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

Contents:

• A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPENLY GAY OLYMPIANS
• ATHLET WHO ARE GAY
• THERE ARE A RERD 11 OPENLY GAY MALE OLYMPIANS R. NONE IS AN AMERIN.
• THERE HAVE BEEN AT LEAST 39 GAY OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS. HERE’S THE LIST
• ‘ABOUT TIME’: GAY ATHLET UNLEASH RABOW WAVE ON OLYMPICS
• WELE TO THE ‘GAY GAM,’ AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE OLYMPICS, WHERE ACTIVISM IS ENURAGED AND EVERYONE’S AN ATHLETE
• GAY HISTORIAN ON WHY AND HOW HE PIL HIS LIST OF LGBTQ OLYMPIANS
• WHY THE FIRST GAY OLYMPICS WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT SPORTS

A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPENLY GAY OLYMPIANS

A total of 186 publicly out gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, queer and nonbary athlet participated the Tokyo Gam, acrdg to Not only was that the most at any Olympics ever, but was also more than triple the number of LGBTQ athlet at the 2016 R Gam. The 27-year-old Cizeron, who is gay, and 26-year-old Papadakis have formed a domant partnership, pturg four World Champnship tl, five European Champnship tl and seven natnal tl. Radford and partner Meagan Duhamel skated to a first-place fish the team event, makg Radford the first openly gay man to w gold at a Wter Olympics.

Peltzer ran at the 1928 Amsterdam and 1932 Los Angel Olympics before he was arrted and imprisoned by the Nazis for his homosexualy 1935. It wasn’t until the 2018 Gam when Team USA featured s first openly gay Wter Olympians, as figure skater Adam Rippon, ekier G Kenworthy and speed skater Brtany Bowe peted PyeongChang. Rippon earned bronze the 2018 team figure skatg petn to make him the Uned Stat’ first openly gay medalist at the Wter Gam.

ATHLET WHO ARE GAY

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.

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.

THERE ARE A RERD 11 OPENLY GAY MALE OLYMPIANS R. NONE IS AN AMERIN.

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. “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.

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

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.

“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.

‘ABOUT TIME’: GAY ATHLET UNLEASH RABOW WAVE ON OLYMPICS

Homophobic stereotyp of women athlet, though no longer based on women’s abily to reproduce, persist today, Denison said. Brish diver Tom Daley won gold the men’s synchronized 10 meter platform and said he felt “credibly proud to say that I am a gay man and also an Olympic champn” after not believg he uld “achieve anythg bee of who” he was as a child.

The Internatnal Olympic Commtee said was vtigatg gay Team USA shot put silver medallist Raven Snrs after she raised her hands a cross on the podium, a gture she said was a “shout out” to Black people, the LGBTQ+ muny and all people alg wh mental health.

Many untri participatg crimalize homosexualy and beg transgenr—some wh the ath penalty or rporal punishment—and few perm same-sex marriage or allow people to legally change their genr.

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

Tongan swimmer Ami Fonua, for example, is openly gay and reprents a untry where homosexualy n be punishable by a 10 year prison sentence. The 2022 soccer World Cup is set to be held Qatar, a natn that punish homosexualy by up to three years prison. While Qatari officials have sisted everyone is wele, the cisn for Qatar to host was cricized by rights groups and there were lls 2010 for then-FIFA boss Sepp Blatter to rign after he joked that gay fans and players should jt “rea” om sex durg the tournament.

Figure skater Adam Rippon will be one of two openly gay Amerins petg the 2018 Wter Olympics, a first for the U. But there’s one thg Rippon won’t be hidg – this year, he and etyle skier G Kenworthy will bee the first openly gay Amerin men to ever pete the Wter Olympics.

GAY HISTORIAN ON WHY AND HOW HE PIL HIS LIST OF LGBTQ OLYMPIANS

Even so, the last time that the Uned Stat sent an openly gay man to any Olympic Gam was 2004, when equtrians Guenter Seil and Robert Dover won bronze team drsage. It was Dover’s sixth time reprentg the Uned Stat at the Olympics; durg his send Gam, 1988, Dover me out, beg the first openly gay athlete to pete the morn Olympics. "I wish that all gay athlet would e out all discipl – football, baseball, the Olympics, whatever, " Dover has said.

Ined, by the time Dover me out on the ternatnal stage, was clear that gay athlet were petg and wng all levels of profsnal sports. ) And 1982, former Olympian Tom Wadll – who would die om AIDS at the height of the epimic five years later – helped found the first Gay Gam for LGBT athlet.

Curry acknowledged that the mors about his sexualy were te, but when journalists asked prient qutns betrayg the era’s misnceptns about homosexualy and masculy, Curry fought back: “I don’t thk I lack virily, and what other people thk of me don’t matter, ” he said.

WHY THE FIRST GAY OLYMPICS WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT SPORTS

There, a fiery, unflchg athletic spectacle, Curry abandoned his ual lively route of skips and hops for a stern technil masterpiece, makg him the first openly gay athlete to perform on the Olympic stage. LGBT journalists and historians, cludg Zeigler and Tony Scupham-Bilton, have talogued the many Olympians who were homosexual but peted a time before beg “out” was safe and acceptable.