Adam Rippon Is U.S.'s First Openly Gay Man To Qualify For Wter Olympics : The Torch : NPR

Contents:

• THERE HAVE BEEN AT LEAST 39 GAY OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS. HERE’S THE LIST
• THREE OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS E OUT — 2 GAY MEN AND 1 QUEER WOMAN
• 16 GAY AND BI OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS
• SEVEN FABULO “OUT” GAY MEN OF FIGURE SKATG
• ADAM RIPPON, JOHN CURRY AND FIGURE SKATG'S PLEX HISTORY WH GAY ATHLET
• THERE ARE 8 OUT GAY MALE SKATERS AT THE OLYMPICS. IN 2014, THERE WERE 0.
• ADAM RIPPON MAK HISTORY; BE FIRST OPENLY GAY U.S. MALE OLYMPIC SKATER
• ADAM RIPPON IS U.S.'S FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN TO QUALIFY FOR WTER OLYMPICS
• OPENLY GAY FIGURE SKATER MAK U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM AND HISTORY
• 'GAYT SPORT AMERI'
• MALE FIGURE SKATERS STGGLE WH BODY IMAGE AND GAY MEN N RELATE

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

There have been at least 39 gay men to pete figure skatg at the Wter Olympic Gam over the years, wh eight publicly out men petg 2022. LGBT historian Tony Scupham-Bilton has intified the men over the years, cludg a pastakg procs of intifyg who is gay. The gay men have bed for 15 Olympic medals, wh several ready to pete pairs figure skatg later this week.

In addn to the 37 gay men, Timothy LeDuc is nonbary and will make their Olympic but this week. Three Olympic figure skaters have e out for Pri Month, cludg two gay men and a queer woman.

The three athlet are: Amerin sgl figure skater Jason Brown, who is gay; Canadian ice dancer Pl Poirier, who is gay, and Canadian ice dancer Kalyn Weaver, who is queer. “[Beg a gay athlete] hasn’t been somethg that I’ve really talked about very much, pecially a public settg, ” Poirier said. When Adam Rippon pet at the Olympics this year, will be the first time an openly gay figure skater reprents the Uned Stat an dividual event.

THREE OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS E OUT — 2 GAY MEN AND 1 QUEER WOMAN

But figure skatg has always provid an athletic arena for gay men, even if most historilly waed to e out publicly after their Olympic reer me to a close.

But he kept his sexualy a private matter until 2014, when the Uned Stat sent a legatn to Rsia ma up of high-profile gay athlet. "I never felt like I need to before, so whether people figured out if I was gay or not, I had to make official, why I had to e out publicly. But he never mentned beg gay until he started playg hockey for the Toronto Gay Hockey Associatn, where he started lerally wearg that part of his inty on his sleeve, somethg he discsed wh The Hockey News Curry, Uned Kgdom, Men's SglThe Brish skater, famo for brgg ballet and dance mov to men's sgl, won the gold at the 1976 gam Innsbck, where he also acted as flag bearer for his natn.

16 GAY AND BI OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS

Shortly before petg at Worlds that same year, the German newspaper Bild-Zeung outed Curry as gay, g a mor sndal Europe, but Curry went on to w the event anyway, makg him the first skater to w the European, Olympic and World champnships a sgle season, acrdg to the BBC. While qutns about the flamboyant skater followed him through his reer -- two Canadian broadsters ught flak and spired a Pri Hoe prott after makg homophobic ments about Weir at the 2010 Olympics -- he did not e out until 2011, when he revealed he was gay his memoir, Wele to My World. Stt Haton his book Landg It later creded Pockar and Rob McCall for helpg him get over personal homophobia, but Haton also got cricized for posthumoly outg the O'Meara, USA, Ice DancgThe ice dancer reprented the Uned Stat at the 2006 gam Toro alongsi skatg partner Jamie Silverste.

He me out publicly as gay 2008, and told that many gay skaters pete but don't discs their sexualy publicly.

SEVEN FABULO “OUT” GAY MEN OF FIGURE SKATG

The gay skater prevly hoped to make the team 2006 and 2010 but fell short both years. But he never mentned beg gay until he started playg hockey for the Toronto Gay Hockey Associatn, where he started lerally wearg that part of his inty on his sleeve, somethg he discsed wh The Hockey News 2012.

ADAM RIPPON, JOHN CURRY AND FIGURE SKATG'S PLEX HISTORY WH GAY ATHLET

After years of qutns of whether he and Babilonia would ever date, Gardner revealed to Scene magaze 2006 that he was gay. Stt Haton his book Landg It later creded Pockar and Rob McCall for helpg him get over personal homophobia, but Haton also got cricized for posthumoly outg the men. Hendrickx spoke January spoke to Dutch media outlet ZiZo about what 's like to travel an ternatnal sport when homosexualy is still owned upon much of the world.

THERE ARE 8 OUT GAY MALE SKATERS AT THE OLYMPICS. IN 2014, THERE WERE 0.

Spanish LGBT media outlet reported that Raya was the first Spanish Olympian ever to publicly announce he was gay. You n fd untls pop culture referenc about skatg where 's a punch le to a joke -- TV shows like Friends ("I'm an ice dancer -- all my iends are gay!

That uldn't be farther om the prence of queer skaters the sport n be traced as far back as the 1950s, wasn't until 2018 that Adam Rippon and Eric Radford beme the first out gay figure skaters to pete at the Olympics. " Of urse, there have been numero gay skaters at the Olympics -- multiple queer Olympic champns, even...

ADAM RIPPON MAK HISTORY; BE FIRST OPENLY GAY U.S. MALE OLYMPIC SKATER

I thk as I got olr, was fely this ternalized sense of homophobia that I felt was pletely rampant.

So I skated to Ida Corr, this club song om 2007 (keepg current), and you know, was kda gay. And so I remember I jt kept this program and I skated at Skate Ameri, this like gay-ish program. We had to sort of play by those l bee beg gay on the Olympic stage and the world stage, an ele athlete, you have to be reful bee the reputatn of endorsements was on the table.

ADAM RIPPON IS U.S.'S FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN TO QUALIFY FOR WTER OLYMPICS

So we had to be very mdful of that, and I knew that, so I had to sort of lie and not be tthful about all [my skatg partner Tai and I] turned pro 1980, and did Ice Capas and all that, was a ltle better bee people on the show were gay.

I thk that the outsi assumptn is that everybody skatg is gay, and that bee of that would jt be a very safe place for queer people. As soon as I entered a more ser rk when I was around 10, and really started pursug more serly, I was super, super nsc of the fact that they were nng a b through every kid through the lens of "Is this kid gay? " I mean, I was asked if I was gay at a very, very young age and told that I was gay and told that I was very, very, very gay-- jt like the most.

I thk 's only seen [that there is] one kd of queer person, which is a gay person-- and to be hont, a gay man. [Growg up, ] my only unrstandg of gay people or of queer people was when our prit, our preacher, was speakg about them the church.

OPENLY GAY FIGURE SKATER MAK U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM AND HISTORY

And would be a hellfire speech sayg, "gay people are abomatns and gog to hell" and "you better not be gay. Joe has talked about [how] he felt trated by the fact that people jt assumed he was a gay man bee he was a figure skater. Natnal champn and a two-time world middle school and certaly high school, was like, "Oh, you [do] figure skatg, you mt be gay, " and people askg me, "Oh, well, if you n skate that well, why don't you play hockey?

I n tell you for certa I wasn't gog to get up at my [2002] Olympic prs nference and be like, "Oh, and by the way, I'm gay. There was a lot of ternalized homophobia and a lot of fear that om the scty of the general public.

Figure Skatg Diversy, Equy, and Incln Task kd of knew of the officials that were gay, maybe some of the skaters that were gay, but they didn't really talk about .

'GAYT SPORT AMERI'

I was almost dyg to learn this history of gays skatg that I didn't even know about bee was somethg that nobody ever talked about.

I would even say, to this day, I'm still learng more and more about wonrful ntributors to this sport of figure skatg the past that we maybe didn't hear so much about jt bee they were gay.

Important Note: this blog only featur athlet who voluntarily, personally and publicly disclosed themselv as gay. NOTE January 2018: Sce this blog is almost two years old and this beg an Olympic year, I have now wrten and published “Seven More Fabulo Out Gay Men of Figure Skatg (and One Bisexual Woman. Recently, Out Magaze me out wh their list of “100 Hot Out Gay Men” which clud people entertament, sports, polics, bs, etc.

MALE FIGURE SKATERS STGGLE WH BODY IMAGE AND GAY MEN N RELATE

Therefore, sce the World Figure Skatg champnships are beg held next week (March 30 – April 3) Boston, first time the USA 8 years, I am publishg my own list of seven hot out gay men of Figure Skatg. Print Obama appoted Brian, as an out proud gay man, as one our Amerin legat to the Wter Olympics Sochi, Rsia 2014 to unter some of the close-md anti-gay rhetoric of Rsian Print Vladmir Put (see my blog “Rsia, LGBT Rights and the Psychology of Bullyg”).

In December 2014, Eric Radford of Canada publicly me out as gay an terview wh the LGBT publitn Outsports, bemg the first petive figure skater ever to e out at the height of his reer while still a ntenr for champnship tl. Then March, 2015, Eric and his partner Megan Duhamel won the world pairs tle, makg him the first openly gay figure skater ever to w a gold medal at that petn. He is an ambassador for the Canadian Olympic Commtee’s #OneTeam program to bat homophobia sports.