Tom Daley, the openly gay Olympic medallist, was the stuff gossip headlines are made of this week. UK tabloids, sports media AND gay publications all covered Tom and Dustin Lance Black’s sex life this week, after The Sun’s revelation that  Tom had an 18-months “secret affair”  that with a hot male model, supposedly during his relationship with Lance.
Cyd Zeigler, sports commentator and one of the co-founders of OutSports, thinks Tom Daley’s sex life isn’t anybody’s business. In a new video, Cyd urges the straight media to leave sexual relationships they don’t understand well enough alone – including those of Tom Daley.
This week’s Tom Daley story wasn’t the first time this year his sex life was the matter of gossip discussion – last month, The Sun, who seem to have a habit of documenting Tom’s sex life, exposed a “cybersex affair” Tom had with a fan.
“I was so disgusted by these headlines and these stories”, Cyd Zeigler explains in his video, “As though Tom Daley’s sex life is anybody’s business.”
“What Tom Daley and his fiancé do with each other or anybody else, should never ever make a headline. If Dustin ended their relationship over it, then so be it, maybe that’s a headline. But they seem to be a very happy couple, they haven’t called off the engagement, if Tom Daley had sex with somebody else, who cares?
The straight sports media are the ones making a big deal out of this. Which reminds you how little they want to really understand same sex relationships.
Guess what, straight media – gay people often have different arrangements in their long term relationships. Monogamy is not an automatic thing for a lot of same sex couples. Some of them start one way and end up in other. Some of them change their rules, they mix and match and make all kinds of things. Why do you care?”
Editor’s Note: Obviously, on GayBuzzer we often cover Tom Daley – and, when it’s relevant – Tom Daley’s sex life (he often shares details of it himself – which is fine, that’s what hot celebrities do). We try not to do it in a judgemental way, because our reasons for covering it are different – it’s simply gossip. And we’re a gay site that covers gay-related gossip.
Just like the thousands of media outlets out there that cover “straight” gossip, and write about Kim Kardashian’s every wink and all about “shocking” celebrity affairs – we try to normalise gay celebrities and gay gossip by treating it like every other type of gossip.
We do, however, try to keep a good vibe, and – again – not be judgemental in most cases. The gossip we write about needs to be about fun, and positive sexuality, and celebrities who celebrate their hotness – that’s why we might cover leaked celebrity photos when those become stories, but will never link to them directly – if a celebrity isn’t interested in showing us his body (and many of them are, gladly), we will never take part in doing it forcefully with leaks.
This week’s Tom Daley story posed a question – with the cybersex story last month, Tom himself answered The Sun and commented on the facts. This time – he did not. But the story became a story once it was out there, covered by numerous media outlets – and in such a case, we prefer to cover it our OWN way, in a sexually-positive, non-homophobic way, and not let the “straight” outlets dictate the entire tone.
Listen to Cyd Zeigler’s full opinion piece right here:
