Race Car Driver Hurley Haywood Opens Up About Beg Gay New Documentary

Contents:

• THIS GAY RACE R DRIVER IS OUT AND PROUD, AND CHASG HIS MOTORSPORTS DREAM
• THIS GAY RACE R DRIVER QU WHEN HE ME OUT. NOW HE’S RETURNG TO THE TRACK AS HIS TE SELF
• TRAVIS SHUMAKE STRIV TO BEE FIRST OPENLY GAY NHRA FUNNY CAR DRIVER
• HURLEY HAYWOOD ON LIFE AS A GAY RACG CHAMPN: 'I DIDN'T HAVE ANY MALE ROLE MOLS'
• WATCH: LEGENDARY RACE CAR DRIVER HURLEY HAYWOOD OPENS UP ABOUT BEG GAY NEW DOCUMENTARY
• NASCAR WILL HAVE ITS FIRST OPENLY GAY DRIVER YEARS DURG 2021 SEASON
• AFTER MAKG HISTORY AS AN OPENLY GAY DRIVER, DEVON ROE CHAS EVEN BIGGER NASCAR DREAMS
• THERE ARE MORE 'OUT' GAY RACG DRIVERS THAN YOU THK

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

Empire sports has article statg that Jeff Gordon has fally e out and adm he is gay. Gordon was a romantic relatnship wh openly-gay driver Stephen Rhos:. wh a fellow openly gay NASCAR member.

Jeff Gordon who is gog through a divorce said that he is now datg openly gay driver Stephen Rhos. athlet who are new to the openly gay sports world.

If they wanna be gay go be a fashn. Adam* said was dangero to e out as gay his home untry and feared beg forced to an arranged marriage wh a said he was "so lucky" to wed his soulmate, Ray, Manchter and wish everyone uld marry who they love. There are more than 60 untri wh laws that crimalise same-sex sexual acts acrdg to the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn, cludg Sdi Arabia.

THIS GAY RACE R DRIVER QU WHEN HE ME OUT. NOW HE’S RETURNG TO THE TRACK AS HIS TE SELF

'Authentilly myself'Ray said he had also stggled growg up gay the 1970s and 80s England, which was "tough" said his relig school "dmmed to you, 'you are gog to hell'" Adam returned home to Sdi Arabia, spe beg more than 3, 000 apart and later rtricted by the Covid-19 panmic, they kept touch daily and the romance years ago, Ray proposed on a vio ll and after succsfully applyg for a UK fiancé visa, Adam moved to Manchter December 2022. Adam said he had been aaid to even wear lours his home untry so the first thg he did when he moved was start to "grow my mullet, got my ears pierced and booked appotments for tattoos" relled how, ntrast, one of his gay iends Sdi had been forced to marry a woman, addg: "It has ed not only his life but the life of his wife. The uple, who live London, said a "really betiful memory" was on the way home when one of their sons shouted out of the black b wdow to Trafalgar Square, "My dads jt got married" and cheered "Yay, gay marriage".

TRAVIS SHUMAKE STRIV TO BEE FIRST OPENLY GAY NHRA FUNNY CAR DRIVER

The son of 2000 European rally r champn Henrik Lundgaard, the IndyCar sophomore took advantage of his off-roadg background to secure the No. 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. Zach Herr didn’t thk was possible to be an out gay pro race r driver.

But this time, as an out gay man.

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

“I never actually had the opportuny to disver who I was as a person, and what that other part was, once I realized I was gay, ” Herr said.

He heard the slurs around the tracks and uldn't thk of another gay driver. Herr and his boyiend, who had also recently e out, started immersg themselv the gay muny. Herr, as one might expect for a baby gay, remembered the experience as “overwhelmg.

The ultra-macho culture of NASCAR has slowly been changg recent years: Devon Roe, another out gay pro to racer, was recently featured on NASCAR’s Twter page. Travis Shumake is the son of former NHRA Funny Car driver Tripp Shumake, who was killed a motorcycle accint 36, Travis Shumake hop to bee the first openly gay driver the NHRA Funny Car class.

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

Shumake plans to h the racetrack by season’s end, memoratg his father’s last NHRA Funny Car victory 40 years ago at the Fals—and beg the Campg World Drag Racg Seri’ first openly gay June 15, Shumake earned his Nostalgia Funny Car license at the Frank Hawley Drag Racg School Florida. But they're not givg me a mulligan for beg gay bee my dad was great or whatever. ”Curly, he has gotten oppose advice om mentors about whether to tra on the fact he’s gay.

You don't want to be the guy who was gay and terrible. Shumake said, “So I'm back and forth on playg up the gay rd, but I thk 's a good bs mol. ”Tripp Shumake didn’t live to see his son bee a foster parent and an advote for homels gay teens through his work Arizona wh one•n•ten, a non-prof anizatn dited to helpg LGBTQ youth ag 14-24.

Now is the time to show the world there is a place for gay petors and fans motorsports. I affectnately ll the Gay Mafia. There's about 10 people I know the sport that are gay that haven't taken the steps like I am takg, jt bee of that fear, ” Shumake said.

NASCAR WILL HAVE ITS FIRST OPENLY GAY DRIVER YEARS DURG 2021 SEASON

“There have been so many more gay people, but we don't talk. “Maybe if, for some reason, someone is able to e out of the closet or enter the sport—gay, lbian, transgenr—bee of my attempts at this, that would certaly be rewardg enough to me.

“I'm like, how do people not know you're gay?

’”Devon Roe, 22, a dirt-track sprt-r veteran om Wt Burlgton, Iowa, is a iend of Shumake, and they enurage one another as Roe embarks on his NASCAR journey as the first openly gay Campg World Tck Seri driver. ”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.

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

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

“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. 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.

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

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.

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.