Mar 19
Out Olympic Swimmer Found Acceptance in... Kentucky?
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Openly gay Zimbabwean swimmer and Olympian Sean Gunn didn't come out until he was competing with the team at the University of Kentucky – and his teammates didn't bat an eye.
"Initially I was not out at all," the swimmer, now 30, told LGBTQ+ athletics site OutSports. He explained that when he "left home when I was 18 years old to go live, train and study in the USA," he "had quite a long-term relationship with a girl, but after that ended I dated a guy in the U.S., which all my friends and team knew about."
It took him longer to come out to his family back in Zimbabwe. Gunn, who swam at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, continued: "But my team, and everyone who did know, was very supportive and happy for me."
"Surely they avoided him in the locker room or rooming on road trips," OutSports hazarded.
But, no: "I honestly don't think anything really changed at all," Gunn told the athletics site. "If anything, friendships just became better."
Not that he hadn't been afraid of things might turn out.
"I think in my head I built it up for so long, and I was terrified that the way they acted or treated me would be different," Gunn said. "But I was really lucky that everyone was so amazing and wanted me to be the happiest version of myself."
It took years, but even when he did let his family know his most personal truth, he found love and acceptance from them.
"Although I haven't had one bad experience since coming out, I guess I just struggled with it for way too long," Gunn, who called the long period of time when he was still in closet with his family "unfortunate," said.
That's all behind him now, though.
"Today, Gunn is totally out in his life – living in Cape Town, South Africa with his boyfriend and working at a new job," OutSports said.
"As someone who did struggle with coming out and only did come out at 27 to my family," Gunn told OutSports, "it makes me so happy to be surrounded by friends and family and so much love, and am really grateful for them all."
Check out some of Gunn's Instagram posts below.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
