Monday, November 20, 2017

'How I Came Out of the Closet': Ivan Denis - A Belgian Archer - Shares His Story

This first-person story is written by Belgian archer Ivan Denis


I was 18 years old when I decided to come out as gay to the world and obviously, that was not easy. If it wasn’t for the support of my partner, I certainly wouldn’t have outed myself during my sports career. After thinking about how we would handle it and what consequences this could have, positive and negative, I eventually took the step.

I admitted I was gay in a magazine interview, so I had to tell my story just once. I had already informed my closest family a few days before social media and gossip reached the rest of the family, friends, schoolmates, the army and my sport shortly afterwards.

Afterwards, I did wonder if it was really worth it, waiting to come out and being secretive about it for so long, but as a professional athlete you have to take everything into account.

For example, I had to rely on private sponsoring to finance my sport, as television coverage of archery is non-existent in the first place and Bloso (the Flemish Sports federation) didn’t show much support either at that time.

Fortunately, I didn’t experience any difficulties with sponsors. My biggest sponsor back then was a Dutch company. Overall, the Netherlands are more evolved in terms of acceptance than Belgium, and being a rather small company without huge media campaigns, it made coming out to my sponsors much easier. READ MORE

Please share this post on your social media (Facebook, Twitter etc). Thank-you!

Ayo gabung di Toto Macau dan raih kemenangan besar setiap hari! 💰 Nikmati pasaran terlengkap dengan peluang menang tinggi. Jangan sampai ketinggalan, pasang angka jitu sekarang!

Mainkan keberuntunganmu di situs Toto Slot terbaik! 💰 Nikmati permainan seru, jackpot besar, dan kemenangan tanpa batas. Daftar sekarang dan raih hadiahnya!

Dapatkan hasil terupdate dan akurat hanya di situs Tabel Data Macau! 🎯 Analisis lebih mudah, prediksi lebih tepat, peluang menang lebih besar! 💰 Cek datanya sekarang dan raih jackpotmu!

Gabung sekarang di situs game IDN Poker terbaik! 💰 Nikmati permainan seru, lawan pemain sejati, dan menangkan jackpot besar setiap hari. Daftar sekarang dan jadilah juara!