to compete for Australia, gave an interview to Sydney’s gay magazine SX. In it he is pretty ho-hum about being an out athlete and says his mom knew he was gay long before he said so. He also had some choice words about Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the ‘traditional’ perspective of gay marriage:
“I’m not happy with Kevin Rudd,” he says, bluntly. “Kevin Rudd’s opinion of marriage as something that’s only between a man and a woman is quite narrow-minded. During the election campaign he was all about appearing young and cool, but his views on gay marriage make him look quite old-fashioned.”
It’s nice to see a young athlete at the top of his sport with an opinion and political perspective who is not afraid to share them. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
Hat tip to reader Mike W.
on Jul 13th, 2008 at 2:09 AM
I like that he doesn’t seem very “gay” at all. He really does seem like a regular guy, in an attractive way of course.