When 21-year-old Clark Carter first transferred to Indiana University to join the school’s diving team, he knew he wanted to be open with his new teammates about his sexuality.

But he also knew he was in Indiana, the state that elected homophobe Mike Pence to be its governor.

“It wasn’t necessarily easy,” Carter, a junior, recalls in an interview with Outsports.

Related: Olympic swimmer and TV personality comes out

 

Rather than drag things out by telling each of his teammate’s individually, Carter decided to do it in group text to the entire Indiana men’s and women’s diving teams.

“I was like, this group of people is my family,” Carter said. “Just like my family, I can tell them anything. I just thought it was time–given the day, given the circumstances.”

To his relief, the response was “super chill.”

“I want to be careful when I say this just because I love my teammates to death,” Carter says. “They are the most supportive group of people that you’ll ever meet.

“On the conservative side of things … they have been firm in their beliefs but very accepting of mine, too.”

Related: How this college swimmer found his courage to come out in the pool

He’s now the school’s first publicly out athlete, currently representing the Hoosiers at the Big Ten Swimming and Diving Championships.

“I’m just proud to represent my school, and I’m just proud to be a Hoosier,” he says. “Now that I’m helping to represent the LGBT community, too, as the season moves forward, I have that to be proud of as well.”

Scroll down for shots from Clark’s Instagram page…

https://www.instagram.com/p/BerYHg6Abk3/?taken-by=clark_carter

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbPxzOzlxMK/?taken-by=clark_carter

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd3uG5WAi0L/?taken-by=clark_carter

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BaZ8lo2AliG/?taken-by=clark_carter

https://www.instagram.com/p/BW8RUNXAYS6/?taken-by=clark_carter

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bdq7HdJg95t/?taken-by=clark_carter

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcV6nARguOp/?taken-by=clark_carter

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUj_AzDgXov/?taken-by=clark_carter

https://www.instagram.com/p/BczoaYQguzG/?taken-by=clark_carter

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfbB5y2g7R_/?taken-by=clark_carter

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