'Queer Skateboardg': Photographer documents gay skater culture

gay skate

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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OAKS PARK GAY SKATE IS ON A ROLL

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

Startg January 2022, Oaks Park will host Gay Skate on the first and third Monday of every month. 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.

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

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

In her time, she’s seen Gay Skate go om an event that pulled 50 people to one that attracts hundreds. 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. Three Olympic figure skaters have e out for Pri Month, cludg two gay men and a queer woman.

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

* gay skate *

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.

GAY SKATE

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:.

'QUEER SKATEBOARDG': PHOTOGRAPHER DOCUMENTS GAY SKATER CULTURE

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 2012.

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.

16 GAY AND BI OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS

After years of qutns of whether he and Babilonia would ever date, Gardner revealed to Scene magaze 2006 that he was gay. 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.

Skaters would later say McCall's homosexualy had been an open secret wh the sport.

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.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* GAY SKATE

Gay Skate .

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