'Queer Skateboardg': Photographer documents gay skater culture

skate gay

Adam Rippon may be the first out figure skater to pete the Olympics, but he's not the only gay man to have land an axel on the world stage.

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

Three figure skaters, Amerin Jason Brown and Canadians Pl Poirier and Kalyn Weaver, me out as gay and queer for Pri Month. * skate gay *

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.

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.

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

Guillme Cizeron is the sixth gay man to w Olympic gold figure skatg. * skate gay *

The gay men have bed for 15 Olympic medals, wh several ready to pete pairs figure skatg later this week. Five other gay athlet have been named as alternat. In addn to the 37 gay men, Timothy LeDuc is nonbary and will make their Olympic but this week.

Six of the gay men to pete have won Olympic gold medals:. Startg January 2022, Oaks Park will host Gay Skate on the first and third Monday of every month.

OAKS PARK GAY SKATE IS ON A ROLL

* skate gay *

The first time I went to Gay Skate at Oaks Park, I was 19, and on a first date wh a girl om my llege. It’s been around for so long that now people who started g to Gay Skate as teens n brg their own children to the event. Back when Safar first started spng there, Gay Skate looked a ltle different.

Started 1991 as a fundraiser for gay men’s square-dancg group the Rosetown Ramblers, the event almost exclively attracted gay men  s earlit days—no women and fely no LGBTQ youth. In her time, she’s seen Gay Skate go om an event that pulled 50 people to one that attracts hundreds.

'QUEER SKATEBOARDG': PHOTOGRAPHER DOCUMENTS GAY SKATER CULTURE

Mr. Anrson, 40, be the most proment profsnal athlete to e out as gay a sport once nsired tged wh homophobia. * skate gay *

In fact, the event has gotten so popular that, startg January 2022, Oaks Park will start prentg Gay Skate twice a month, every first and third Monday. But Gay Skate offers an alternative, all-ag space to e together.

” Years after she started workg here, MacKay has two dghters who e to Gay Skate nights.

The last skate of 2021 was Gay Skate’s 30th anniversary, and the team went all out.

16 GAY AND BI OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS

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.

BRIAN ANRSON, SKATEBOARDG STAR, COM OUT AS GAY

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.

DONOVAN CARRILLO SKAT THE SAME WAY HE HAS HANDLED ‘GAY’ TEASG: WH A BIG SE

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.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* SKATE GAY

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