In a recent interview with the Spanish LGBTQ+ outlet Shangay, Gutiérrez, 32, says it’s still vital for LGBTQ+ athletes to speak their truth. Despite widespread progress, sports can remain an exclusionary place for LGBTQ+ folx, who still lack visible role models–especially on the men’s side.
“It is absolutely necessary for LGTBI people to be visible in all spaces, especially in sport, because it is one of the areas in which there is the most discrimination and the most invisibility,” he said.
Gutiérrez has felt some of that discrimination himself. He refused to shake hands with an opponent, Nemanja Ubovic, who he said called him a gay slur during their match. When Gutiérrez didn’t extend his arm, he says Ubovic called him a “f*ggot” again.
“I am 30 years old and I am a professional and I try to do activism from a positive view of my experience, but I think I do myself a disservice by keeping quiet,” he tweeted in 2021.
“But this happens every day in swimming pools, soccer fields, tennis courts … And it is not only experienced by professionals, but also by CHILDREN. I just hope that together we will eliminate this SCAR from sport at once. TOLERANCE is greater than LGTBIphobia,” he wrote.
Story Via queerty.com
Read full interview here shangay.com
