Tom Daley Calls Out Commonwealth Nations on Homophobic Laws

British diver Tom Daley won our hearts in 2012 when he competed in the Summer Olympic games. Now, the out gay Olympian is using his platform to stand up for same-sex couples across the pond.

The 23-year old recently competed in the Commonwealth Games, winning gold in the 10m synchronized event, and voiced his hopes for the 2022 Commonwealth Games. He pointed out that, unlike Great Britain, 37 Commonwealth countries still have a negative outlook on same-sex relationships.

“There are 37 countries where it’s illegal to be who I am out of all the Commonwealth so hopefully we can reduce that number between now and then,” Daley said. “Coming to the Gold Coast and being able to live as an openly gay man is really important in being able to feel comfortable with who you are when standing on that diving board. For 37 countries that are here participating, that’s very much not the case.”

The Olympic bronze medalist married his partner, screenwriter Dustin Lance-Black in 2017. Earlier this year on Valentine’s Day, the couple took to Instagram to announce that they’re expecting a baby.

Despite his win with diving partner Dan Goodfellow, Daley dropped out of the individual event at the Commonwealth Games due to a hip injury. He is still set to compete this May in the World Diving Series in Russia. Though homosexuality isn’t outlawed in Russia, there’s still a great amount of homophobia present. One year after the state-sponsored violence against gay and bisexual men in Chechnya, a federal subject of Russia, people are still calling for justice, to no avail. Daley, himself, is worried.

“Going to Russia can be scary because you’ve got to compete in front of lots of people and lots of people know that I’ve got a husband,” he said. “I think you’ve got to face those things and try and make change. There’s lots of things that will take a long time to change but I feel like with the Commonwealth I think we could really help push some of the nations to relax their laws on anti-gay stuff.”

Daley and Lance-Black have yet to announce a due date, but many have speculated that their surrogate is due between August and October of 2018, a few months after the World Diving Series.