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Tag: Thomas Hilzlspreger

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  • Sport Stars Who Came Out Of The Closet

    Despite there being thousands if not hundreds of thousands of men and women in professional sports, very few have come out as lesbian, gay, bi or transgender.

    We take a look at the brave few who have come out as LGBT over the last couple of years.

    Tom Daley

    Probably one of the most famous coming out stories of recently years. Daley decided to come out as bisexual through a video on YouTube. He later came out as gay on national TV on a Keith Lemon show.

    Gus Kenworthy

    Olympian medalist Gus came out in 2015 in an interview with EPSN.

    Liam Davis

    A high profile footballer, Liam Davis came out as gay in a newspaper interview in 2014. He said,

    ‘I personally hope that over the next 10 years I’m not the only gay footballer out there. Nobody wants to be forced out, but I hope they can look and see there is someone out there who has done it.

    Ian Thorpe

    Swimming champion Ian Thorpe came out as gay in 2014. The gold medal Olympian said, “I’m not straight. And this is only something that very recently – in the past two weeks – I’ve been comfortable telling the closest people around me exactly that.”

    John Fennell

    A then 19-year-old, Canadian Luger John Fennell came out during an interview in which he called hiding his sexuality a ‘suffocating’

    Ian Matos

    A Brazillian diver came out shortly after Tom Daley revealed his sexuality. He came out despite being told to stay in the closet until after the 2016 Rio Olympics.

    Thomas Hitzlsperger

    German born Thomas came out as gay in January 2014. He was a football player for Aston Villa and West Ham.

    Caitlyn Jenner

    Caitlyn Jenner made headlines this year after revealing that she is a woman. She was an Olympian champion known as Bruce Jenner. She is the highest profile professional athlete to ever come out as transgender.

    Sam Stanley

    Sam became the first professional English pro rugby player to come out in 2015.

    Keegan Hirst

    27-year-old Keegan Hirst came out in an interview with the Sunday Mirror.

    David Benson

    David a baseball player in the United States became the first pro baseball player to come out as gay. He did so on the same day that Keegan Hirst came out.

  • Former Aston Villa Football Player Comes Out As Gay

    Thomas Hitzlsperger, German-born former Aston Villa and West Ham player, has announced that he is gay.

    The 31 year old, who retired from professional football four months ago, made the announcement in the German newspaper, Die Zeit.

    Speaking to Die Zeit, Hitzlsperger, who has played for Germany 52 times, said that he had come out because he wanted to “further the debate about homosexuality among sports professionals.”

    He justified his silence on the matter until after his retirement from the sport, saying that homosexuality would “simply be ignored” in football. Nonetheless, he stated that he had “never been ashamed” of his sexuality, although he admitted that it had been “a long and difficult process” coming to terms with his sexuality.

    Although Hitzlsperger is the highest profile footballer to come out as gay, to date, he is only the fourth footballer to do so.

    Hitzlsperger’s coming out coincides with an upsurge in movements aimed at wiping out homophobia in football. Kick It Out, which was initially founded in 1993 to tackle racism in the sport, now encompasses all types of bigotry in football. And in 2008, the Justin Campaign was created in memory of Justin Fashanu, the first openly gay football player, who committed suicide in 1998.

    However, campaigns to stamp out homophobia in the sport have met with debatable success. The most recent example in the UK is Stonewall’s ‘Right Behind Gay Footballers’ campaign, which was slammed for its links with betting company Paddy Power and for relying on gay stereotypes.