Chris McNaughten (also known by his moniker Bear Strong) is a two-time Junior Ireland Strongman champion. He also owns his own gym near Belfast.

Whilst the sporting world unfortunately continues to be a deeply homophobic place for most athletes, Chris is somebody who is helping to change that, by becoming the first openly gay strongman in the UK and Ireland.

Inspired by his own struggles with depression & his sexuality, he has become a mental health & LGBTQ campaigner. He was featured on the BBC series ‘This is Pride’ and on the MTV show 'True Love or True Lies'.

Our interview was of course recorded remotely; the first ten minutes of audio has some clipping and popping.; apologies it was one of my first interviews I recorded remotely. We chatted about,

• why his nickname didn’t start out as a gay reference,
• why he went through a long questioning period with his sexuality,
• what ultimately helped him to clarify that he was gay,
• why he considered leaving his home town when he first came out,
• why being in an inter-racial gay relationship inspired him to partake in a MTV show, 
• how struggling with his sexuality contributed to his poor mental health over the years,
• why he has no time for femme-shaming

and lots of other things also.

You can contact me by emailing me at jonny@imcomingoutpod.com or tweet me at @imcomingoutpod. Hope you enjoy the episode; let me know what you think :)

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www.bearstrong.co.uk