>> Matt Dooley, Notre Dame Tennis Player, Comes Out As Gay
Il en souffrait beaucoup de ne pas pouvoir s’affranchir, jusqu’à même tenter de mettre fin à ses jours. Comment ses amis vont-ils réagir… le percevoir ? Et l’entourage ?
Et puis, Matt Dooley, a finalement décidé de se lancer et l’annoncer à son équipe, ainsi qu’à ses entraîneurs. Et surprise, plutôt que de se voir rejeté comme il s’y attendait, non seulement ils l’ont tous bien accueilli, mais l’Université est allée jusqu’à réaliser une vidéo à cette intention. Soutien inconditionnel, également de la famille.
“Notre Dame est quelque chose que je ne pourrais expliquer”, commente Matt Dooley. “En quelque sorte, c’est ma maison, c’est mon équipe, ce sont mes amis, c’est ma famille – c’est toute ma vie. J’ai donné tout ce que j’avais sur le court de tennis pour cette place, et au final, elle me donne tant de chose en retour. C’est extrêmement cliché, mais, vous savez, c’est ma maison”. Résolument une belle leçon de vie de la part du tennisman, de son équipe, ainsi que de l’Université de Notre Dame.
On peut parfois faire confiance à ses amis. Sur le terrain, comme dans la vie. Sinon, c’est qu’ils ne l’étaient pas 🙂
#Terry
STOP HOMOPHOBIE
>> Trust in teammates runs deeper than just on the court. Dooley found acceptance and support after telling his team the struggles of his life.
Notre Dame tennis player Matt Dooley said the hardest person to tell he was gay was himself.
“Saying gay for the first time was extremely tough, almost choking, because you know your life will never be the same. That was the hardest part, to move forward from there,” the 22-year-old senior said Thursday. “For me at least, every part of my being was like, ‘No, no you’re not.’ But I talk about growing. You learn to accept what you can’t change, and this is something I can’t change.”
Dooley says he has received “overwhelmingly positive” feedback since disclosing publicly on Monday in an article posted on Outsports.com that he was gay. He had told his coaches in August and his teammates on Sept. 16, the two-year anniversary of trying to commit suicide by overdosing on pills because he was struggling with who he was.
“That day I wanted nothing more than to escape the anguish of coming out to my family, my friends, and, in a way, myself,” he wrote in the article. “Death was better than accepting — or revealing — that I was gay.”
Even after the suicide attempt, he ostracized himself from his family for more than seven months because he feared their reaction and because he was still struggling to accept who he was. He wouldn’t return his family’s phone calls or emails and stayed away when they tried to visit, even though they were fully behind him when he came out.
“It’s internal homophobia,” he said. “Often time it’s more of what you think of yourself.”
Dooley’s disclosure comes a matter of weeks after Missouri football player Michael Sam came out publicly, setting himself up to perhaps be the first openly gay player in the NFL. Jason Collins recently became the first openly gay player in the NBA and just signed a second, 10-day contract with the Brooklyn Nets.
