Danell Leyva Hopes His Coming Out Story Will Help Normalise Things
October 27, 2020Three-time Olympic gymnast Danell Leyva came out on October 11th, National Coming Out Day, in a Twitter thread. He stated that, for him, stereotypes surrounding his sport may have been one of the biggest obstacles to his coming out as a member of the LGBT+ community.
Leyva admits that coming out was made even more difficult by his stubbornness and determination – traits that helped lift him to the Olympic podium three times.
“[The stereotypes were] such a big factor in it, just not giving those people the satisfaction of being right because it doesn't come from a good place,” Leyva told Olympic Channel this week. “It wasn’t somebody that was trying to help us understand [our sexuality]. It was just somebody pointing at us and that doesn’t feel good.”
“I didn't think it was gonna blow up the way it did,” added Leyva, adding that the responses were not only positive, they were also comforting.
“In the post, I said that I'm still trying to figure out between whether I'm bi or pan. It was nice to have people be like, ‘You don't have to label it. You don't have to just be ‘a thing’. It's an ever-changing fluid thing, so you don't have to worry about that,’” the 2011 World parallel bars champion explained. “That was nice because that was certainly reassuring.”
As ‘Olympic Channel’ reports, coming out had been on his mind for a while before his announcement. Leyva says he thought about doing it back in June for Pride Month, but reconsidered as news in the United States was focused on ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd in police custody.
“I was like, ‘No, I'm not really that important,’” said Leyva. “And so I decided to just kind of forget about it, and I did forget about it.”
But a friend alerted him to October’s Coming Out Day, and suggested that Leyva, no stranger to allyship for the LGBT+ and other communities, post a message of support.
“I sent her the thread before I actually sent it out – her and two other of my really close friends. Almost immediately, they called me. One of them was like damn near in tears,” Leyva recalled. “And she's like, ‘What? Are you kidding? This is amazing. I'm so proud of you. Are you ready for this?’”
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