Racg Legend Hurley Haywood Says He Came Out As Gay To Save Liv | HuffPost Voic

Contents:

• WATCH: LEGENDARY RACE CAR DRIVER HURLEY HAYWOOD OPENS UP ABOUT BEG GAY NEW DOCUMENTARY
• RACG LEGEND HURLEY HAYWOOD SAYS HE CAME OUT AS GAY TO SAVE LIV
• HURLEY HAYWOOD ON LIFE AS A GAY RACG CHAMPN: 'I DIDN'T HAVE ANY MALE ROLE MOLS'
• THIS GAY RACE R DRIVER IS OUT AND PROUD, AND CHASG HIS MOTORSPORTS DREAM
• THERE ARE MORE 'OUT' GAY RACG DRIVERS THAN YOU THK
• PARKERSBURG MAN DISCS BEG AN OPENLY GAY RACE R DRIVER SPORTS ILLTRATED
• EVAN DARLG THE FIRST OPENLY GAY RACER DRIVER
• AFTER MAKG HISTORY AS AN OPENLY GAY DRIVER, DEVON ROE CHAS EVEN BIGGER NASCAR DREAMS
• GAY HISTORY LSON: THE BT DRAG FILMS OF ALL TIME
• EVAN DARLG THE FIRST OPENLY GAY RACER DRIVER

WATCH: LEGENDARY RACE CAR DRIVER HURLEY HAYWOOD OPENS UP ABOUT BEG GAY NEW DOCUMENTARY

Now, the new documentary Hurley, produced by actor and fellow race r driver Patrick Dempsey, the retired Haywood is openg up about beg secretly gay while also beg a superstar the credibly mascule (and ually straight) field of race r drivg. It took nearly 40 years for him to e out publicly as gay his 2018 tobgraphy Hurley: From The Begng, which has been ma to a documentary, simply tled Hurley, now available on streamg servic and on mand.

Executive produced by Derek Dodge and actor/racer Patrick Dempsey, Hurley is an timate portra featurg ndid and emotnal terviews that explore Haywood's experience livg as a gay man the '70s while often beg overshadowed by his racg partner Gregg, whose ath 1980 shook the sport to s re. So if that barrier is somebody that's tolerant of your sexualy, you have to prove that they're wrong, " addg that the "easit way to do that is to beat the guy next door to you so he n't e back and say, 'Well you're never gog to beat me bee you're gay. " Haywood acknowledg that a lot of people knew he was gay when he first started racg, though was never discsed.

RACG LEGEND HURLEY HAYWOOD SAYS HE CAME OUT AS GAY TO SAVE LIV

He is gay but so what? There were many tim when Haywood beme paranoid someone might regnize him at gay bars, and sometim he'd go "out of my way to disguise myself" so he'd be gno.

The boy end up g out to Haywood, nfsg to the racg legend that he was beg bullied bee he was gay, and thought about suici daily. While he adms he don't "know any other profsnal racg driver that are gay, " he also believ they are out there -- jt not publicly.

Amerin race r legend Hurley Haywood told HuffPost that g out as gay has gifted him wh the “awome rponsibily” of reprentg the LGBTQ muny a sport he views as a “last bastn of really macho” chvism. ” He told Autoweek that his cisn to e out as gay last year was partly spired by an enunter he had wh a high school stunt who was terviewg him for a term paper.

HURLEY HAYWOOD ON LIFE AS A GAY RACG CHAMPN: 'I DIDN'T HAVE ANY MALE ROLE MOLS'

At one pot that terview, Haywood relled, the teen said he’d been bullied for beg gay, promptg the driver to beg unselg him.

“I thought, ‘If my voice is strong enough to save one kid, then maybe I n save two or 10 or 100, ’” he told the world of race r drivg may not look particularly LGBTQ-iendly om the outsi, Haywood strsed that he “was never discrimated agast” by fellow drivers, many of whom knew he was gay the ’70s. ”The is the fact that Haywood is gay. Haywood, after all, didn’t jt hi pla sight at a time when homophobia was monplace and panic over the Aids epimic was reachg fever pch.

THIS GAY RACE R DRIVER IS OUT AND PROUD, AND CHASG HIS MOTORSPORTS DREAM

“I didn’t have any gay male role mols.

THERE ARE MORE 'OUT' GAY RACG DRIVERS THAN YOU THK

I had to al wh all that stuff myself, work through all the problems of what would be like if I sudnly me out as gay. I’m gay and I jt don’t know where to go and what to do. ” And now that he’s out, he’s hopg he n be the gay male role mol that he never had.

PARKERSBURG MAN DISCS BEG AN OPENLY GAY RACE R DRIVER SPORTS ILLTRATED

“I thk one of the problems that gay people face is how they are portrayed by televisn and by movi and the prs, ” he says. “It’s always kd of a negative image of a gay person, and gay people are rol that are obvly gay.

EVAN DARLG THE FIRST OPENLY GAY RACER DRIVER

I always fd that disturbg bee I know lots of very, very succsful gay people who are every form of bs that you n thk of, and that are not your typil gay personaly or [have] gay tras”And yet for all of Haywood’s good tentns, the odds of him spirg one siarly proment to racer to go public wh their own g out story seem slim. He took to Instagram and me out as gay last June.

If he tak the green flag there, he will jo Stephen Rhos on the list of openly gay drivers a NASCAR natnal seri. On Tuday, Raphael Orlove and Bill Caswell posed the qutn on Jalopnik, “Why Aren’t There More ‘Out’ Gay Race Car Drivers? ” Actually, there are more than you EVs Can’t Get A Break From The HeatOffEnglishEvan Darlg is an openly gay driver known bt for his efforts road racg.

AFTER MAKG HISTORY AS AN OPENLY GAY DRIVER, DEVON ROE CHAS EVEN BIGGER NASCAR DREAMS

In an exclive terview wh Queers4Gears, the current NASCAR Sprt Cup Champn, Brad Kelowski said, “I don’t thk anyone r (if a driver is gay.

”That statement is accurate, as the reprentatn of openly gay people the sport is not limed to recently profiled Matthew Pattison, an openly gay official who’s worked the sport for 15 years and is one of the ma officials the Timg and Srg Tower. Queers4Gears profiled an openly gay employee at Michael Waltrip Racg — who works the anizatn wh his partner. ”But what about the sponsors you ask — would an openly gay driver be able to attract a sponsor?

GAY HISTORY LSON: THE BT DRAG FILMS OF ALL TIME

Will there be fans that refe to accept an openly gay driver? Openly gay drivers. Nothg chang a person’s views more than them knowg and rg about a gay person their life.

EVAN DARLG THE FIRST OPENLY GAY RACER DRIVER

But Cheney’s view on LGBT rights is squarely the progrsive mp — bee he has a gay child. Attus about gay people are changg Ameri and the grandstands at the race track will not be immune to this shift. Films like Portra of Jason and Tongu Untied, for stance, tell ntemporary viewers as much about the dividual stori about gay Black men prented on screen as about the muni (real and imaged) that their rpective filmmakers brought to bear on their fished films.

Siarly, aptly-tled works like Before Stonewall: The Makg of a Gay and Lbian Communy and Forbidn Love: The Unashamed Stori of Lbian Liv offer not jt potent history lsons but snapshots of how Amerins were nceivg of their own muny-buildg the years followg the 1969 Stonewall rts. Synopsis: Filmmaker Arthur Brsan missns filmmakers throughout the untry to rerd lbian and gay pri paras and march June 1977....