![Five-time Olympic swimming gold medalist Ian Thorpe for the first time publicly confirmed that he is gay during a television interview on July 13, 2014, ending years of speculation about his sexual orientation.](https://lgbtqnation-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/2014/07/Ian-Thorpe2.jpg)
“I know you are discovering within yourselves new tastes, new ideas and new instincts. You know we have rules and principles to live by that make us good citizens, help us to never harm others and to be loving caring beings. With those, I hope you guide the new and developing you that emerges. I also hope that you continue to feel free to share with me about feelings, thoughts, aspirations and dreams that you have. Someday, you will fall in love. “As we have talked about… there are men who fall in love with women, quite a lot of them actually, and then there are men who fall in love with other men… like Papa and I did. As you develop into the men you are going to be, your instincts will tell you which of these you are. Your instincts may also tell you that you are both. I don’t know. Here is the important point, however – I won’t care.” And then I added… “I care that you not hold secrets about yourself from me. I will celebrate who you are. As Ian Thorpe showed us, holding a secret can make even being a world renown athlete no fun. We Watsons cannot dabble with drugs or alcohol, others might, but we can’t afford to. I won’t care about the gender or ethnicity of your future spouse. If you have secrets, I want you to share them with me before you reach out to any of that. There are things you will win, there are things you will lose and through each, you will have a champion, your Dad. I am here for you, and I always will be.”From the looks on their faces, I know the message had gotten through. They quietly shuffled off to focus on Mine Craft, but in thought over what had just been said. Meanwhile, I sat down to compose a letter to Ian Thorpe.
Thank you Ian Thorpe: How your coming out impacted this gay dad and his kids