Tom Daley says ‘Britain is the reason’ for homophobia across Commonwealth ‘Learn history!’

Tom Daley talks about intolerance in sport in Christmas message

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Tom Daley, 28, is shining a light on homophobia across the Commonwealth. His new BBC documentary, Illegal To Be Me, saw him travel to “some of the most homophobic countries” in the association, many of which are former territories of the British Empire.

With the documentary, the Olympic diver aims to highlight the need to improve education on the discriminatory legacy of the Empire so that those affected can “heal”.

In a new interview with Gay Times, Tom said: “Teaching facts is not persuading someone either way about anything. People need to know the history to be able to have some kind of context around what is happening in the world, and to learn the history.  

“It’s also about just acknowledging it and being able to highlight that this happened and it was really sh***y and until the British public can acknowledge that… how can anybody heal from that?”

To make a change, Tom wants schools to improve their teaching of anti-LGBTQ+ laws, as well as colonialism and black history.

In making the documentary, Tom spent four years travelling to “some of the Commonwealth’s most homophobic countries” to investigate how some gay athletes “live in fear of horrific brutality inside the countries they represent”.

In a haunting synopsis, the BBC explains that some countries still impose punishments including whipping, life imprisonment and death.  

It also states that it is illegal to be gay in over half of the 56 member states of the Commonwealth.  

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Following the making of his documentary, Tom says he has changed his mind about banning countries with anti-LGBTQ+ laws from hosting the Commonwealth Games.

Speaking on Channel 4 news on Sunday, the diver explained: “It was actually going around the Commonwealth and in Pakistan where the athletes that I spoke to said it wouldn’t make a difference.

“It would put a target on the back of those LGBT people like, ‘You’re the reason why we aren’t allowed to host’.

“It then becomes further oppression.”

Tom came out as gay in 2013.

Since then, he married screenwriter Dustin Lance Black in 2018. His husband is best known for writing and winning an Academy Award for the 2008 film Milk.

Tom Daley: Illegal to Be Me is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

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