In his first interview with the LGBT
press since coming out, British professional racing driver Danny
Watts says response to his coming out has been overwhelmingly
positive.
The 37-year old Watts came out in
February, roughly eight months after he had retired from Strakka
Racing.
Watts told UK gay glossy Winq
that he was “literally sick with stress” the morning he publicly
announced his sexuality.
“Before we decided to do it, that
whole morning I was literally sick with stress and anxiety and
worried about how it was going to go down. I was actually physically
sick with nerves,” he explained.
But his concerns were misplaced.
“What I was really worried about was
how people would take it. And I'm sure that there's one or two
people that frowned upon it, but I would say 95% of the response has
been completely and utterly positive and supportive,” Watts said.
Watts added that he's working on
increasing diversity – women and LGBT drivers – in the sport.
“What I want to do now is promote
LGBT+ people within motorsports,” he said. “I think it needs to
be much more accepting of diversity, which it certainly isn't at the
time.”