Kev Maxen be first male ach a US men’s pro sports league to publicly e out as gay | CNN

Contents:

• THIS GAY TEENAGE CYCLIST IS ONE OF THE FIRST PRO MALE RIRS TO EVER E OUT
• GAY CYCLG LOVER
• RIDG WH THE OLST ALL-GAY, ALL-MALE, ALL-RIDG MOTORCYCLE CLUB
• GAY MAN ON A BICYCLE
• WHAT ABOUT THE GAY SPORTBIKE RIR?
• CT NATIVE BREAKS BARRIER AS FIRST OPENLY-GAY NFL ACH
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

THIS GAY TEENAGE CYCLIST IS ONE OF THE FIRST PRO MALE RIRS TO EVER E OUT

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.

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.

GAY CYCLG LOVER

” 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. Growg up durg the ‘80s and ‘90s suburban Rochter, Holer didn’t have any gay role mols. “I had no gay iends.

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.

RIDG WH THE OLST ALL-GAY, ALL-MALE, ALL-RIDG MOTORCYCLE CLUB

’ 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. 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.

GAY MAN ON A BICYCLE

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. 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.

WHAT ABOUT THE GAY SPORTBIKE RIR?

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.

CT NATIVE BREAKS BARRIER AS FIRST OPENLY-GAY NFL ACH

The WCCC formed 1992 to get the wheels of fellowship turng among lbian and gay folks.

Munchg a veggie burger at a nearby table, Drew Jeo, a spng stctor who found the Chigo Razors gay triathlon team to pete the 2006 Gay Gam here, says he only ris wh LGBT clubs.

“A lot of gay men weren’t to sports high school but we got to our 30s and 40s, ” he says. “In a gay group you might have guys who like to bike really fast, but there’s ls petn and more mararie. “Gays and straights do social ris for the same reasons, ” she says wh a gr.

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

Each October, on the anniversary of the send March on Washgton for Lbian and Gay Rights 1987, Human Rights Watch leads the celebratn of Natnal Comg Out Day as “a remr that one of our most basic tools is the power of g out. I remember noticg openly gay upl together, and the sire to experience that openns was stronger than any other want or need I’d felt before.

Wh that motivatn, I phed forward and me out a big way—announcg that I was both gay and HIV posive at once. And each graduate of the program earns a ee bike, helmet, and out, claimg my thentic life as an HIV posive gay man, fdg muny, and givg back has ma my life worthwhile. “A group of naked men participated the Seattle Gay Pri para – exposg themselv to small children along the para route, ” said nservative rad host Todd Starn a post.

Gay Cyclg Lover. gay lycra. The club is one of the olst all-ridg, all-gay, all-male motorcycle anizatns the world.