An accomplished athlete, Tom Luchsinger had an impressive calling card even though he was barely past 20 years old. 12 ACC Medals, 10 All-American Certificates, three All-American Trophies, and ACC Men’s Swimmer of the Year. But that internal monologue in his head continued;
“You are still a queen. You are still a fairy!”
When he won the 200m butterfly national title in 2013, something changed in him. He’d graduated to “Olympic hopeful” status, and with that came added attention and responsibility. Fans and the media paid closer attention to him, and he was terrified his secret would come out. Still, he wondered;
“Why would anyone want to take a picture of me? Why would anyone want to film me? I’m nothing but an unaccomplished, closeted queer. For my own personal health, I needed to come out. I needed to accept myself and stop hating myself.”
So in August 2014, he finally started to reach out. He first talked with another gay swimmer who’d come out, then he told his brother, the first in his family to meet the real Tom.
“Twenty minutes after I told him, we were making jokes about it. Nothing changed.”
He finally mustered up the strength to tell his parents, and after he broke the news, they asked him, “Are you the same man we raised for the past 23 years?” Yes,” he said, feeling like he’d let them down. “Then, who cares?” they said.
“My friendships have gotten stronger because of my self acceptance. My smile is a lot more genuine and surfaces much more frequently. I laugh a lot more. My body has time to recover from a workout because I’m actually an easy-going person. I have found qualities-both physical and emotional-that I like about myself – though that’s still a work in progress. My number of good days far out number my bad days.”
Congrats, Tom. (via Queerty)
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