Ian Matos, gay Olympic divg star, di at 32 - Outsports

Contents:

• IS AIDS A “GAY” DISEASE?
• 3 OUT GAY HIV+ ATHLET SHARE THEIR STORI
• HIV AND ALL GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
• GAY OLYMPIC DIVG STAR DI AT 32

IS AIDS A “GAY” DISEASE?

He went on to w the gold medal and bee the first man to w back-to-back Olympic golds both the sprgboard and platform divg what had ially appeared to be a straightforward eback story beme more plited when Louganis revealed seven years later that he was gay and that he had been diagnosed wh HIV six months before the 1988 Gam.

”She adds that “ 1988, there’s an assumptn that Olympians are jt not gay... But there was still no effective treatment, people were dyg by the thoands and many Amerins wrongly believed was only a “gay man’s disease. We were all really young and I've met a lot of those guys along the road through the years and I don't know how much of that was tly homophobia or how much of was jealoy, bee I was wng at the time, " Louganis said.

Beyond divg, Louganis ma stris for his fellow gay athlet, when he me out as an HIV-posive gay man the 1990s. What he ultimately beme, acrdg to many, is the greatt diver of two s later, Louganis, the 62-year-old gay man and longterm HIV survivor, is still wily nsired to be the ultimate G. Then, when he me out publicly as HIV-posive 1995 — jt a year after he me out as gay a pre-taped announcement shown at the 1994 Olympics openg ceremoni — not only forced nversatns about AIDS, but prompted people around the world to send-gus his cisn to not disclose his HIV stat at the time of the Gam (although experts have sce said there would have been no fear of transmissn through the chlorated water) his ial cisn to tt for HIV, he rells, “My thought was, if I was HIV-posive, then I would pack my bags, bee I was trag Florida, e back to Southern California and lock myself my hoe and wa to die, bee that's the way that we thought of HIV/AIDS at that time.

3 OUT GAY HIV+ ATHLET SHARE THEIR STORI

Ocsnally the digizatn procs troduc transcriptn errors or other problems; we are ntug to work to improve the archived Louganis, the 1984 and 1988 Olympic gold medal diver, who publicly acknowledged his homosexualy for the first time at last year's Gay Gam New York, has said he has an terview wh ABC's "20/20" that will be broadst at 10 P. -posive athlet to announce that they are the terview, Louganis said he had sensed he was different om the time he was a young boy and began to accept his homosexualy durg the 1976 Olympics.

HIV AND ALL GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

Last year, he appeared "Jefey, " an off-Broadway play about life the age of AIDS, which he played a dyg chos a short vio that played durg the openg ceremony of last June's Gay Gam, Louganis told the crowd: "As an Olympian and as a gay man, I'd like to wele you to the Gay Gam. Over the urse of his reer, Achmat found South Ain's Natnal Coaln for Gay and Lbian Equaly, directed a documentary about the gay muny's history South Ai and helped create the Treatment Actn LouganisGreg Louganis attends Los Angel LGBT Center's 47th Anniversary Gala Vanguard Awards.

GAY OLYMPIC DIVG STAR DI AT 32

Gabriel Olsen / Getty ImagGreg Louganis is an openly gay diver who won medals at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics. Louganis is the only male diver Olympics history to sweep the divg events nsecutive Olympic KramerPortra of Amerin thor, AIDS mpaigner and gay rights activist Larry York Tim Co. " He is also a -founr of ACT UP and the Gay Men's Health Crisis.

Leonard Matlovich was the first person to fight for the rights of gay and lbian people servg the Uned Stat ary, a choice that led to his discharge after a of service. Matlovich's fight for his right was a highly publicized one, which clud beg the first gay man on the ver of Time Magaze.

Sullivan went on to help create the GLBT Historil Society of San Francis and work there as a peer ZamoraPedro Zamora on MTV's "Real World"MTVPedro Zamora was an AIDS activist who was the first openly gay and openly HIV-posive person on "The Real World" 1994. His Game of Thron parody, Gay of Thron, was nomated for three Emmys and led to his breakout role on Netflix’s Queer Eye flamboyant ont man for the band Queen kept quiet about his HIV stat until the day before his ath om AIDS-related bronchial pnmonia November 1991.

Diagnosed wh the 1994, Zamora joed the st of MTV's The Real World: San Francis, makg him the first openly gay man wh HIV to appear on TV.