Why the First Gay Olympics Was a Watershed Moment Sports | HISTORY

runner gay olympic

Figure skaters Adam Rippon and Eric Radford each ma history as openly gay men who won medals at the 2018 Wter Olympics, the latt ton for Team LGBTQ.

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DOUBLE OLYMPIC CHAMPN KELLY HOLM SHAR 'RELIEF' AFTER REVEALG SHE IS GAY

Bra's double Olympic champn Kelly Holm received an outpourg of support om fellow Olympians after she announced she was gay a newspaper terview. * runner gay olympic *

10:53Download AudCopy the below to embed the WBUR d player on your seRumeNikki Hiltz petn at the 2019 World Athletics Champnships (USATF)Profsnal nner Nikki Hiltz recently cid was time to share a middle-distance nner had been openly gay for years, but was durg a virtual fundraiser last summer about suici preventn for LGBTQ youth that Hiltz realized was time to tell the whole people ed the race as an opportuny to e out, so Hiltz wanted to hear their stori before this year’s event. When, still damp om the pool after wng his long-awaed gold medal, Brish diver Tom Daley clared his pri at beg a gay man and also an Olympic champn, there were tears and full hearts across the while there was ltle shock – Daley has been a vol advote of LGBTQ+ rights for years – there was a joy and ease to his pronouncement that was new.

Photograph: WPA/Getty Imag“When I heard – I’m gog to get emotnal here – when I heard Tom Daley talk the prs nference about beg a proud gay man, and an Olympic gold medalist, I jt thought: y, absolutely y. Photograph: Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty ImagWomen outnumber men on the list of out gay athlet by about an 8-1 marg, wh women’s football alone acuntg for more than 40 out players. Other gay male petors clu the New Zealand diver Anton Down-Jenks, the equtrians Edward Gal and Hans Peter Mrhoud om the Netherlands and the US x Julian the openg ceremony, the US basketball star Sue Bird, engaged to footballg legend Megan Rapoe, beamed as she bore the US flag.

Ziegler rells a gay footballer tellg him about speakg to the cur Iranian football team about his sexualy, bee their untry homosexualy was illegal and punishable by ath. ”While Daley’s post-swim terview was voured by an overwhelmgly supportive public, other athlet risk their liv to be publicly out at the the Polish rower Katarzyna Zillmann won silver the quadple sculls she thanked her girliend, explag that she wanted to e her platform to help the LGBTQ+ muny Poland where there has been a risg wave of homophobia.

CONOR MCDERMOTT-MOSTOWY JT WON 2 US CHAMPNSHIPS. NOW HE’S G OUT AS GAY.

Tom Wadll, an athlete the 1968 Olympics, created the Gay Gam first held 1982 to celebrate LGBTQ cln. The Gay Gam are still held to this day wh the next round schled for 2022 Hong Kong. * runner gay olympic *

The Tongan swimmer Ami Fonua is openly gay and a natnal hero a untry were homosexualy is illegal, punishable by up to 10 years prison.

At least 186 publicly out gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, queer and nonbary athlet were Tokyo for the Summer Olympic Gam, more than triple the number who participated at the 2016 R Gam. “Competg at the Olympics as an openly gay athlete is pretty amazg, ” Canadian swimmer Mark Thormeyer told Outsports.

Thormeyer was not out when he peted at the 2016 R Olympics and me out publicly as gay a 2020 say for Outsports. Elissa Alarie (Canada)#Brt Benn (Canada)#Kelly Brazier (New Zealand)Gayle Broughton (New Zealand)#Isadora Cello (Brazil) Lren Doyle (USA)#Mara Fravanti (Brazil)#Megan Jon (Bra)Alev Kelter (USA)Ghislae Landry (Canada)#Kaili Lan (Canada)#Celia Quansah (Bra)Kristen Thomas (USA)Ruby Tui (New Zealand)#Sharni Williams (Atralia)Portia Woodman (New Zealand). To improve LGBTQ reprentatn profsnal sports, Schweighofer and Denison said, ach and lears youth sports should set a precent that homophobic language and discrimatn are unacceptable.

WHY THE FIRST GAY OLYMPICS WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT SPORTS

Sometim the Gam have taken place untri where homosexualy is not wily accepted or where legislatn impacts LGBTQ rints. Denison’s rearch fds that most LGBTQ athlet leave their sports as young people, a parture driven by a culture of homophobic language and stereotyp.

Daley has said that while he’s accepted his sport of divg, he often pet agast divers om untri where beg gay is crimalized. And Rapoe 2018 said that, as a kid, she “would have loved to have more rmatn” about what meant to be gay and why g homophobic slurs was wrong.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPENLY GAY OLYMPIANS

“Anytime you hear somebody say, ‘Oh, that’s gay, ’ or whatever, those thgs matter, ” said Rapoe, who didn’t e out to her teammat until llege. Homophobic slurs ntue to be prevalent sports – a 2020 study om Out on the Fields, which studi LGBTQ cln sports, found that more than 80% of gay participants had heard them ed while playg.

When ach and teammat e gay slurs equently, sends the msage that the language is harmls and OK to e – and solidifi the belief that all members of the team are heterosexual, Denison said. The same Out on the Fields study reported that over 81% of gay men unr 22 hid their sexualy to avoid rejectn by teammat or discrimatn by ach or officials, among other reasons.

That’s a problem for profsnal sports – wh few gay players sport, there will be even fewer who will make profsnally.

BEG OUT: ELE GAY NNER DAVID MELLY PROUD OF HIS ‘WEIRDNS’

“Boys and young men are tght to avoid anythg associated wh femy, most notably weakns, emotn, and homosexualy, ” said Schweighofer, whose work on LGBTQ cln sports has appeared the publitn of the Natnal Park Foundatn. The same homophobic norms that affect men sports impact women and girls, too, and they origated the 19th century, Denison said. Homophobic stereotyp of women athlet, though no longer based on women’s abily to reproduce, persist today, Denison said.

Atralian A-League soccer star Josh Cavallo me out as gay an October vio posted to his social media, beg hailed as the first current male top-flight profsnal soccer player to publicly do so. "He ntued: "Growg up I always felt the need to hi myself, you know, bee I was ashamed, and ashamed I'll never be able to do what I love and be gay. In a September terview wh USA Today, 25-year-old mor league baseball player beme the only active baseball profsnal to be out as gay!

WELE TO THE ‘GAY GAM,’ AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE OLYMPICS, WHERE ACTIVISM IS ENURAGED AND EVERYONE’S AN ATHLETE

The 28-year-old Natnal Football League player and Rairs fensive leman ma history when he me out as gay on Instagram durg Pri Month, beg the first veteran NFL player to e out as gay while signed to a regular-season ntract.

The Bachelor star and former football player (who was signed by the San Diego Chargers as an undrafted ee agent and was on the practice squad of the Oakland Rairs and the Philalphia Eagl) me out as gay April, sayg he had fally e to terms wh his sexualy and the "next step all of this was sort of lettg people know. Hiltz had prevly e out as gay while llege and has been a visible and affirmg prence for gay athlet the past. Corey Walsh, the 27-year-old pro BMX rir and Vans spokperson, said he isn't normally the type of person to "let people " on his personal life, but felt was important to e out as gay a March Instagram post bee "there are a lot of people still stgglg wh the same suatns" and he "jt wanted to let people know that they are not alone.

GAY

Champn long track speedskater Conor McDermott-Mostowy never hid beg gay om his fay, iends, and fellow athlet, but he also wasn't one to rate his locker wh rabow Pri flags eher. He ially feared negative stereotyp about gay male athlet but threw those ncerns asi after his two-tle performance at the U. But over the last two weeks, as I’ve seen Amerin shot putter Raven Snrs proudly ll herself a “flamg gay” and Filipo boxer Nthy Petec dite her silver medal to the LGBTQ muny, one qutn keeps g back to my md: When will male sports tch up?

Wh those two years, we had a pro basketball player (Jason Colls), pro soccer player (Robbie Rogers), NFL prospect (Michael Sam) and men’s Divisn 1 basketball player (Derrick Gordon) publicly e out as gay. (Picture by 2015 Getty Imag)Bra's double Olympic champn Dame Kelly Holm received an outpourg of support om fellow athlet after she revealed she was gay. He, too, dited his w to the muny, sayg a prs nference that he felt “credibly proud to say that I am a gay man and also an Olympic champn.

GAY ATHLET ARE MAKG HISTORY AT THE 2018 WTER OLYMPICS

This w is also for you, ” she said, referrg to the predomantly Catholic untry’s LGBTQ+ populatn, which fac tense reprsn om the Philipp’ homophobic ernment. German nner Otto Peltzer, who peted the 1928 and 1932 Olympics, is arrted by the Nazi regime for homosexualy.

Tom Wadll, the man who would lnch the Gay Gam 1982, pet the thlon at the Mexi Cy Olympics, where he sixth. Atralian diver Matthew Mcham be the first out gay male Olympic champn, wng gold the 10-meter platform Beijg. Through all of — the years toilg short track, multiple Junr World Teams and reprentg Team USA — McDermott-Mostowy has never hidn beg gay om his fellow speed skaters.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* RUNNER GAY OLYMPIC

Beg Out: Ele gay nner David Melly is proud of his ‘weirdns’ - Outsports .

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