Brendan Holer is a Masters Natnal Champn, 9-time state champn, a pro cyclg ach, and openly gay. The stigma of the gay male athlete persists, and ’s a stigma he hop to change.
Contents:
- THIS GAY TEENAGE CYCLIST IS ONE OF THE FIRST PRO MALE RIRS TO EVER E OUT
- GRAEME OBREE REVEALS HE IS GAY
- MOST CYCLISTS ARE GAY?
- GAY CYCLG LOVER
- GAY BIKE
- DRIVER WHO LLED CYCLIST 'GAY BOY' AND SPAT AT HIM JAILED FOR 8 WEEKS; BSSELS BIKE THIEF JAILED FOR ‘ELOGIL CRIME’; JOSH QUIGLEY TO GET NEW BIKE OM SHAND CYCL; BEAT CYCLG CLUB'S 'BURNG BREX' RI + MORE ON THE LIVE BLOG
- GAY CYCLG GROUPS IN THE UK
THIS GAY TEENAGE CYCLIST IS ONE OF THE FIRST PRO MALE RIRS TO EVER E OUT
Laevens, who’s 19 years old, says he wants to be an example for other gay cyclists. * gay bicyclist *
An ele teenage cyclist has bee one of the first pro male rirs to ever e out as gay.
Olympian Lea Davison is openly gay — there are far fewer on the men’s si.
GRAEME OBREE REVEALS HE IS GAY
* gay bicyclist *
Former world champn Graeme Obree revealed he was gay 2011, disclosg he ponred suici bee of his sexualy.
In his announcement, Laevens acknowledged he don’t know any other active openly gay male cyclists. “I didn’t fd difficult to exprs myself, but I did sport, bee I don’t know any [cyclist] who is gay, ” he said.
MOST CYCLISTS ARE GAY?
” swagger (thk Dick Vale, not At Powers), all the trappgs of a tradnal cis whe male, or at least those of a ago, a time that now feels curly antiquated nsirg how far we’ve e — Holer was gay.
After his parti wrapped, he’d feign fatigue, tell iends he was head to bed, then meet lol men onle and later that same night person (anywhere except for Rochter’s gay bars, which he avoid for fear that a straight iend might spot him). “I had a iend whom I told I was gay, and he was like, ‘You’re kiddg me, right? You CANNOT be gay.
GAY CYCLG LOVER
Growg up durg the ‘80s and ‘90s suburban Rochter, Holer didn’t have any gay role mols. “I had no gay iends.
GAY BIKE
My fay didn’t know any gay people. I had no accs to a real gay human, which sounds crazy to say…” he adms now. ’ So, to a kid the msage was, ‘Hey, if you’re gay and you have sex wh someone of the same sex, you’re gonna get AIDS and die.
’ There was no Michael Sam om the Rams beg like, ‘Yo, what’s up everyone, I’m gay and I’m cshg people on the football field.
"To a kid the msage was, ‘Hey, if you’re gay and you have sex wh someone of the same sex, you’re gonna get AIDS and die. A gay athlete like Sam, the first openly gay NFL player, was the type of role mol that Holer need. By llege, partyg replaced those activi, but he tackled wh the same gto and palled around wh a crew of straight male iends typil of that ilk and era, one which a certa homophobic slur was so woven to the vernacular that Holer sometim heard g out of his own mouth.
DRIVER WHO LLED CYCLIST 'GAY BOY' AND SPAT AT HIM JAILED FOR 8 WEEKS; BSSELS BIKE THIEF JAILED FOR ‘ELOGIL CRIME’; JOSH QUIGLEY TO GET NEW BIKE OM SHAND CYCL; BEAT CYCLG CLUB'S 'BURNG BREX' RI + MORE ON THE LIVE BLOG
Perhaps wantg to repture some of that magic of his first weekend as an openly gay man, he moved to Nashville, and not long after that, he met Chris Cooley, a silver-haired ntist 25 years his senr.
Though tergeneratnal relatnships are mon the gay muny, Holer wasn’t eager to expla to straight iends, and so he’d rigned himself to the ia of beg out while somehow remag hidn. Walle ti his iend’s talent as a ach to that of his g-out journey as a gay man. It’s a photo he proudly shared on Instagram, along wh the hashtag #gaycyclist — somethg he clus wh nearly everythg he posts.
“I have iends who make ments like, ‘Du, no one r that you’re gay.
GAY CYCLG GROUPS IN THE UK
As a teenager and young adult, Holer never got the gay mentor he need, one who might have broken the mold for him by monstratg that there are untls ways which one n rve out a gay inty. It’s a statistic that don’t add up, as Cyclg Weekly poted out, nsirg the percentage of the world’s populatn who are gay. This “nspicuo absence” suggts that a stigma of the gay male athlete persists.
Here’s what one versn of that life looks like: Brendan Holer standg atop the podium as natnal champ, all his different selv alcg to his 6-foot-5 ame, skny, sg, arms raised triumph, a gay man lookg directly to the mera, unaaid to fully be himself. “It’s not that we don’t like straight people, ” explas Jeff Rogers, print of the Wdy Cy Cyclg Club (WCCC), Chigo’s olst lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr bicycle group. But gay and lbian people have a fort level wh each other that’s different than wh straight people.
That sense of belongg is easy to see as we hang out at T’s, a buzzg lbian, gay, and straight pub Chigo’s LGBT-iendly Anrsonville neighborhood, on a sunny Febary afternoon.