Tom Daley says he will fight for gay rights in Russia when he travels there next month
Image: Image: Tom Daley / Instagram.
Champion diver Tom Daley has vowed to take his fight for gay rights to Russia after speaking out at the Commonwealth Games.
Daley used the recent Gold Coast spotlight to draw attention to the dozens of countries in the Commonwealth that still criminalise homosexuality.
“To know that 36 of the completing nations criminalise LGBT people so that if I was born in a different country I wouldn’t be able to compete truly as I am, it struck me in such a way I was mortified by it,” he said, adding that he was lucky not to have to fear imprisonment for his sexuality.
Daley has revealed he plans to take his campaign for international gay rights to Russia when he competes at next month’s Diving World Series in Kazan, Metro has reported.
“I think the one thing that is the most powerful thing to do is go and compete and do the best I can, and just be who I am and compete at the highest level that I can,” he said.
“Speaking out can only do so much, but for me going there competing is a message that I want to urge other LGBT people to go and compete in Russia.
“It doesn’t matter about our sexual orientation.”
Daley is this year expecting a baby with his husband, Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black.
On the weekend they shared photos on social media of their surprise baby shower, showing the couple smiling in gold ‘Oh Baby’ glasses.
Black recently appeared on a British radio show to talk about surrogacy and defend same-sex parents against the homophobic concerns of a caller.
“There are all different kinds of families out there in the world,” Black said.
The couple have been working with a surrogate in the US, and plan to raise their child in the UK.
