Adidas Stands By Gay Athletes Who Want to Come Out

Adidas, the world's second-largest sportswear company, has committed to athletes they sponsor should they come out publicly as LGBT with a new clause in their contracts that stipulates their deal will not be canceled or changed as a result.

The clause reads (via BuzzFeed):

Adidas acknowledges and adheres to the principles of diversity, as this is a central part of the Adidas group philosophy. Therefore Adidas warrants that this agreement will neither be terminated nor modified in case the athlete comes out to the public as a member of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community.

Chief financial officer Robin Stalker announced the clause on Thursday at a conference in London dedicated to improving the visibility of LGBT people in sports, Team Pride: Levelling the LGBT Playing Field, of which Adidas is also a sponsor.

Perhaps not-so-coincidentally, Adidas's announcement came on the two-year anniversary of the company signing Tom Daley as the face of their NEO label, shortly after he came out in a YouTube video.

On Valentine's Day, Adidas continued to practice what it preached when it posted this photo of a same-sex couple to their Instagram account:

The love you take is equal to the love you make.

A photo posted by adidas (@adidas) on Feb 13, 2016 at 11:30pm PST

And when some people took offense to the photo, Adidas responded with a good old "Bye, haters":