PicturedFormer Uruguayan soccer star Wilson Oliver Elías, who also played for teams in Venezuela, Guatemala and El Salvador, came out of the closet in the June issue of Gay Barcelona magazine. Photo courtesy of Gay Barcelona
A former Uruguayan soccer star, who also played for teams in Venezuela, Guatemala and El Salvador, came out of the closet in the June issue of Gay Barcelona magazine.
'It is only now that being gay is 'in fashion,'' Wilson Oliver Elías told the magazine. 'We are on the TV soaps, publicity ads, in all media. Society has begun to understand that gays are normal, regular people.'
Oliver said his mother is OK with his sexuality but his father isn't.
'One day my mother, as I came home from one of my trips as a player, said to me, 'You know, someone came and told me you were gay.' And I said, 'Well, Mom, and what did you say in return?' And, amazingly, she said, 'Well, if it's not a daughter-in-law it'll be a son-in-law!' That's when I found my mother accepted me, something that gave me a great deal of peace. But with my father it's different, we don't talk to him. He is part of a rigid society and a culture where machismo is exacerbated.'
Oliver now lives in Barcelona with his partner.
— Rex Wockner