English world champion diver Tom Daley on Friday urged Commonwealth nations who outlaw homosexuality to relax their anti-gay stance.
Openly gay Daley, who is expecting a child with his partner through a surrogate, grasped the opportunity of his gold medal triumph in the 10m synchro event to push for change.
Daley, who won gold with team-mate Daniel Goodfellow, said sexual acts between consenting adults of the same sex are criminalised in 37 Commonwealth countries.
The diver voiced his concerns about the treatment of homosexuals in large parts of the Commonwealth, whose athletes are gathered on Australia’s Gold Coast for the on-going Games.
“Coming to the Gold Coast and being able to live as an openly gay man is really important and to be able to feel comfortable in who you are when you are standing on that diving board.”
“For 37 countries that are here participating that’s very much not the case.”
Daley said it was time for those Commonwealth countries to change their anti-gay laws.
“There are lots of things that are going to take a long time to change, but I feel with the Commonwealth I think we can really help push some of the other nations to relax their laws on anti-gay sex.”
The penalties for private, consensual sexual conduct between same-sex adults remain harsh in a number of Commonwealth countries, including imprisonment, hard labour and in some cases flogging.
The Commonwealth countries that outlaw homosexuality include Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Tonga.
The next Commonwealth Games will be in Birmingham in the year 2022.
