Homophobic USA Olympic Committee's 2012 chargé de mission "Out"
following:
Olympic gold medalist Peter Vidmar, who
last week
was named chef de mission for the 2012
U.S. Olympic
team, abruptly resigned Friday after a
firestorm of
negative attention in the media and
inside the U.S.
Olympic Committee due to his 2008 actions against gay marriage.
As first reported in the Chicago Tribune [editor's note:
Outsports tipped off by a reader, was first to report this, and was quoted by the
Chicago Tribune],
Vidmar participated in two anti-gay marriage demonstrations and donated
$2,000 for the
successful 2008 Proposition 8 ballot initiative in California defining marriage
as between a man
and a woman. The proposition overturned a California Supreme Court ruling
that permitted same-sex marriage.
"Olympic gold medalist joins Rancho Prop 8 demonstration," said The Orange
County
Register on Oct. 30, 2008, in which it quoted Vidmar as saying, "It's good
for our society to have a traditional definition of marriage."
Vidmar said his opposition to same-sex marriage comes from his religious
beliefs as a Mormon.
"The Church wanted to take a stand on the issue, and they invited their members
to take a stand," he told the Tribune. "I chose to be involved."
In U.S. Olympic circles, there was concern that Vidmar wasn't just expressing
his personal
opinions on a controversial issue, but that he had moved into an activist role
on an issue involving civil rights.
When the Tribune story broke, reaction was nearly immediate — and almost
entirely negative
— within the USOC. Aimee Mullins, the former president of the Women's
Sports Foundation
and chef de mission for the 2012 U.S. Paralympic Games team, said she was
"concerned and
deeply saddened" about Vidmar's past actions.
"The Olympic movement is about promoting equity for all," she said.
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