“For many homosexuality is an imperfection, and for fear of damaging their image many sportsmen are silent and hide”. Irma Testa, the first Italian boxer first to qualify for the Olympics (in Rio in 2016), then first to win a medal at the Games (the bronze in Tokyo a few months ago) comes out. “The people around me have known this for years, but I think it is right now to tell everyone. Talking about sexual orientation in the world of sport has a special value, because champions are asked to be perfect. homosexuality is still an imperfection. Even for me it was like that until a few months ago. But that Tokyo medal has become my shield: now that the athlete Irma is safe, the woman Irma can be sincere “, he explains in a interview with Vanity Fair.
“There are too many discriminated against”
“There are still too many people discriminated against and this is not good. I can’t do much, but by telling the truth about myself, I can also say that nothing is wrong. I was afraid people would see me compete and think, ‘Ah look, there’ she’s the one like that ‘, instead of saying: how good !. I’m not saying I’m a lesbian because in my future there can also be a man. Since I was a girl I have been attracted to women, but sometimes I have also felt it to males. The labels it is right that there are:
to make things become normal you must first go through the labels. But I don’t use them because I don’t like them. “
“When I told my mother she took it naturally”
“I happened to talk, even publicly – he continues – about the people I loved by changing their gender. And this gave me displeasure. For me, but above all for them who, reading listening to my words, could feel offended, hurt, invisible . On the other hand, I never hid the truth from my family. The first time I fell in love with a girl I waited a little bit to see that it wasn’t a flash in the pan, and then I told my mom. I was not even sixteen. She took it naturally. I thought she couldn’t understand, but instead she understood. She told me: if you’re happy, that’s okay with me. I don’t think she thought so from the start – in Torre Annunziata, where she grew up, and I too, the mentality is not open – but I think she has broadened her horizons for my love. And this questioning of hers moves me. After a few years, my sister also came out. “
“To my father I answer every now and then I give a sop”
Phrases in which the central role of the mother re-emerges: “I grew up without a father, I saw first my mother, and then my sister, make enormous sacrifices. My sister was passionate about boxing before me, but she had to stop to go to work, because at home just a salary was not enough. She was the one who gave me the money for the train to come and train with the national team in Assisi. She never said anything to me, but I still feel very guilty with her. For many years I haven’t talked to my father. He texted me, he called me, and I never answered. Lately I answer his phone, but only occasionally, I give him a sop. I do it for him, because, as far as I’m concerned, if there is I have done it before, all the more reason I am now able to be without a father “.
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