he has spanish and i am gay and many os
you will ask good but what more
matter is that despite being
runner-up of europe and the world sub 20
more than 40 times international with the
absolute selection or top scorer
of the Spanish edition have not been my
sports successes that have made me
become a character of interest
public but the decision to speak
high and clear of sport sexuality two
realities that coexist peacefully
practically in all the all
areas of Spanish society
except in the in the hermetic and dark
sports world in May I became
in the first goal of the world’s polo player
in publicly leaving the closet and in
one of the first sportsmen of
Spanish elite in breaking that taboo
inside the sport
quickly the media
they echoed the news and in about
days since it appeared in the press
digital sport and written
many newspapers of national circulation and as
not so in some programs of
television so you can meet me
a little more
I’m going to tell you that I started in the
sport being very very small
my parents I sign up for swimming
when I was two years old
I suppose that because of the tranquility that
lets know that your child can swim and the
true that they have to thank all
because since two years it does not separate me
of the pools the competitions
swimming soon gave way to
water polo matches and change the goal and
the glasses for the ball in 10 years in
my club I went through all the categories
until reaching the first team
the dedication however came to the
16 years when to take the
high school enters a high school
performance here in madrid and already of
people not only through the streets with me
team and started doing it also by
the mornings at eight in the morning
with another group of scholars
inevitably then the values of
sacrifice effort begin to run
by your veins I made great friends
during his two years of baccalaureate
but it was also the years in which
that I started to realize that inside
me there was something different from the
something else that he could not buy
with nobody that I’m afraid to tell
I finished the baccalaureate entered the
university and another of the
important important moments of
my life that was when I signed up for my
current club a club that is historic in
the in the highest category of
national water polo and also if my
first professional contract during
all these years that I have been in my
experienced team growth
huge sports but most important
that gives me the sport has been the
ability to experience a high
personal growth that this has
much more value
finally the 25 decided to talk about
my sexual condition
in a report published for the
magazine a very important magazine
dedicated public we have done here in
Spain and many but good because
today is still something like this
news, it is true that in many
areas of work or life
public
the non-sexual zero is absolutely
indifferent but it is not like that in the in the
sports are very few athletes
Spanish homosexuals who show their faces
because homosexuality is still a
taboo within sport and the
athletes feel fear of rejection of
rejection of his colleagues to the rejection of
from our audience to the rejection of
the trainers
this also of course occurs in the
great sports is much more obvious
in soccer the formula 1 in tennis
despite the fact that little by little some
minority sports athletes
we take a step forward
well in my case and if we talk about the
homosexuality
no doubt there is a sport above
all in that situation you
they are absent and it is soccer
in football
we found a tragic case this one
we have here back and justin fashanu the
February 19
we commemorate in Spain at the level
international the day of the fight against
homophobia in sport is the day
who was born justin fashanu justin fashanu
he was the first homosexual athlete
soccer player to openly declare
homosexual in 1990
good since he said that
he was homosexual
the imagination that suffered the harassment that
had to live and the humiliations at
who was subjected, they took him to finish
with his life hanging in 1998 when
this happened I was seven years old
I am young and therefore not so much
time of this and that football is
a bubble then sports another
dimension
imagine that every weekend they are going to
the stadiums more than 30,000 people to
see your teams
other thousands almost millions viewers
the matches continue on television and
It is very usual to listen to each in each
match as it is said to the rivals
fagot
even among the players themselves what
we’ve heard the most curious thing is that
nobody says anything nobody complains nobody what
sanctions nobody criticizes
in football there is no talk of homophobia
the institutions and the means
specialized also look for another
side
what is the direct consequence of this
fear
this generates fear in the athlete and
It is also these patterns that make
that only 0.5 percent
eye to the data 0.5 percent of the
athletes who participated in the
past olympic games there
recognized his homosexuality
[Applause]
one of the values that sport has
by flag respect
you will be able to say the
truth and listen every Sunday a
insensitive stadium crowded or has
become the object of ridicule
your fellow rivals for
logically the athlete what he does
is to go up to be marked by having a
sexual condition different from being
humiliated and hides however is not
the only factor that makes a
very sensual sportswoman hide in the
team sports
the costumes are the most important thing is the
family your support
feel part of something is the feeling
of belonging par excellence with the
Teammates
we spend hours and hours of our life
we protect ourselves, we cover ourselves, we leave
the skin one for the other
we make joint decisions of ours
ties narrow and go much further
of the playing field that your own
team can marginalize tea or villarte by
being homosexual is very hard very hard as
You all know that I am here
telling his story
I’m not lucky not to have suffered
this is marginalization but maybe it’s going
to seem a bit of what I am going to say
there is a close relationship between
the lack of visibility of gtb in the
sport and lack of training
study and training help us
have an open mind
the schools institute the schools and
sports federations should
collaborate together to promote values
of tolerance respect visibility e
equality within the base sport
thus a possible future exit from
wardrobe of a lad or a girl would be
much simpler and also the
own colleagues have the training
necessary to know that there is no
nothing bad or anything diver
salinas nothing bad or anything strange in the
diversity as if it’s saying I’m a
lucky because I have felt in my
skin marginalization
once I was clear that I did not want
hide more then I decided to take the step
and we were not outraged I never felt in my
skin is the imagination I the
humiliation precisely that’s why I think
that my message is necessary and positive
teach others that sometimes being
brave the average of good things you
respect and sometimes admiration and
encourage more young people to stop
feel afraid when I was 15
I remember that my inner thought was
that something was wrong that was different and
It is wrong if I had had references
gay sports that would have
proven as they are
surely my process would have been
much simpler therefore for
those who do suffer every day
have a sporting reference can be
the closest thing to see the light at the end
of the tunnel and that I also think that it
must respect those who do not decide to do
public his sexual condition but that
be by a personal decision and not by
afraid to watch water polo is a sport
minority
we are a small big family in the
that we all know and josh in the background without
have said it explicitly then
both my coaches my classmates
of team like my team mates
selection
they knew that I was homosexual so that
you make an idea was born in the middle
of the 19th century and although it seems very little
to the sport with what is competed today
nowadays I am sure that he has
It hosted home and host other
homosexuals with the difference that
none had spoken about it before
in my case I had it clear and and once
there the step
I knew that the consequences that will
have and will be positive in all
senses
maybe I’m a lucky one as I say
because he has not felt in my skin the
imagination the transition has been
comfortable
however this security that I have in
myself or who I am
today I did not have it when I had
16 years
I still remember when precisely with 16
I went to talk to my best friend who
play in the water polo team to
tell him that I liked the guys and
I was immersed in a sea of doubts
imagined by good his answer was
good but it’s still you and I follow you
wanting from this moment
choose carefully who would
take to tell you my secret and every
friend who only counted had one
even more positive relationship
so soon I decided to open my
circle a little more and with all the
people who were not so close to knowingly
that my secret might stop
do what
I’m sure there were people who did not
it fit well but nobody came to tell me
personally a comment is nice
or the negative magician because as I say in
sport over the competition
is respect the decision to give the
step forward and making it public is not
easy
well a conversation process with me
family with my friends with my surroundings
personal me in my circle has
had opinions of all kinds but at
final as I am I knew that the
balance was going to decant for the part
positive and once and do it I put in
hands of replacement report that
I knew he told me he was going to take care of me
image was going to take care of the interview and not
I can be happier with cola with
what has happened and with the repercussion
that you may know I am lucky to
live in madrid that is a big city
which has one of the neighborhoods the gtd more
emblematic of the whole world and still
well last year we saw in more than 80
homophobic aggressions
this can not fall on deaf ears
so I decided on the side of the
who fight for rights put my
granite of sand and ultimately make
visible to others what could it
they could also be as told to the
beginning social networks starting
from the moment I made this public
burst and my followers went
multiplied by ten
they have behaved with me people
Anonymous of all places
some politicians to a person the
show simply for
encourage me to continue in the struggle to
applaud my gesture to tell me your
experiences and I truly feel
a lucky one because listening and
reading to so many people I realized
of the amount of suffering that causes
have a different sexual condition and
medium also fortunate to have
could help some in return either
my life has not changed
I’m still the same, I’m still studying
my career when my sport but I
I’m proud to say that he collaborated
whenever they ask me with those who
day by day they fight for the rights the
fpv associations groupings forums in
definitive what I did was a small
gesture that I hope it will work for
help inspire other people
because it’s not worth living with fear
hidden or afraid of being rejected
Sometimes you have to take a step
front you have to get dirty you have to be
brave without us anything else
or nothing more than our own
happiness and that is that there are infinity
of experiences people and moments
wonderful waiting for each one of
if it were only to open the
door to go for them
thank you very much
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