The Tom Daley circus rolls into town

Roll up roll up, come one come all and see the amazing homosexual as he attempts the daring act of coming out from the closet!

Oh please, this is 2013 and I echoed the reaction of many with a whoop de do, any serious news now? You know Glasgow helicopter, Syria, the Lee Rigby trial, I could go on but you get the point. I decided not to address this in yesterdays blog because it seemed trivial. I have nothing against Daley, actually I admired him long before the events of this week, but there was nothing in him coming out like he did, even if I thought it was silly.

But today the circus rolled into town. He was on the cover of many of the papers and discussed on TV and radio with old mentors, teammates and famous gays wheeled out to comment. This wound me up, it isn't news, sports news maybe but not headline news given what is going on in the world today. Oh how the twitter gay community wailed with "in this day and age they shouldn't have to do it", well simple answer here, don't do it.

It strikes me that the best way for something to be considered normal is to yourself treat it like it is normal. Let them spot you walking hand and hand with your loved one and when they ask the question say "yeah, I'm gay, so what?". Sure a media interest would follow but because it has been discovered in that way it will be reported like most other celebrity relationship stories, but with more attention.

This builds, the more that do it the less interesting it becomes and eventually the journalists see two men/women kissing and go "meh, no big deal, I will let Hello cover it". Why isn't it happening? Well I have two very cynical reasons to suggest.

First, exposure. Brand Daley benefited hugely from all this and he does have a second series of Splash coming up. I'm not saying this is why he chose now to come out, purely the method, maximum exposure. If the second series goes well another will follow and an athlete's career is short, he is cashing in now.

Secondly, because the gay community want it. That's right, I think they don't actually want to have same sex relationships handled in the same way by the media. Just look at yesterday, the media coverage, twitter & Facebook, commentators and more all benefiting the gay community. If we treated it the same way they wouldn't get this.

Don't they make a great couple

Tom Daley was already an inspiration. At 13 he competed in the Beijing Olympics and won European gold. At 14 he became a world champion and at 15 he picked up two Commonwealth golds. After losing his Dad to cancer in 2011 he managed to regain the European title in 2012 and took the bronze in London. Gay or straight it doesn't matter, he is an inspiration for all young people. Don't raise the pedestal just because he likes men.

If you really want to have being in a relationship with someone of the same sex to be treated as no big deal you should start by doing that yourselves.