Ian Thorpe, Australia's most medaled
Olympian, recently spoke at an Australians 4 Equality event held at
Twitter's offices in Sydney.
Thorpe, 34, came out gay in 2014 after
years of denying rumors about his sexuality. He is currently in a
relationship with law student and model Ryan Channing.
“I struggled to come out but I don't
struggle with being out,” Thorpe
said.
He said that he was terrified of how
his parents would react.
“I come from a conservative family
and my heart was racing. I had prepared for it and then I blurted it
out and they quite simply told me that they would love me and always
support me,” he said.
He added that coming out publicly “was
better than I could have hoped for.”
“I was proud how the majority of
people in Australia said 'that's great, no big deal' and the
nonchalant response is how it should be,” Thorpe said.
Thorpe shared the stage with Jim
Obergefell, the Ohio man whose legal challenge led to the Supreme
Court's 2015 finding that gay and lesbian couples have a
constitutional right to marry.
(Related: Jim
Obergefell says he doesn't trust Trump on marriage equality.)