'Queer Skateboardg': Photographer documents gay skater culture

Contents:

• THREE OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS E OUT — 2 GAY MEN AND 1 QUEER WOMAN
• THERE HAVE BEEN AT LEAST 39 GAY OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS. HERE’S THE LIST
• 'QUEER SKATEBOARDG': PHOTOGRAPHER DOCUMENTS GAY SKATER CULTURE
• 'GAYT SPORT AMERI'
• THERE ARE 8 OUT GAY MALE SKATERS AT THE OLYMPICS. IN 2014, THERE WERE 0.
• OPENLY GAY FIGURE SKATER MAK U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM AND HISTORY

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

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... 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.

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

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?

'QUEER SKATEBOARDG': PHOTOGRAPHER DOCUMENTS GAY SKATER CULTURE

" 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.

And would be a hellfire speech sayg, "gay people are abomatns and gog to hell" and "you better not be gay. " And that was my only unrstandg of gay people, so never nnected for me.

I started referrg to myself as queer [about] four years ago, rather than 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?

'GAYT SPORT AMERI'

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

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 .

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. Three Olympic figure skaters have e out for Pri Month, cludg two gay men and a queer woman.

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

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. I’m gay, and that’s a story still beg wrten... “[Beg a gay athlete] hasn’t been somethg that I’ve really talked about very much, pecially a public settg, ” Poirier said.

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.