Being such a private person, why did you decide to publish a personal column about your sexual orientation?What was driving me was [that] I was getting notes from kids who were struggling with their sexual orientation. They were depressed. Some said [they] had suicidal thoughts. Some had been banished by their own parents and family. It weighed on me in terms of what I could do. Obviously I couldn't talk to each one individually that reached out, but you always know if you have people reaching out to you that there's many more that don't, that are just out there wondering whether they have a future or not, wondering whether life gets better … From there I really decided. There's been a lot of people that came before me that made it possible for me to sit here today, and I needed to do something to help those people that were in a younger generation. It probably took a year between getting the words exactly like I wanted and picking the right time for the company, because I didn't want it to be a distraction and so forth. I have not regretted it for one minute. Not at all.
What was the board of directors' answer?I said, "Look, if I want to do this, this is how I'm going to do this. This is how I want to do it, but if any of you are against this, then I'll pull back." I didn't anticipate they would be, but I wanted to bring them along for the ride, and they unanimously supported it.
I remember when I read your column, one of the sentences that most surprised me was: "I'm proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.”Yes, I strongly believe that. I think there's many meanings behind this. One is, it was his decision, not mine. Two, at least for me, I can only speak for myself, it gives me a level of empathy that I think is probably much higher than average because being gay or trans, you're a minority. And I think when you're a majority, even though intellectually you can understand what it means to be in a minority, it's an intellectual thing. It's not intellectual for me to be in a minority. I'm not saying that I understand the trials and tribulations of every minority group, because I don't. But I do understand for one of the groups. And to the degree that it helps give you a lens on how other people may feel, I think that's a gift in and of itself.
Triest eigenlijk dat dit nog steeds 'nieuws' is.
Ik denk dat als een bekende voetballer voor zijn geaardheid uitkomt de impact veel groter is.
Maar hij verkeerde wel in een positie waarin hij dat kon doen; waar ik overigens niet mee wil zeggen dat zoiets makkelijk is.