Illegal To Be Me: Tom Daley’s LGBTQ rights campaign
Earlier this week, Tom Daley’s much anticipated documentary Illegal To Be Me aired on BBC One and iPlayer in the United Kingdom. It was filmed in the lead up to the 2022 Commonwealth Games (held in Birmingham) with the intention of exposing the hypocrisy of the Commonwealth Games Federation regarding its LGBTQ athletes worldwide.
As the 58 minute documentary opens, Daley spends some time talking about his own experience as a closeted athlete earlier in his career. At the 2012 Olympics, Daley mentions that there were only 23 out LGBTQ athletes competing in the games. He says there were more people called ‘James’ competing than there were out queer athletes, himself included.
He talks candidly about his fear of coming out, and how that would ruin his career. When he finally did come out, it wasn’t without backlash. However, Daley acknowledges that many gay athletes around the world have it insurmountably worse than he ever did.
Illegal To Be Me is his contribution to impacting change in this arena.
In over half the countries competing in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, being LGBTQ is illegal and can result in extreme violence and persecution. Many places impose life imprisonment if caught, and in three countries in particular – Nigeria, Brunei, and Pakistan – LGBTQ people can be sentenced to death, often by stoning, for just existing.
Daley’s campaign initially centers around this idea that the Commonwealth Games Federation should be banning any countries that criminalize the LGBTQ community from hosting games in their country. In the film, he sets off in search of athletes that live in these places to get their feedback and input on his ideas.
Pakistan
Illegal To Be Me heads to Pakistan, which is without a doubt, one of the world’s most unsafe places for LGBTQ people. Pakistan is one of the few countries in the Commonwealth that imposes a maximum sentence of death by stoning for being gay.
Gay people in Pakistan live with the constand fear of blackmail, violence, and being outed by people around them. Despite all these things, Daley does manage to connect with some queer athletes willing to go on camera and reveal their identities, and some others that agree to an interview so long as they remain anonymous.
Daley connects with a female gay cricket player who played for Pakistan’s national team. She agreed to be on camera, but her name has been withheld for security reasons. She talks of wanting change and feeling like speaking out now will hopefully instrument that.
She says, in Pakistan, even mental health professionals label queerness as a disease. She talks about how many queer folks in her country wind up in the depths of addiction because they are so unhappy, and many eventually end up attempting suicide.
When Daley poses his campaign idea, that the Commonwealth Games Federation should ban all Commonwealth countries that have anti-LGBTQ laws in place from hosting, she said it won’t make an iota of difference.
“We’re a country in denial,” she says. “They will be like, okay, ban us.”
All the other athletes Daley encounters say the same thing: there is no hope for change. Furthermore, a local legendary gay Pakistani pop star tells Daley that enforcing punitive measures on the country because of their anti-LGBTQ laws would likely make things worse for the queer community.
Daley leaves Pakistan feeling much less optimistic than when he arrived.
Nigeria
It wasn’t safe enough for the Illegal To Be Me crew to travel to Nigeria, however Daley was able to get an athlete from the country on the phone. His identity, including his voice, has been completely obscured for his safety.
The athlete talks about a friend of his that was recently killed for being gay, and says it’s absolutely imperative that his gay identity is never revealed to his fellow countrymen. The athlete talks about how gay people are being hunted in Nigeria so nobody is coming out willingly. Daley manages to get in touch with a Nigerian refugee in the UK but his stories are much the same. He had to flee because of violence and persecution once it was known he was gay.
Jamaica
Despite its reputation for being an island paradise, and a very popular tourist destination for British people, Jamaica is not a safe place for its LGBTQ population. While not one of the countries where being gay is punishable by death, the violence and persecution the LGBTQ community faces in Jamaica is off the charts. Tom Daley is shocked by videos of how local Jamaican citizens carry out egregious acts of violence on queer people like it were sport.
Jamaica is an avid Commonwealth Games participant. According to Illegal To Be Me, Jamaica won 27 medals at the last games, the highest of all the Caribbean countries.
Daley meets up with Micahel Gunning, who is currently the only out LGBTQ athlete on the Jamaican team. He was, however, born in the UK but holds dual citizenship with Jamaica. He talks about the shame that Jamaica imposes on him for being gay, and the fear he has for his safety by being there and representing Jamaica in swimming. At one point he goes as far to say if he could be straight, he would be.
The campaign
It becomes clear as Tom Daley continues to talk to athletes living in countries where anti-LGBTQ sentiment is alive and well, that his original idea of trying to pressure the Commonwealth Games Federation to punish countries for this, isn’t going to work.
He hears the same thing expressed vehemently by athletes everywhere he goes: restricting their access and rights to the Commonwealth Games will not affect change in their home countries; it could even make things worse.
However, all is not lost. A solution, or rather a starting point, does present itself over and over again.
Athletes that live in these countries keep telling Daley the same thing: display the Pride flag at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, and that will at least be a starting point.
Seems easy right? Honestly, we’re not quite sure why this hasn’t been done before!
So Daley just does just that. At the Opening Ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, with the permission from the Commonwealth Games Federation, Tom Daley (wearing sequins, we might add) entered the stadium carrying the baton with six athletes he met during the making of Illegal To Be Me. All six of them were carrying Pride flags while the announcer makes it abundantly clear that they are here to raise awareness and support for the LGBTQ community within the Commonwealth.
In the biggest mic drop to end all mic drops, the announcer clearly shames the countries for their LGBTQ practices, right in front of the whole damn world, the entire Commonwealth, and all of our salads!
“Tom is running in support of LGBTQ+ rights, and tonight has been joined by flag bearers representing some of the 35 countries where homosexuality is still a crime,” says the announcer.
Simply waving Pride flags at international sporting events isn’t going to change the homophobic laws that exist in those countries. But it will create more visibility and it may begin to change the hearts and minds of some of the people who live in them. Only then, can change truly be possible.
We hope Tom Daley continues to fight this fight and use his platform to advocate for those within the international LGBTQ community that need it most.
At the moment, Illegal To Be Me is only available to watch in the United Kingdom. If that changes any time soon, updates will be provided. Thank you to our contacts and extended family in the United Kingdom who gave us an assist and made viewing this incredible story possible for the Q+ Magazine team.
