Comg Out: To Be a Gay Surfer | The Inertia

Contents:

• THIS GAY SURFER STARTED AN ONLYFANS PAGE TO FEEL SEXY, AND ’S WORKG
• THIS GAY PRO SURFER ME OUT TO HIS "MAT" WHEN A GROCERY CLERK H ON HIM
• 10 GREAT ATRALIAN GAY FILMS
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• COMG OUT: TO BE A GAY SURFER
• GAY SURFERS GET "OUT IN THE LE-UP"
• THE GAY VERSN OF SI'S SWIMSU ISSUE
• YOUNG IRISH SURFER TO BE FIRST OPENLY GAY SURFER ON WORLD TOUR

THIS GAY SURFER STARTED AN ONLYFANS PAGE TO FEEL SEXY, AND ’S WORKG

Earlier this year, I spoke wh Chance Wheeler, another gay former llege athlete, who says OnlyFans allows him to feel nfint his body. And as the membership grew – to clu many who thought they were only gay surfer the world – so did the stori. Surfers, cludg many profsnal on, were wrg to Castets to expla how they had felt pelled to keep their sexualy secret, faced homophobia the sport or stggled the surf dtry as a rult of g year Thomas, along wh Atralian former state champn surfer David Wakefield – who chose not to pursue a surfg reer out of a fear of beg “found out” as gay – cid to go on a trip around the world to meet some of them.

Their journey – ptured award-wng documentary Out the Le-up, which premier the UK this week – sheds a light on the experienc of gay surfers around the world as seeks to unrstand why the sport ntu to stggle to be open about the the stori heard are that of former petive surfer Sie Hernanz, whose fellow surfers and roommat moved out after fdg out she was gay. It also touch on the tragic se of Ben Roper, a young gay surfer om one of Sydney’s famo surf gangs, the Bra Boys, who killed himself last year. “I have seen so many talented female surfers e and go bee they didn’t have the support om the surfg dtry due to the fact that they were eher gay, spected of beg gay, not feme enough or they simply did not f the image that brands believe sells product, ” she says.

THIS GAY PRO SURFER ME OUT TO HIS "MAT" WHEN A GROCERY CLERK H ON HIM

“To e out as gay the surfg dtry is to step out of the bounds of what is nsired ‘marketable’, so I suffered the nsequenc of that, ” she actn shot om Out the Le-up. Photograph: PRFor Ian Thomson, who directed the documentary and is himself gay and a surfer, is not jt the profsnal aspect of surfg that n feel very hostile to a gay person.

And you get this msage that if any way I show my te self – my homosexualy – I’m jt gonna get massacred out here. ”The issue of homosexualy and surfg draws a lot of wir problems the sport has wh diversy general – somethg that seems at odds wh the easy-gog, unterculture liftyle many feel reprents.

There is still yet to be an openly gay male pro surfer at the ele level who is currently on tour – spe the fact that more tradnal sports, such as football, gby and boxg, have had succsful athlet e out. And another e is jt that there have never really been any gay surfers out there, so I would jt ll that ignorance and a lack of visibily. ”The aim of the film – which has been shortlisted to be ed as part of the tn programme Atralian high schools – is not simply to challenge homophobia surfg, but also to help refe and mornise the image of homosexualy general.

10 GREAT ATRALIAN GAY FILMS

“The media is still picturg gay people as livg the cy, wearg the same cloth, gog to parti …” says Castets, who feels that the perceptn of gay culture – a siar way to surfg – hasn’t evolved much sce the 80s.

“I thought if we were able to make this film, we would be able to change that stereotype and show a new image of what is to be gay 2014. I thought that if people found out that I was gay that they would no longer want to be associated wh me and would thk of me as jt another stereotype. All the lols at home know that I'm gay, and they're not aaid to give me some harmls playful stick about the water.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

As a mate of me that I do a b of travelg wh for surf put , "If someone stops likg you for beg gay, then what kd of msag do that breath about that person? One of my mat has known that I am gay sce school, and my other mate I've gone to great lengths to hi to him the fact that I'm gay. That night we got on the beer and I said enough is enough and turned to mate and said to him "man, I'm sorry, I'm gay.

The bt part has been people's reactns to fdg out I'm gay and beg able to break a stereotype of gay people, pecially when surfg. When I me , I was chattg wh one of the pros and he was lghg and said he had seen the film that I am talkg about beg gay. The Adventur of Priscilla, Queen of the Dert (1994)While same-sex marriage was only ma legal Atralia 2017, the untry has a fairly strong rerd on LGBT rights, and Sydney is one of the most gay-iendly ci the world.

Before the 1970s, the sexualy of probable gay characters was not ma explic, for example the effemate sal assistant  Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938).

COMG OUT: TO BE A GAY SURFER

The Set (1970) is the first Atralian film wh homosexualy as a central theme, while gay men appeared sexploatn favour such as Atralia after Dark (1975) and The ABCs of Love and Sex: Atralia Style (1978), which H was for homosexualy.

Sign up to BFI Flare emailsGet the latt #BFIFlare news and ticket release Max 2: The Road Warrr (1981) featured a gay villa (the leather-clad Wez, enraged by the slayg of his lover), while more sympathetic homosexual characters appeared prison drama Stir (1980) and fay melodrama Mull (1988). The 1990s were a goln era for gay Ozzie films, while the new lennium has seen a glut of low-budget gay surfer dramas, cludg the easy-on-the-eye Newstle (2008), the nihilistic Drown (2015) and the downright bizarre Tan L (2006).

GAY SURFERS GET "OUT IN THE LE-UP"

The Naked Bunyip (1970)Homosexualy was tnip to many of the filmmakers behd the wave of sexploatn documentari that flourished Atralia the 1970s, which often served as an exce to show tillatg shots of lbians gettg down to bs the bedroom.

THE GAY VERSN OF SI'S SWIMSU ISSUE

Not so The Naked Bunyip, the grandfather of Atralian sexploatn, which a lengthy segment is voted to a gay male dock worker, who talks ndidly about his life. The film draws parallels between the close mascule relatnships that form unr the Atralian phenomenon of ‘mathip’ and homosexualy, while talkg heads discs the importance of crimalisg gay sex, which at the time of the documentary was a crimal offence  Atralia. Although seldom tegorised as a gay film, viewers won’t need to dive ep for the queer subtext this vlent, male-domated world.

Bond himself was gay, an early bar scene looks like a scene om William Friedk’s S&M thriller Cisg (1980), while is clear that some sort of sexual act, probably a rape, tak place between the teacher and Doc after a vlent stggle, sendg the protagonist to another spiral of spair.

The Clic (1982)In this fun and bawdy bo of scy edy and sex tn aid, we dip to a day the life of a VD clic, where a laid-back doctor (Chris Haywood) and a pdish medil stunt (Simon Burke) tend to patients of all walks of life, om ank sex workers to ashamed hoewiv, om promiscuo gay men to cheatg hbands. Appalled when a motached man the wag room flirts wh him, the stunt’s homophobia be manift the dramatic scene when he realis the doctor, too, is gay, snarlg: “Those men e here and they drop their pants for you.

YOUNG IRISH SURFER TO BE FIRST OPENLY GAY SURFER ON WORLD TOUR

It’s boosted hugely by a very likeable performance om Haywood as the gay doctor, who eventually manag to fe a bond of iendship wh the nservative youngster. The Everlastg Secret Fay is one such film, an often homophobic tale of a young man who be termed to climb the social ladr and live the high life when he be the object of sire of a closeted homosexual polician.

It’s an easy film to mock, and s kky scen of bondage and a (thankfully off-screen) paful-soundg sex act wh a large crab teeter to mp, and suggt the filmmaker’s opn of gay men may not be very high. But ’s wickedly entertag, Arthur Dignam is excellent as the polician, and ’s a unique film that uld not have been ma at any other time, wh sex scen too graphic for before the 1980s and an anti-gay streak too unpalatable for the 1990s.

Filled wh quotable l and gags (not least the monstroly polilly rrect “the only bang you’re ever gonna get” eback that Bernatte serv a homophobic woman), the film was adapted to a hugely succsful mil that toured worldwi. The Sum of Us is based on David Stevens’ play about a blokey gay guy who liv at home wh his lovg widowed father. For much of s length, the film feels very post-gay; Isaac (Ewen Llie), our antihero, a moody Greek Atralian who unearths some unpalatable fay secrets when he returns to Greece followg the unexpected ath of his father, is certaly not fed by his homosexualy.