Matthew Mitcham WINS GOLD!!!

[Rick336]

Openly gay Matthew Mitcham from Australia has won the gold medal for platform diving at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Here's the story:
http://www.365gay.com/features/out-australian-diver-matthew-mitcham-wins-olympic-gold-in-beijing/


Rick

[tdogg]

I was screaming for him to get that dive. Incredible. He nailed his last dive! Way TOO cool!! I'm so happy for Matthew!! :D:rainbow::award: Just an excellent performance, when it really counted.

[Emproph]

8tm33-KoxXA

[Ozgeorge]

Those wishing to send Matthew a "hero message" via sms can do so here:
http://hero.telstra.com/olympics/SendMessageEmail.aspx?hid=264&tid=

[u-dog]

That NBC, after sharing every possible detail about the private lives of every other athlete in the olympics, didn't remember to mention that Matthew is gay and has a Mom and a partner in the stands. and of course... no camera shots of them while he was competing. Sigh.

[Emproph]

8tm33-KoxXA

"I would like to say thank you to absolutely everybody who helped, my partner Lockland (SP?), and my mom here, to support me, and watch me get gold…"

http://www.waynebesen.com/uploaded_images/Mitcham2-703679.jpg
But as U-dog mentioned,
That NBC, after sharing every possible detail about the private lives of every other athlete in the olympics, didn't remember to mention that Matthew is gay and has a Mom and a partner in the stands. and of course... no camera shots of them while he was competing. Sigh.

That disturbes me as well (and from what I've been reading) that his partner was not just "shunned" per se, but purposefully avoided altogether (technically that's redundant) by NBC.

[tdogg]

But as U-dog mentioned,

That disturbes me as well (and from what I've been reading) that his partner was not just "shunned" per se, but purposefully avoided altogether (technically that's redundant) by NBC.

Either the producers were afraid of possible negative reaction, either for potential loss of business or reaction of the host country? Or, the commentators themselves were too fearful to include that aspect of Matt's life. I'm sure he is utterly elated at winning the gold and getting media attention, but somewhere inside he must be disappointed and sad that the US media representative (NBC) failed to include his partner. Not surprising, but definitely disappointing.

[Emproph]

BRIAN MOYLAN
Friday, August 29, 2008

Olympics coverage fails to acknowledge gold medal winner’s sexual orientation. (http://www.washingtonblade.com/2008/8-29/view/columns/13159.cfm)

[Alecto]

The overly defensive response when questioned about it was almost worse than the original omission. :-/

[Gregory_de_Bois]

Why wouldn't they want to show him and his partner? They are so cute!! (I didn't lust when he dove, but man is he a great diver with a great body...)