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Before reading Edge’s interview with Matthew Mitcham, all I knew about him was that he is a hot gay gold-medal winning Australian diver. Which is kind of a lot. What I didn’t know was that he is also a remarkable role model for gay people. He has come out. He has accepted the idea that being out comes with a cost. And he is committed to bettering a world beyond the edges of his own skin:

. . . “I don’t think I would have done the Olympics without coming out because I think I would have been lying to my country by omission, by not presenting all of me. I’m proud of who I am and I wanted everyone to know who they were going for, who they were cheering for, I wanted them to know exactly who I was and not find out later and feel like there may have been deceit. I would feel like I was deceiving if I wasn’t totally honest.”

Pressed to answer, point blank if coming out hurt his chance for sponsorship, Mitcham is diplomatic, expressing gratitude for the support he has received and reiterating that coming out was not about sponsorship – it was about plain old honesty.

“It’s not like I can compare whether I hadn’t come out to whether I had come out. I have received wonderful, fantastic, only positive support from the community since coming out . . . .

While Matthew Mitcham may not have sponsors beating down a path to his door, he has nevertheless seized his moment in the spotlight to get out some important messages.

Mitcham has used his appointment as the Ambassador for Men’s Health in Australia to help improve health outcomes and education for young men, particularly young gay men. More than just a title, Mitcham has participated in conferences and contributed to discussions to define Men’s Health policy in Australia

Honestly, if I were going to help any newly-coming-out gay person, one of the first things I would do is have him or her read this article. This is how it’s done.

Read the entire article over at Edge.

Edge link via Greg in Hollywood.