Australian twenty year old Matthew Mitcham dove for the gold in China and came up with a perfect ten score that put the metal around his neck. While there are thirty three openly gay women competing in Beijing, Mitcham is the only openly gay male. (At Right: Mitcham with the gold.)

There are doubtlessly many gay athletes at the Olympic Games, but they are not open about their sexuality.

Why are women so much more likely to get by with being openly gay, while famous men must sit in the closet? This year at the Olympics the stats are 33 to one. There is of yet no American male gay entertainer as open and as successful as Ellen DeGeneres, who got married last week to her female lover without a ripple of scandal. (The presidents’ daughters had even invited her to have the wedding at the President's Texas ranch, which was, of course, was not going to happen.)

Women can get by with being gay because most straight women are more accepting of gay people, male or female, than are straight males. Many men do not mind gay females and even have fantasies about them.

The problem is that many males just cannot accept gay men. Lurking in their primordial memory is the notion that gay men cannot kill a mastodon and "bring home the bacon." This outdated notion will gradually go away, but in the mean time everyone will have to admire a gay Australian who certainly did bring home the gold.