Happy Wed.

Well we are almost there! the weekend is just around the corner!

 

A Gay Father's Open Letter To Ian Thorpe

Last weekend, Ian Thorpe, who Australian politician Penny Wong called her country’s “greatest Olympian,” came out as a gay man. In doing so, he follows in the footsteps of a number of brave public celebrities and a number of athletes from around the globe.
There was an aspect to Thorpe’s coming out which was dramatically more poignant than his predecessors, however. In coming out, Thorpe shared something not often discussed: the horrible cost to one’s psyche of hiding such a core and personal secret.
Actress Ellen Page, for example, came out eloquently. She described her pre-coming out mindset as “You’re just not fully aware of it. I think I still felt scared about people knowing. I felt awkward around gay people; I felt guilty for not being myself.” Michael Sam came out describing a supportive team, bright draft prospects and ended up kissing his boyfriend on CNN. Tom Daley came out under the mystery of a romantic “love at first sight” mystique, later to reveal that the magical man was Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black. All of their public coming out processes were brave and heart warming, but they also only painted half the picture that many experience.
The other half of the picture is the dark side of hiding the secrets of one’s personal identity. It is the side that contains thoughts of suicide, and the proclivity to fall prey to depression, alcoholism and drugs. Those were part of Ian Thorpe’s story. He came out about them as strongly as he did about his sexual orientation.
Ian’s story made me cry just a little bit harder. I cried relating to the all too familiar pain of the dark he was leaving. I had been a former resident.
I felt compelled to share Ian’s story with my two sons. As they are on the verge of turning 12, adolescence is taking over their lives and the temptation to build their own closets of secrets loom before them. Because their birth families have been prone to alcohol and drug addiction issues, they are biologically susceptible and that too is a situation of which I have made them aware.

Disclaimer:This blog does not claim credit for any images, videos, or other media items featured on this site, or sites linking to it, unless otherwise specified. All visual content, copy and images, are copyright to it’s respective owners. If you own rights to any of the featured images and articles and do not wish it to appear here, please email me and it will be removed from this blog. Bear in mind that the media items found within this site were all found publicly on the web, so removal from this site is not removal from the entire World Wide Web. I do my best to provide the most accurate information but errors and inaccuracies can occur. I do however not make warranty as to the correctness or reliability of the blog’s content. Should you encounter an error or inaccuracy, please inform us so it can be corrected. This is just all in good fun!