A Change.org petition now asks the IOC to revoke the Olympic credentials of Nico Hines and The Daily Beast. Click here.
Openly gay Olympic swimmer Amini Fonua, who has represented Tonga in the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, was beside himself with disgust at the article by Nico Hines of The Daily Beast. In the article Hines, a straight man, bragged about going on the gay dating app Grindr and getting Olympic athletes to reveal their identities to him. He then posted their descriptions in The Daily Beast article. One of the athletes, by Hines' own admission in the article, was from a country with anti-gay laws.
Fonua did not hold back on Twitter…
Shame this inhumane CREEP who thought it’d be funny to endanger people’s lives in the village @NicoHines pic.twitter.com/5TTom3i9c6
— Amini Fonua (@AminiFonua) August 11, 2016
Imagine the one space you can feel safe, the one space you’re able to be yourself, ruined by a straight person who thinks it’s all a joke?
— Amini Fonua (@AminiFonua) August 11, 2016
As an out gay athlete from a country that is still very homophobic, @thedailybeast ought to be ashamed #deplorable https://t.co/qzS9rDFJwx
— Amini Fonua (@AminiFonua) August 11, 2016
No straight person will ever know the pain of revealing your truth, to take that away is just… I can’t. It literally brings me to tears
— Amini Fonua (@AminiFonua) August 11, 2016
So far The Daily Beast has made minor edits to the story but editors have chosen to leave the story up. Hines has not commented, not even to apologize.
