https://twitter.com/Joe_Hildebrand/status/488242408912465920
Joe Hildebrand you should be ashamed. It may have been humourous to you, but it wasn’t funny to most people.
You may have attempted an apology too:
https://twitter.com/Joe_Hildebrand/status/488259629655158784
Regardless of whether or not we suspected Ian Thorpe was gay, comments like that really aren’t appropriate. There are people who struggle for years and even decades coming to terms with their sexuality and for you to go around saying “Well duh!” doesn’t help. We never “knew” that Thorpe was gay. At best, we suspected and hypothesised and we could have been so, so wrong. We all live on the same planet, and while most of us may have suspected at one point or another, it’s up to Thorpe to tell us his sexuality, not us to label him. Just as much as it’s up to you to identify the way you wish and not have the general public decide for you.
https://twitter.com/Joe_Hildebrand/status/488276823126441984
You really don’t get it. It has nothing to do with how “good it was that Thorpey came out”, although it is good that he did. It has to do with the fact that you don’t seem to understand the struggles that some go through coming out, something that only those who have been through that struggle will understand. Admittedly, I’m straight and haven’t been through those struggles, but at least I know they exist, have sympathy for those struggling and can acknowledge that some people never overcome their struggle and tragically end their lives. LGBTQI youth are six times more likely to attempt suicide and to know that someone as prominent as Ian Thorpe has gone through a similar struggle to come to terms with his sexuality will undoubtedly help them.
Comments like the ones you made are part of the problem. The people calling you out are trying to make you realise that, even if they are calling you an idiot, because you should know better.
Kara L 