LGBTQ: PGA Tour’s first openly gay ddie hop story spir others

Contents:

• TODD MONTOYA OUT AS PGA TOUR'S FIRST OPENLY GAY DDIE, HOP STORY SPIR OTHERS
• LYNCH: GAY MEN ARE NEARLY VISIBLE GOLF, BUT WE’RE NOT NON-EXISTENT
• I’M A GOLFER, AND I’M GAY. GET OVER .

TODD MONTOYA OUT AS PGA TOUR'S FIRST OPENLY GAY DDIE, HOP STORY SPIR OTHERS

Adults — nearly six percent — intify as gay, while a further lve to the numbers shows that almost 16 percent of Generatn Z (18-23-yearolds) intify as LGBTQ. Jog Stonewall as his workload allows, Kyle Wn, PGA, is a gay golf profsnal and the golf and events sal ordator at Shadow Ridge, as well as a life skills ach at The First Tee of the Coachella Valley. “There actually ed to be a bar Palm Sprgs named Dk’s, which is an old joke the gay muny.

It’s actually an acronym that stands for ‘Double Ine No Kids, ’ which is still reprentative of many gay upl. There are a lot of gay upl wh money to spend on hobbi that st a ltle b more, such as golf. The dollars, the rounds and the Gallup poll notwhstandg, beg gay Ameri still reprents taboo for much of the culture, on or off the turf.

LYNCH: GAY MEN ARE NEARLY VISIBLE GOLF, BUT WE’RE NOT NON-EXISTENT

“It wasn’t okay to be an openly gay golfer anyplace the untry 1990, or even 2000, ” Buie says. A hundred toward the ast, another of the natn’s largt gay golf groups te up wh equal ardor, albe wh a different approach to s msagg.

The group’s retired Mare founr don’t see a need to openly promote the group’s gay membership. From Metti’s vantage pot, a arth of gay golf groups serv as a signifier that an overt LGBTQ prence the game may be far om reachg the latter ne.

“I thk that most of avid gay golfers still feel left out some rpects, ” Wn nclus. Two exampl: TPC Hardg Park hostg the gural Pri Open, anized by Greg Fzgerald, the first out, gay male PGA teachg pro, and the USGA raisg Pri flags at s headquarters June and sharg an image of the flags on the anizatn’s social-media acunt.

I’M A GOLFER, AND I’M GAY. GET OVER .

Tour pro Tadd Fujikawa says that not all homophobic ments are obv to people, and sometim not even tentnal. “Most of the time when homophobic remarks are ma, they’re not really directed at a person, ’s maybe even directed at themselv, ” Fujikawa says. You h a bad tee shot or h a short tee shot and say, ‘That was so gay.

The New Mexi native — who has ddied for Ryan Blm, Charlie Wi, Ryuji Imada, Billy Mayfair, Stt Gutschewski, Doug LaBelle II, Tag Ridgs, Nicholas Thompson, Kev Durk and now Brian Stuard — was hant to open up to most the golf muny about beg gay. “Somethg that you kept secret for so many years amongst people that you nsir your iends and your -workers — over the urse of time, you grow close to them and until people that I re about know that I’m gay, they really don’t know me for my entirety, ” Montoya said. Ju Children’s Rearch Hospal Albuquerque, New Mexi that ted him a half-ln-dollar home, is believed to now be the first openly gay ddie on the PGA Tour.