A documentary about the diver Greg Louganis has inspired General Mills to finally put him on a Wheaties Box, belatedly.
Louganis, 56, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, will begin
appearing on Wheaties boxes next month. He will also be joined by hurdler Edwin Moses and the
swimmer Janet Evans, two other previously overlooked Olympic champions,
who will appear on separate boxes.
The pressure to put Louganis on the Wheaties box, a symbol of sports
achievement for 80 years, began last August with the release of a
documentary, “Back on Board: Greg Louganis,” on HBO. Julie Sondgerath, an information
technology manager in Chicago, to start a petition on Change.org.
Louganis believes that homophobia was most likely the reason that
Wheaties did not respond after the 1984 and 1988 Summer
Olympics. There were rumors that he was gay during his Olympic career,
but he did not come out publicly until the Gay Games in 1994. In his
autobiography the next year, he revealed that he had tested positive for
H.I.V. before the 1988 Summer Games. Louganis said recently he was at a point in his life where he could better appreciate the Wheaties news.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/sports/greg-louganis-wheaties-box-petition-general-mills.html?_r=0
