Brendan Holer is a Masters Natnal Champn, 9-time state champn, a pro cyclg ach, and openly gay. The stigma of the gay male athlete persists, and ’s a stigma he hop to change.
Contents:
- DANIEL GAY
- DANIEL GAY
- CYCLG - DANIEL GAY
- DANIEL GAY
- DANIEL GAY
- ACCINTAL FIGUREHEAD: CLAY DAVI, THE ONLY OPENLY GAY MALE ELE RIR THE UK
- ACCINTAL FIGUREHEAD: CLAY DAVI, THE ONLY OPENLY GAY MALE ELE RIR THE UK
DANIEL GAY
Daniel Gay (born 1995-06-12) is a road racg cyclist om Uned Stat, active between 2014 and 2014. * daniel gay cycling *
Daniel Gay (born 12 June 1995) is a road racg cyclist who pet ternatnally for the Uned Stat.
Daniel Gay - Rults.
Daniel Gay is a cyclist om USA (born June 12th 1995).
DANIEL GAY
Daniel Gay (born 12 June 1995) is a road racg cyclist who pet ternatnally for the Uned Stat. * daniel gay cycling *
Of the 978 rirs the men’s pro peloton, none are this statement is te on the surface – not a sgle male rir at WorldTour or ProTeam level publicly intifi as gay – ’s starkly implsible as soon as that surface is scratched. Estimat on the proportn of UK and US people who are gay or bisexual range om about three to seven per cent.
CYCLG - DANIEL GAY
Daniel Gay is a cyclist om USA (born June 12th 1995). * daniel gay cycling *
If we take the low-end timate for men, three per cent, then you would expect there to be about 30 gay or bi rirs the pro peloton – enough for a whole WorldTour squad. The qutn, then, is not whether there are gay pros but why none of them feel ee to be open about who they really are. As a gay man who has worked sports media sce the mid-Noughti, I n appreciate why a rir might feel pelled to keep their sexualy a secret.
Even magaze offic – surely ls laddish than race paddocks – I’ve lost unt of the sually homophobic ments I’ve heard. Generally the have not been tentnal sults but rather thoughtls so-lled banter, “gay” ed as a pejorative term, and beg gay only ever mentned terms of speculatn or cheap humour. Ryan (not his real name) is a gay rir who traed among top-flight pros and peted several UCI rac before droppg out of the sport a few years his mid-20s, he has agreed to speak to CW on ndn of anonymy.
DANIEL GAY
* daniel gay cycling *
“None of the rirs I traed wh would be explicly homophobic an abive way, ” Ryan tells me. ” He explas that securg ris on teams was “all about who you know” and spected the nnectns would be harr to foster as a gay rir, possibly to the triment of his reer. He hop his story will make rirs “more aware that how they act has an effect on others” and that gay rirs g through the ranks today will feel ee to be wholly themselv.
” Cyclg behd society The personal ttimony om Ryan chim wh rearch showg that most LGBTQ+ sportspeople have experienced homophobia; many end up feelg ostracised and suffer related mental health problems. “It was jt the gay jok, beg asked nstantly ‘Are you gay? “When to homophobic banter, needs to be taken more serly by erng bodi.
I didn’t want to prume this was te – part bee I uldn’t thk of any Brish exampl – so I arranged a ll wh US rir Tayler Wil (TrekSegaedo), who has been openly gay for almost her entire pro reer. “I thk there are many reasons for that but personally I’ve never been on a team that hasn’t had at least one other gay rir – I didn’t have to thk twice about g out.
DANIEL GAY
Ele Brish cyclist Clay Davi says more mt be done to stamp out anti-gay sentiments. * daniel gay cycling *
” Buttrsed by strength numbers, beg gay has never been a e for ncern eher among fellow rirs or wh team directors, explas the 31-year-old. The Catch-22 for the men is that fear and uncertaty around how an openly gay rir might be treated is staed by there beg none. “I’ve asked a few male cyclists why they thk there are no openly gay men, ” she says, “and their rpons really surprised me.
The guys I talked to were all between 20 and 26 and om untri that I thought were super-progrsive, but there was still some homophobic reactn. “One guy said, ‘I don’t thk [a gay rir] would survive bee ’s such a hard sport’, ” Wil lghs at the illogily. The equatg of homosexualy wh femy and weakns for her betrays that “homophobia and misogyny go together” as a symptom of “men tryg to domate everythg.
ACCINTAL FIGUREHEAD: CLAY DAVI, THE ONLY OPENLY GAY MALE ELE RIR THE UK
” Other male rirs told her that they would be unfortable to have a gay teammate bee “you know, gettg changed together on the b and stuff. ” Rejectg such anxieti pot blank, Wil lls out the homophobic tenncy to “over-sexualise what means to be a gay man”. As a gay woman who has never had to nceal that part of herself the sport, Wil regnis that mt be “credibly hard” for gay male pros, and urg men who feel secure their sexualy to “step up, speak out and make a more welg environment”.
Reprentatn matters “I wasn’t yet openly gay when I first met Tayler [Wil], ” says former pro Molly Waver – speakg to me om Bristol on a break om her studi to bee a paramedic. She was there wh her wife Olivia [Dillon, former pro] – at a time when wasn’t so mon to see openly gay upl.
ACCINTAL FIGUREHEAD: CLAY DAVI, THE ONLY OPENLY GAY MALE ELE RIR THE UK
” The sheer visibily of other gay rirs had a profound effect on Weaver, she now reflects.
He me out publicly January, and as someone petg UCI rac, he is as close as gets to beg that elive phenomenon, an openly gay male pro rir. “I had already told my team-mat, fay and iends that I was gay [ November 2019], ” Laevens tells me over Zoom. “I replied openly, y, I’m gay, and then was all over the world.
“Beg gay is acceptable and normal for younger rirs, whereas maybe ls so for some olr guys. ”What would be his msage to a gay rir who is nsirg followg his footsteps and takg that leap of fah? ” Rearch and statistics - 'We need urgent actn to stop discrimatn’ A review of the rearch to LGBTQ+ discrimatn and excln sport by amics at Monash Universy Atralia, published December, highlighted that as many as 82 per cent of athlet had wnsed homophobic or transphobic language sport the past six months.