A real profile in courage

When we were 20 the notion of coming out was unimaginable. It was 1975, and only two years since the American psychiatric community had decided being gay was not, perforce, to be mentally ill. We couldn't manage it with family, much less the small town we lived in.

Doing it as a sports star, a member of one's national Olympic team, at 20 strikes us as unimaginable even now.

Yet Australian Matthew Mitcham, a 10-meter driver, has done just that. The Johnson & Johnson Athlete Family Support Program gives grants for athletes to take a support person with them to the Olympic Games, and Mitcham has applied to take his partner with him to Beijing. And he's talked matter-of-factly about it to the Sydney Morning Herald.

"Mitcham's decision to reveal details of his personal life was a brave one. Australia is a sports-mad country that still expects its sporting heroes to conform to old-fashioned notions of masculinity," The Independent commented. He will be the first openly gay Australian Olympic competitor. Canadian medallist Mark Tewksbury, who came out only after retiring from competition, has written about the casual homophobia of swimmers, whose insult of choice is usually "fag." And coming out is usually endorsement poison.

People like Mr. Mitcham give one hope as we in America head into a presidential campaign where demonizing gays will be front and center once again. Individual acts of courage can still move the world.