2021 was a big year for coming out of the closet! JoJo Siwa, Kehlani and Elvira were three of many lesbian and/or bisexual women in the public eye who shed a little joy in these dark pandemic days by revealing that they are into women.
Next cab off the rank is Italian Olympic medal-winning boxer Irma Testa, who came out to Vanity Fair Italia in an interview early December. While labels are important for many, Irma is simply stating she’s a member of the rainbow community for now:
“I’m not saying I’m a lesbian because there can also be a man in my future,” Advocate translated. “Since I was a little girl I have been attracted to women, but sometimes I have also felt it to men. The labels must be there: to make things become normal you must first go through the labels. But I don’t use them because I don’t like them.”
She spoke about the pressure to be perfect that’s involved in being an athlete, not only in the boxing ring but in your private life. Making it to Olympic level, let alone medal-winning, also pushes you further into the public eye, which is just another level of scrutiny.
“The people around me have known this for years, but I think it’s right now to tell everyone. Speaking of sexual orientation in the world of sport has a special value because champions are expected to be perfect,” she said. “And for many homosexuality is still an imperfection. Many athletes stay silent and hide away for fear of damaging their image. For me, too, it was like that up to a few months ago.”
Athletes coming out is a huge deal. While the entertainment industry still has its issues, gay and lesbian people have always been part of screen and sound’s cultural fabric. Sport is different. Sporting culture, which is notoriously hyper-masculine, is riddled with misogyny and homophobia. It’s not hidden, like in the entertainment industry, it’s a vein bulging on the surface.
In many sports, lesbians share dressing rooms with women and gay men share dressing rooms with other men. Because homosexuality is still seen as a predatory “choice,” rather than an orientation that exists in many species of animals, it’s no wonder why gay and lesbian athletes remain in the closet for longer than many.
Athletes coming out does a lot for gay and lesbian representation. They’re on the screen of our homophobic uncle’s television who, in the very least, has to acknowledge gay people exist. While it’s no excuse, much of the more subtle societal homophobia comes from the fear of the unknown. When we’re known–and loved, like athletic champions of our countries–there’s much less chance of fear.
Irma Testa felt like she had to prove herself as a sportswoman before she could be confident enough to express her sexual orientation. That way, not only was she certified competent, she didn’t have surveying eyes critiquing her for anything other than her form in the ring: “that Tokyo medal has become my shield: Now that Irma the athlete is secure, Irma the woman can be sincere,” she said.
Now that “Irma the athlete is secure,” she’s swinging punches in the fight against homophobia.
“Every human being should be protected and safe. Or at least protected. Who can protect you if not the state, its institutions, its laws?” She said. “There are still too many people discriminated against and this is not good. I can’t do much, but I can, by telling the truth about myself, say that nothing is wrong [with being gay].”
