The Gay Games which are under way in Paris are not just a chance to celebrate sport and diversity: they offer crucial respite to gay athletes forced to hide their sexuality in their home countries.
Unable to share the truth about being gay with his family, 21-year-old Zhang Nan flew to Paris on the pretence of taking French classes. But rather than practising grammar, he’s enjoying the freedom that comes with being himself. “My family is very traditional,” he said, his broad smile disappearing. “My friends know I’m gay, but you can’t be openly gay in China. The government never talks about it.”
The 21-year-old table tennis player is part of a delegation of 69 competitors from China joining 10,000 athletes at the games. “The competition here is very hard. But I came here mostly to find a man,” he laughed.
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Passionate athlete Jay Mulucha’s life came crashing down when staff at the Ugandan university, where he was studying discovered photos of him in the press attending an LGBTQ event. “In Uganda, being gay is illegal. You can be beaten, arrested, evicted from your home, jailed or killed,” he says. “When (university staff) got to know, they suppressed my scholarship and I had to stop my studies,” he said.
Despite being dismissed by his family and assaulted, he wants to begin living openly as a gay man. “I didn’t want to hide anymore.”
For a group of lesbian dancers in Russia, what should be a simple training session is often complicated. “For some of my students, their parents don’t even know about the fact that their child is gay,” says Yulia Zhdanova, their heterosexual coach, who won the gold medal for International Latin dance at the games which is open to all athletes. “After another sport club was beaten by Russians, we had to lock the door while training.”
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In Russia, homosexuality was illegal until 1993, a mental illness until 1999 and since 2013 the law punishes acts perceived as promoting homosexuality to minors.