“This must be a secret. I’m sure there are LGBTQ people around, but no one talks about it,” he told AFP.
Masuda, 73, is now a gay man who came out and the owner of the gay bar “Kusuo”, a well-known place he once hosted in Shinjuku 2-chome, the LGBTQ district of the city Freddie Mercury, But he had a difficult time as a teenager.
“I admire men, but I don’t even know it’s about my sexuality. I am very troubled by this,” said Masuda, who was 16 at the 1964 Olympics.
“I often write to my mother that I want to die, which makes her cry all the time.”
The viral emergency means that Masuda’s bar is currently closed, and he is there alone to watch the game.
But he is very happy to see that his childhood has changed, even better than the last Olympic Games. According to the US-based website OutSports, the number of athletes participating in Tokyo is three times as many as the Rio Olympics.
