‘Imagine the one space you can feel safe, the one space you’re able to be yourself, ruined by a straight person who thinks it’s all a joke?’
Two-time Olympic athlete Amini Fonua (photo) is accusing The Daily Beast and its writer Nico Hines of endangering the lives of his fellow gay Olympians at the Rio Games. Fonua, a competitive swimmer for the nation of Tonga, took to Twitter and posted several powerful tweets denouncing the publication and its writer, and explaining in important, eye-opening terms why their act was dangerous, dehumanizing, a violation of rights and privacy, and just plain wrong.
On Thursday the news site published Hines’ article that detailed his experiences of using apps like Grindr to identify gay Olympic athletes in Rio. His article initially gave sufficient details, including sports and ranking, where knowledgeable people – or their governments – might be able to deduce which Olympic athletes he met via Grindr, and thus, which are gay. In about 80 countries around the world it is illegal to be LGBT, and in ten of those countries, the death penalty for the “crime” of homosexuality exists.
Fonua also explained what being at the Olympics and competing means for LGBT athletes, especially those not publicly out – and how that was ruined:
And he talked about the vital importance of allowing LGBT people who are harming no one to be allowed the human dignity of coming out on thir own terms:
In a subsequent tweet, Fonua described Hines as an “inhumane CREEP who thought it’d be funny to endanger people’s lives in the village,” and later, posted an explicit image on Instagram, writing, “Yo @nicohines & @thedailybeast – if what you were looking for on Grindr was hot ass (and I don’t see any other reason why you’d be on there) here you have mine in all its proud glory. Now, kiss it and fuck off.”
RELATED:Â Daily Beast: ‘Sorry for Any Upset’ Caused by Our (Possibly) Outing Gay Olympians
Ultimately, after several revisions of both the article and the editors’ apologies, The Daily Beast removed the article, but the damage to the athletes, some no doubt literally now having to compete while in fear for their lives, their futures, and their families, has been done.
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Image via Instagram