[quote=Airborae;69082559]
:yawn::yawn::yawn: The old Tom Daley is gay point of view. He might very well be, but how do you know 100% that he is? Why do you talk about him in your post like he is? It's incredibly disrepectful of you and other posters to state or assume that you know 100% that he is gay.

Yes I did check to make sure.

This particular topic was created last year..
I thought it was from about 30 years ago. Though the internet of course wasn't around then! Not in this way anyhow..

This is 2013..

[quote=MTUK1;69093556]
I was just using his name as an example. I could have used Gareth Bale, Christiano Ronaldo etc. Note I used in my sentence "if". That's not the same as inferring that Tom Daley is gay.

Staggering naivety if you think that the only reason a person might not come out is the threat of a jail sentence. Whether it's family pressures or career pressures or something else there are lots of reasons why gay men and women would prefer to remain closeted these days whether high profile or otherwise. You only have to look at the case of Luke Evans, a guy who was openly gay but who went back into the closet in order to establish a Hollywood career. And after what happened to Justin Fashanu it's no wonder that football players might be reluctant to come out. And Matthew Mitcham, the only openly gay male athlete in Beijing, won a gold medal in diving and still struggled to find sponsors afterwards, not a problem for the 'straight' Tom Daley though. Even in politics which is quite an accepting profession in this country we've seen high profile comings out including David Laws who was so worried about his family discovering his sexuality he fiddled his expenses claims to cover up his relationship with another man.

Since the entire country already believes Tom Daley to be gay, (something he is well aware of) I don't see how coming out would hurt his career.

Of course it's possible that he's telling the truth and really isn't gay.

I'm not sure the entire country does believe Tom Daley is gay. Tom says he's straight and I guess that's the final word until we hear otherwise. But it's not really the country that matters. As I said, Matthew Mitcham is an openly gay diver who won a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics and he couldn't get sponsors no matter how hard he tried because sponsors simply didn't want to be associated with an openly gay diver. Sponsorship is pretty much vital for an athlete.

Bill Buckley, a gay broadcaster, told me there are many people in Showbiz/Media who are gay but choose not to come out, some may even be married.

Rupert Everret said that after he came out, acting roles dried up, and the parts he was offered were considerably limited in range, especially in America, where he was seen as a 'Gay actor'.

Why are there no Premier League Footballers out? Or any Footballers in any League in England? When the law of averages says there must be some?

The notion that it's easy to come out of the closet nowadays is nonsense.
Whether it's for family/religious reasons, career reasons, or simply just not wanting to draw attention to yourself and be a spokesperson or have unwanted press attention, ofcourse it's not a simple matter.

Or they want to fleece their fans for every penny they can get ruthlessly.

David Laws fiddled his expenses because he's greedy. He's a millionaire; if he didn't want his family to find out that he's gay he didn't need to claim expenses. He used the gay excuse to try to get sympathy. Clearly it worked as he's back in a high job.

As you say, Laws is a millionaire, do you really think he needed the £40k that he made out of the expenses that he wrongly claimed? Don't make me laugh.

Laws was living with a man with whom he was in a relationship but he didn't want anyone to know that so he pretended that he wasn't in a relationship. If he hadn't been claiming expenses then it would have been incredibly suspicious. Indeed if he had arranged his finances differently he could have actually claimed even more expenses than he actually did.

I don't agree that what he did was right and I don't believe he should be in government or indeed in the house of commons but what he did was done to conceal his relationship not to enrich himself.

And you really think that a lot of millionaires aren't motivated by money in any way ? Really ? Chances are that Westminster all knew he was gay anyway, and that it was just a secret to his family. In any case, his family are hardly likely to have scoured his expense claims and, if anyone else queried why he wasn't claiming, he could easily have said that he was a wealthy man who felt it wrong to make such a claim.

I'm gay and managed to get through the years I wasn't out to family and friends without committing any crime. To anyone with a sense of decency committing a crime just to prevent coming out in this country in 2013 would be unthinkable. And my mum is elderly and deeply religious just like his. He's just another greedy rich man who got away with a criminal act.

That seems rather an overstatement - I'm pretty sure the entire country does not believe Tom Daley is gay. - There isn't half some nonsense spouted on this thread.

I agree that the idea that it is easy to come out these days is nonsense - It may be easier than it was a few decades ago for many, but for many others in their own personal positions it is not easy, there is still a huge amount of prejudice out there, not as much as there was granted but to generalise and say it is easy to come out these days is pure nonsense. Easier for many yes but not easy as a general rule. Easier within some professions compared to others that's probably true.

What do people think about Josh Hutcherson's interview???

Very enlightening. Good to see him support LGBT!

Call me a cynic, but i feel he's pretty much ignored as an actor expect when The Hunger Games films are released and this "maybe i could fall in love with a guy" got a hell of a lot of attention.

Quite refreshing and handled well imo.

It's certainly not compulsory to say you are open-minded and people shouldn't feel beaten into it to please liberals (of which I am one) IF they are not that way inclined, but I think in his case he has left the door open for himself in his future, Natalie Portman-style. He's basically straight but is not cutting himself off and is taking a longer view.

Which is fine because it does happen, especially in entertainment, where you meet lots of people in such a creative industry and anyone can 'click' - sometimes unexpectedly.

Fair play to him.

Also very valid point.

But, don't forget that classic, alleged 'PR agent' line of late: 'homos don't make it in this town', so he's also automatically 'limited' himself (in theory). Why do that so soon?

bit quiet on here lately... what do people think about the boyband Lawson??

I love someone to be gay in that band. If only to break the hearts of a little sister and her annoying friends *evil laugh*

they all look very feminine except the lead singer Andy i think his name is (very nice) - i just dont see what would be attractive about the other 3 because they don't look manly?

30 years ago discussing someone's alledged homosexuality would've landed you in the libel courts..so this thread is very much a product of its time: 2013.

The blond one. Surely...

I was thinking more the drummer lol

Anyone who exhibits even the slightest mannerism that could be seen as effeminate, according to this thread.

When people stereotype based on race, there's outrage, but it seems there's no problem with doing the same in regards to sexuality.

The most common reason for suspecting people to be in the closet I've seen in here has been "They're quite feminine". Well, that makes them gay then, gosh!