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Olympian Victor Gutiérrez speaks up for gay rights in the pool & as a newly elected legislator
Gutiérrez, an Olympic water polo player, says it's still vital for LGBTQ+ athletes to come out.
Victor Gutiérrez publicly came out as gay eight years ago, before the 2016 Rio Games. At the time, the Olympic water polo player said he felt it was his “responsibility” as a gay athlete to talk about his sexuality.
His feelings haven’t changed.
In a recent interview with the Spanish LGBTQ+ outlet Shangay, Gutiérrez, 32, says it’s still vital for LGBTQ+ athletes to speak their truth. Despite widespread progress, sports can remain an exclusionary place for LGBTQ+ folx, who still lack visible role models–especially on the men’s side.
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“It is absolutely necessary for LGTBI people to be visible in all spaces, especially in sport, because it is one of the areas in which there is the most discrimination and the most invisibility,” he said.
Gutiérrez has felt some of that discrimination himself. He refused to shake hands with an opponent, Nemanja Ubovic, who he said called him a gay slur during their match. When Gutiérrez didn’t extend his arm, he says Ubovic called him a “f*ggot” again.
“I am 30 years old and I am a professional and I try to do activism from a positive view of my experience, but I think I do myself a disservice by keeping quiet,” he tweeted in 2021.
“But this happens every day in swimming pools, soccer fields, tennis courts … And it is not only experienced by professionals, but also by CHILDREN. I just hope that together we will eliminate this SCAR from sport at once. TOLERANCE is greater than LGTBIphobia,” he wrote.
It’s not surprising that Gutiérrez is one of the most visible LGBTQ+ athletes in Spain. The Olympian was recently sworn into the Congress of Deputies, the lower house of Spain’s legislative branch.
“It is an HONOR, an immense PRIDE and an enormous RESPONSIBILITY to be able to represent citizens,” he posted on Instagram, via Google Translate.
Gutiérrez, who hails from Madrid, credits his friends and family for their unwavering support. He says their backing allows him to live an open life.
“My family knows I’m gay, my friends too. And I’m living in such a positive way with my sexuality that I felt a responsibility to share it with others,” he said in 2016.
The Olympian recognizes his privilege. Gutiérrez says it would be hard to come out as an athlete without a safety net of support.
“If you do not have that support and you do not know what can happen on your team, it is difficult to take the leap and publicly say that you are part of the LGTBI [community],” he told Shangay. “It’s jumping into a pool without knowing if there’s going to be water or not.”
By speaking out, Gutiérrez is playing his role in making sure the water is welcoming. There were at least four out players on Spain’s women’s World Cup team last year, and the country sent two out LGBTQ+ athletes to the Tokyo Games.
When Gutiérrez made the squad in 2016, he was the only one.
“A top-level footballer does not have to say that he is [straight],” he said. “Simply when he gets home, he uploads a photo with his wife, and on a red carpet or at awards shows he goes hand in hand with her. This does not happen with [gay] footballers, therefore it is essential that we say who we are.”
In addition to his political career, Gutiérrez is still an an active water polo player. He started his 15th professional season last fall.
“Although I recognize that every year it costs more to get into optimal shape, I feel the same enthusiasm as a rookie and I enjoy every day as if it were the first,” he wrote on Instagram, complete with a baby emoji.
A keen observer of international politics, Gutiérrez knows when sports leagues are just paying lip service to inclusivity. He cites FIFA’s public embrace of gay soccer player Jakub Jankto, while promoting the anti-LGBTQ+ Qatar as a World Cup hosting site.
“There is a lot of hypocrisy, and the greatest reflection of that hypocrisy was last year when the footballer Jakub Jankto publicly came out and FIFA tweeted ‘Welcome, football is for everyone,” he said. “The same FIFA that brought the World Cup to Qatar, a place where being from the LGTBI community is punishable.”
While Spain is a world leader for LGBTQ+ rights, there is some worry that the country could go backwards. Last December, Madrid’s regional assembly rolled back some protections for transgender people, making it the first region to do so.
Gutiérrez’s voice is needed in both the world of sports and politics. Good thing he’s up for the task.
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