'Queer Skateboardg': Photographer documents gay skater culture

Contents:

• THERE HAVE BEEN AT LEAST 39 GAY OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS. HERE’S THE LIST
• 'QUEER SKATEBOARDG': PHOTOGRAPHER DOCUMENTS GAY SKATER CULTURE
• THERE ARE 8 OUT GAY MALE SKATERS AT THE OLYMPICS. IN 2014, THERE WERE 0.

THERE HAVE BEEN AT LEAST 39 GAY OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS. HERE’S THE LIST

There have been at least 39 gay men to pete figure skatg at the Wter Olympic Gam over the years, wh eight publicly out men petg 2022. LGBT historian Tony Scupham-Bilton has intified the men over the years, cludg a pastakg procs of intifyg who is gay.

The gay men have bed for 15 Olympic medals, wh several ready to pete pairs figure skatg later this week. Five other gay athlet have been named as alternat.

'QUEER SKATEBOARDG': PHOTOGRAPHER DOCUMENTS GAY SKATER CULTURE

In addn to the 37 gay men, Timothy LeDuc is nonbary and will make their Olympic but this week. Six of the gay men to pete have won Olympic gold medals:.

Olympic team that morng, makg him the first out gay athlete to reprent the Uned Stat at the Wter haven’t been a lot of skaters who have e out of durg their petive skatg reers. And while another openly gay skater, Johnny Weir, is a two-time Olympian 2006 and 2010, he didn’t officially e out until 2011, after his Olympic reer was then there’s Rippon. When asked what sort of obstacl a gay skater fac g out, or tryg to, Rippon c figure skatg’s reputatn as a so-lled “gay” sport as one of those challeng.

THERE ARE 8 OUT GAY MALE SKATERS AT THE OLYMPICS. IN 2014, THERE WERE 0.

“I thk there’s this prenceived notn that, like, everyone figure skatg is gay, there’s such a phback that you know, ‘No, and not everybody is, ” he says. The mpaign was quickly scrapped and s very existence was even nied after was acced of beg homophobic. )It’s bad enough when those outsi of figure skatg speak about the sport homophobic terms but image the sult when the lears of the sport self spew the same sort of msagg, and, by choosg to highlight the “macho” skaters recg efforts — the arth of male skaters has been a s-long problem — have the nsequence of mimizg the ntributns of the “artistic” skaters who have voted themselv to the urse “athletic” and “artistic” are not mutually exclive tegori.

“If you are gay and you are a figure skater, sometim you’re like, ‘I don’t want to be, like, jt, you know, the butt end of a joke, ’” Rippon kd of joke that’s herent somethg like this 2014 digal short om Saturday Night Live lled “U.

” The joke is built on the assumptn that all the good male skaters are all gay bee the only men who would be terted gettg good at somethg like figure skatg — wh s mic, theatrily, stum — would be gay men. )His announcement me ls than a year after the Sochi Olympics, where the sexual orientatn of athlet beme a central issue, bee host natn Rsia had jt passed s famo “anti-gay propaganda law. “If were before my event, I would absolutely not go out of my way to meet somebody who I felt has gone out of their way to not only show that they aren’t a iend of a gay person but that they thk they’re sick, ” Rippon said.