Hyderabad: Dutee Chand, who won two silver medals at the 2018 Asian Games, became one of the few athletes in the world to openly admit to her same-sex relationship.
“I am having a relationship with a 19-year-old woman from my village for the past five years. She is studying B.A. II year in a Bhubaneswar college. She is a relative of mine and whenever I come home, I spend time with her. She is a kind of soulmate for me and I want to settle down with her in future,” Chand, 23, told PTI from Hyderabad, where she is training.
Close on the heels of this confession, Hollywood’s popular talk show host Ellen DeGeneres (who came out as a lesbian in 1997), took to her Twitter handle and wrote: “She’s the 100m record holder and the first openly gay sportsperson in India. I guess she knows a thing or two about being first. I’m so proud of her.” [sic]
DeGeneres is a proud and fervent supporter of the LGBTQ community and their rights and uses her popularity to voice the community’s concern, time and again, on The Ellen Show.
