More

More athletes than ever before are set to compete at the Winter Olympic Games in despite growing Chinese repression of gay and lesbian people.

Thirty-two openly gay athletes are bravely heading to a country that has recently banned ‘sissy men’ from television and where 70 per cent of citizens say they would not like ‘a homosexual’ as a neighbour.

It is a painful juxtaposition. The Games explicitly celebrates equality in sport and yet the country given the honour of hosting the showpiece in 2022 does not adequately protect LGBTQ people from discrimination. And it is actively seeking to censor them and restrict their influence.

Among the ‘out’ athletes are four members of , including Gus Kenworthy, who will compete in the ski half-pipe in his third Winter , and Lewis Gibson, Nonton Download Drama Korea Subtitle Indonesia Gratis Online — DramaID a figure skater in his first.

At the Winter Games in PyeongChang four years ago, 15 competitors declared themselves to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer before heading out onto the ice and snow.

That figure has more than doubled this time around, according to Outsports, which celebrates the achievements of LGBT sportspeople,

‘The number of out LGBT athletes at these Games will be more than Sochi and all the other Winter Olympics combined,’ Cyd Zeigler, the strategic partnership lead at Outsports, told Sportsmail.

Zeigler says Beijing will continue the trend towards increasing inclusion in sport, despite the intolerance of the hosts.

‘We have been told for so, so long that gay men and other LGBT people would be rejected by team-mates and chastised by fans [if they came out], but we have seen for many, many years that is not the case,’ he said.

‘When athletes come out in sports they are widely supported by others in the sport, their team-mates, fans and the media.’

And he thinks athletes will speak in support of LGBT inclusion in China, as they have at previous Games.

‘I don’t know who it will be but there will be a LGBT athlete at these Games… who takes it upon themselves to talks about inclusion,’ he said.

At the summer Olympics in Tokyo, that person was Team GB’s Tom Daley.  After winning a gold medal, his first out of his four Olympic competitions, Daley dedicated his win to LGBT people.

‘I hope that any young LGBT person out there can see that no matter how alone you feel right now, you are not alone,’ he said, crying tears of joy after victory in the the men’s synchronized 10-metre platform event.

‘That you can achieve anything and that there is a whole lot of your chosen family out here, ready to support you.’

The LGBTQ competitors at the Winter Games are making a statement by simply being at the competition in China.But it is understandable if they think twice before making too many statements on sexuality or gender identity, or more importantly, pass comment on China’s own laws and state behaviour.

<div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS sport" data-version="2" id="mol-354b1db0-7f71-11ec-9846-7d5d233cbfcb" website LGBTQ athletes than ever before will compete at Winter Olympics