Olympic diving gold medalist Tom Daley has expressed his opinions on countries with discriminatory LGBTQ+ laws. The medalist who came out as gay in 2013 said that countries with discriminatory LGBTQ+ laws must not be allowed to host major sporting events. His comments come in relation to Qatar hosting the FIFA World Cup next year and he fears that people who are of LGBTQ+ orientation can face a lot of trouble in countries like Qatar where both the punishment and scrutiny is heavy against the community.
The Qatar World Cup next year, it's a country where you follow the money. But will women be safe or will LGBT people be safe going to spectate and will they be safe going there to compete? We wonder why people don't come out because we have to travel to these countries that are not going to accept you. You could spend prison time in Qatar so it's a very scary situation for lots of LGBT athletes which is why there should be some kind of thought in which countries are allowed to host events. There's still so many hate crimes against LGBT people and still very much people that do not accept the LGBT community for who we are and that's quite scary.
Tom Daley