Tayler Wil: I hope the men's peloton be more acceptg of gay rirs | Cyclgnews

Contents:

• THIS GAY TEENAGE CYCLIST IS ONE OF THE FIRST PRO MALE RIRS TO EVER E OUT
• GAY CYCLG LOVER
• MOST CYCLISTS ARE GAY?
• ELE CYCLIST CLAY DAVI OUT AS GAY: ‘IT TOOK ME NEARLY DYG TO REVEAL MY SEXUALY’
• GRAEME OBREE REVEALS HE IS GAY
• TAYLER WIL: I HOPE THE MEN'S PELOTON BE MORE ACCEPTG OF GAY RIRS
• THE GAY CYCLIST
• THIS CYCLIST STARTED GAY’S OKAY CYCLG TO CELEBRATE DIVERSY AND IMPROVE REPRENTATN
• GAY CYCLG CHAMP PROMOT AN THENTIC AND VISIBLE LIFE
• GAY CYCLIST FDS HIS BAND OF BROTHERS AT INDIANA UNIVERSY ATERNY
• GAY BIKE STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG
• GAY CYCLG TOUR
• BRISH CYCLIST CLAY DAVI OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY
• ‘PUMPG’ IS DANGERO NEW FAD AMONG GAY MEN

THIS GAY TEENAGE CYCLIST IS ONE OF THE FIRST PRO MALE RIRS TO EVER E OUT

” swagger (thk Dick Vale, not At Powers), all the trappgs of a tradnal cis whe male, or at least those of a ago, a time that now feels curly antiquated nsirg how far we’ve e — Holer was gay.

GAY CYCLG LOVER

After his parti wrapped, he’d feign fatigue, tell iends he was head to bed, then meet lol men onle and later that same night person (anywhere except for Rochter’s gay bars, which he avoid for fear that a straight iend might spot him). ’ So, to a kid the msage was, ‘Hey, if you’re gay and you have sex wh someone of the same sex, you’re gonna get AIDS and die.

’ There was no Michael Sam om the Rams beg like, ‘Yo, what’s up everyone, I’m gay and I’m cshg people on the football field.

"To a kid the msage was, ‘Hey, if you’re gay and you have sex wh someone of the same sex, you’re gonna get AIDS and die.

MOST CYCLISTS ARE GAY?

A gay athlete like Sam, the first openly gay NFL player, was the type of role mol that Holer need.

ELE CYCLIST CLAY DAVI OUT AS GAY: ‘IT TOOK ME NEARLY DYG TO REVEAL MY SEXUALY’

By llege, partyg replaced those activi, but he tackled wh the same gto and palled around wh a crew of straight male iends typil of that ilk and era, one which a certa homophobic slur was so woven to the vernacular that Holer sometim heard g out of his own mouth. Perhaps wantg to repture some of that magic of his first weekend as an openly gay man, he moved to Nashville, and not long after that, he met Chris Cooley, a silver-haired ntist 25 years his senr.

Though tergeneratnal relatnships are mon  the gay muny, Holer wasn’t eager to expla to straight iends, and so he’d rigned himself to the ia of beg out while somehow remag hidn. It’s a photo he proudly shared on Instagram, along wh the hashtag #gaycyclist — somethg he clus wh nearly everythg he posts.

GRAEME OBREE REVEALS HE IS GAY

As a teenager and young adult, Holer never got the gay mentor he need, one who might have broken the mold for him by monstratg that there are untls ways which one n rve out a gay inty. It’s a statistic that don’t add up, as Cyclg Weekly poted out, nsirg the percentage of the world’s populatn who are gay. Here’s what one versn of that life looks like: Brendan Holer standg atop the podium as natnal champ, all his different selv alcg to his 6-foot-5 ame, skny, sg, arms raised triumph, a gay man lookg directly to the mera, unaaid to fully be himself.

Former world champn Graeme Obree revealed he was gay 2011, disclosg he ponred suici bee of his sexualy. In his announcement, Laevens acknowledged he don’t know any other active openly gay male cyclists. “I didn’t fd difficult to exprs myself, but I did sport, bee I don’t know any [cyclist] who is gay, ” he said.

TAYLER WIL: I HOPE THE MEN'S PELOTON BE MORE ACCEPTG OF GAY RIRS

Gay ele cyclist Clay Davi opens up about homophobia he’s experienced sport and the “pretty low basele of unrstandg” of LGBT+ cln wh Brish Cyclg.

THE GAY CYCLIST

In the terview, he explaed there is a “perceptn” that pro cyclists have a “b of a closed mdset” and might “behave strangely if they knew you were gay“. He relled beg at the Eastern regn road race champnships a uple of years ago and wnsg “homophobic slurs beg thrown around” which he said “wasn’t jt banter”. Former world champn cyclist Graeme Obree revealed he is gay 2011 and opened up about his stggl wh mental health as he me to terms wh his sexualy.

THIS CYCLIST STARTED GAY’S OKAY CYCLG TO CELEBRATE DIVERSY AND IMPROVE REPRENTATN

The spokperson add “anybody our sport who is subject to or wns any type of discrimatory or appropriate behavur” is enuraged to report to the Brish Cyclg Compliance team “so that we n take the appropriate actn and send a clear msage that homophobia and transphobia will not be tolerated our sport”.

GAY CYCLG CHAMP PROMOT AN THENTIC AND VISIBLE LIFE

Image 1 of 4Graeme Obree on track at Palermo for World Track Champnships whout helmet (Jonny Lee Miller) (Image cred: MGM)Graeme Obree, a two-time World Champn and hour rerd holr, has admted the torment he faced as he me to terms wh his sexualy, after revealg that he is gay to a Brish an terview wh the Sttish Sun newspaper published on Monday, Obree admted that the anxiety associated wh hidg the fact that he was gay had led to two separate attempts to take his own life, 1998 and 2001. I mt have known I was gay and was so unacceptable, " said the Obree's private life and his achievements on the bike have bed to make him one of cyclg's most enigmatic figur. 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.

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.

GAY CYCLIST FDS HIS BAND OF BROTHERS AT INDIANA UNIVERSY ATERNY

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. ” 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. 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.

GAY BIKE STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG

“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. ” 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.

GAY CYCLG TOUR

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.

BRISH CYCLIST CLAY DAVI OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY

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. ” 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.

‘PUMPG’ IS DANGERO NEW FAD AMONG GAY MEN

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.