Mr Gay Wales 2018 was once afraid to come out because of what he did for a living. When you participate in sports, there is well-understood reservations about coming out as LGBTQ+. And that was where Christopher Price was.
The 26-year old Price who fights for Wales and team GB was crowned Mr Gay Wales on June 1 and has stated that a major part of his platform, beside fighting for LGBTQ+ rights, is to work on encouraging other LGBTQ+ sports individuals to come out. His campaign slogan is 'one team, one goal' with the team being the LGBT+ community and the one goal as equal rights. He wants to highlight all aspects of LGBTQ+ sports players citing in certain countries, if you are born a man and you transition, you have to compete in the men's category even after having a full transition.
With nine world titles "under his belt," Price has been successful at a profession he has been doing since 2007. Some poeple are claiming he only did kickboxing to get close to other men. Well , if he is closer to men and that successful, sounds lie a win-win!
"When I first decided to come out, it was difficult. I didn't know whether to come out as it is such a men dominated environment. I didn't know what would happen, how it would affect my chances of traveling, as being gay is frowned upon in countries such as Russia. It did worry me. I was also worried the squad would drop me because of that."
Christopher Price didn't just come out yesterday. Suffering with anxiety and slight depression and 2 years after starting to deal with his attraction to men, he came out at 21 in 2012. He was already a success with 7 world titles.
Now he will travel to Poland at the beginning of August to compete for the title of Mr Gay Europe 2018. During his time as Mr Gay Wales, he is also fundraising for two charities; the Jacob Abraham foundation, which raises awareness of mental health and suicide, and a foundation which supports transgender people through their operations.
We wish you the best of luck Christopher!
h/t: walesonline.co.uk