Moments after professional soccer player David Testo publicly came out of the closet in an interview with Radio-Canada’s Marie Malchelosse, the reporter warned Testo that his revelation would have far-reaching implications. Testo felt bad for Malchelosse: She seemed like a nice woman, and he was afraid she was too excited about a story that wouldn’t reach any further than the Montreal suburbs.
“I really felt this would stay in the circuit of Montreal and not go where it has,” Testo told Outsports in his first interview since the story broke. “I wasn’t expecting this ripple effect to happen. I’ve been here for so long I forgot that the rest of the sports world hasn’t caught up yet.”
On Thursday, Nov. 11, the interview hit the airwaves and the Internet. At 8 a.m. he got a phone call from his mother in Asheville, N.C., asking him what he’d done; Reporters were calling her asking for an interview. For the rest of the day he got a phone call from a friend every five minutes; And in the next 72 hours he would receive “thousands” of emails and messages.
“It spread with tons of love and tons of hope,” Testo said. “It goes to show we’re headed in the right direction. But we’re not where we need to be. If we were where we need to be, it wouldn’t have been a story at all.”
Testo said he made the decision to come out after being shaken by the suicide of 15-year-old Jamie Hubley in Ottawa. Hubley was teased in school in part because he was a figure skater instead of a hockey player. That teasing drove Hubley to take his own life.
“I just couldn’t get it out of my head,” Testo said. “Why not step up and show these young kids it’s okay to be who you are and be gay and be in sports? If I can help one person, why not? I’m not doing it for myself, I’m doing it to help others. I’m not getting anything out of this. I just think it’s time in our society.”
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