Orlando Cz Fights to Bee Boxg’s First Openly Gay Champn | The New Yorker

Contents:

• ORLANDO CZ FIGHTS TO BEE BOXG’S FIRST OPENLY GAY CHAMPN
• ORLANDO CZ: BOXER DREAMS OF BEG FIRST OPENLY GAY WORLD CHAMPN
• ORLANDO CZ: THE GAY BOXER WHO IS BREAKG BARRIERS
• PUERTO RIN ORLANDO CZ IS FIRST OPENLY GAY BOXER
• ORLANDO CZ BE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN BOXG
• ORLANDO CZ BE BOXG'S FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN
• ORLANDO CZ COM OUT AS FIRST OPENLY GAY PROFSNAL BOXER
• ORLANDO CZ: 'I'M GAY, BUT I'M ALSO A BOXER. THIS IS MY TIME'
• ORLANDO CZ, THEFIRST OPENLY GAY BOXER, OUT FIGHTG

ORLANDO CZ FIGHTS TO BEE BOXG’S FIRST OPENLY GAY CHAMPN

When the boxer Orlando Cz issued a prs release on October 3, 2012, announcg to the world that he is gay, a strange thg happened: nothg.

He is also boxg’s first openly gay profsnal fighter, and he is eager to bee s first openly gay world champn. Both of his parents attend their son’s weddg to his longtime partner, José Manuel Colón, an timate gatherg that took place 2013, Central Jul Serrano, a well-known gay activist who, like Cz, is om Puerto Ri, helped facilate Cz’s announcement 2012. I have always been and always will be a proud gay man.

”Serrano, speakg om his office San Juan, said that he saw Cz’s g out as helpg to dispel two myths: that Latos are homophobic, and that the ultra-macho sport of boxg has no place for a gay fighter.

ORLANDO CZ: BOXER DREAMS OF BEG FIRST OPENLY GAY WORLD CHAMPN

Griffh is probably bt known for his 1962 fight agast the Cuban welterweight Benny Paret: after endurg anti-gay slurs om Paret at the weigh- before the fight, he unleashed his fury the rg, knockg Paret unnsc. When he steps to the rg at Motorpot Arena, Cardiff, Wal, he expects to see symbols of gay pri, which fans have begun wavg at his fights, to cheer him on. Will he be boxg's first openly gay champn?

Cz aims to bee boxg's first openly gay world champn. Beme boxg's first openly gay, active fighter 2012.

Deeply embedd two worlds – boxg and Puerto Ri – that are found machismo, Cz has also bee a gay in to thoands. On Saturday, Cz has the chance to create history – should he beat Bra’s Terry Flanagan for the WBO lightweight tle, the 35-year-old will bee the first ever openly gay world champn. Boxg, like many other sports, is yet to fully open s arms to the ia of a gay athlete, somethg Cz has unsurprisgly experienced first-hand.

ORLANDO CZ: THE GAY BOXER WHO IS BREAKG BARRIERS

“I don’t re if they say, ‘Orlando Cz is gay. Wh so few openly gay, active profsnal athlet across all sports, Cz is aware what the rult of the fight will mean to those who look up to him.

“The support of the gay muny, Puerto Ri, New York and different natnali, is very important, ” he says. In 2013, his chance to bee the first openly gay boxg champn me and went btal fashn. Cz me out to his fay and a psychologist long before publicly announcg he was gay 2012.

I don’t re that other people talk about me, sayg, ‘Orlando Cz is gay, Orlando is bad or bulls***. For many, boxg is sport’s ultimate show of masculy and Cz still regularly fds himself fightg the misnceptn that a man n’t be both gay and mascule.

PUERTO RIN ORLANDO CZ IS FIRST OPENLY GAY BOXER

“Sometim one, two or three people say, ‘you’re gay, and you’re a boxer… wow. I say, ‘I am gay, but I am a man like you. “I am gay and I am the first openly gay boxer, but this has been my reer for years.

“People say, ‘Orlando is gay but this is boxg, boxg is macho.

’ I have to tell them, ‘Orlando Cz is gay, but he’s a man… not a girl. “Ee Griffh never spoke publicly or told an terview he was gay, ” Cz says. Cz n still vividly remember the feelg of steppg to the rg for the first time as an openly gay man, retag his WBO Lato Featherweight tle agast Mexin Je Pazos.

ORLANDO CZ BE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN BOXG

Such is Cz’s fluence the gay muny and wir sportg world, Jason Colls – the first openly gay active basketball player – ntacted him to say he’s an spiratn for “g out of the closet. Wh gay marriage illegal Puerto Ri – the Caribbean island where the uple ris, albe at oppose sis of the untry – and many US stat, they had some thkg to do. The Englishman’s sister, a profsnal footballer the Women’s Super League, is also openly gay.

It don’t affect me at all as my sister Chelsea is openly gay. While Flanagan’s views are rehg – Cz also says he has received nothg but rpect om opponents – there are still high-profile figur boxg who are openly homophobic. Former heavyweight world champn Tyson Fury has regularly shown disda towards homosexuals, while Manny Pacquiao earlier this year lled upl same-sex relatnships “worse than animals.

“The Philipp have gay people, so why was he talkg badly about the LGBT muny? He said he was sorry and that he rpects me and the gay muny a lot. His stggle to make to the top of his sport; the fight to be accepted as a gay man the world of boxg and his home natn; the punishg world tle feat to Salido.

ORLANDO CZ BE BOXG'S FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN

He was gay and like all boxers, at all levels, he was judged on whether he uld fight and not on his sexual preferenc; the Pounr, who wore pk, was a nice guy but not much of a fighter and nobody held that agast Saturday Las Vegas, Orlando Cz, which is his real name, will bee the first openly gay boxer to w a world tle if he n overe the odds and beat Orlando Salido for the vant WBO featherweight tle.

Cz announced he was gay last year, never lost his promoter, never lost his rankg and never lost a sgle iend om si the ugly bs of boxg.

ORLANDO CZ COM OUT AS FIRST OPENLY GAY PROFSNAL BOXER

"Cz fought for Puerto Ri at the Sydney Olympics 2000 and has been a ge ntenr for a uple of years and gay for a lot longer. "I'm a boxer first, I want to be a world champn and remembered that way and not as a gay boxer, " he the Neti, Christy Mart, another boxg pneer, said somethg siar about women the sport: "I fight for Christy Mart and not for women's rights to box. " Mart, who has sce survived a murr attempt when her hband shot and knifed her, is now retired and volved a gay relatnship.

"Boxg n be a macho sport and I have heard some gay slurs, " says Cz.

ORLANDO CZ: 'I'M GAY, BUT I'M ALSO A BOXER. THIS IS MY TIME'

"However, Cz, who is 32, is not a mpaigner for gay rights jt yet and he has polely refed all attempts to csa on behalf of other gay athlet, men like him stgglg to e to terms wh tellg the people they pete wh, or for, that they are gay. However, private he has obvly spoken to other boxers facg the same dilemma he did last has received a lot of media attentn this week (Getty) (Getty Imag)"Perhaps there are other gay boxers and perhaps they are too sred to say anythg, " Cz says.

ORLANDO CZ, THEFIRST OPENLY GAY BOXER, OUT FIGHTG

" Hopefully, there will not be a reverse wch-hunt boxg, like there is other sports, where people on the outsi bee fixated on outg more gay athlet; the people boxg simply don't re. "Gay, so what? " All boxers world tle fights have to unrgo and pass a route HIV tt and plenty, none of whom said they were gay, have failed the has dited Saturday's fight to Ee Griffh, one of the greatt boxers history, who died this summer after admtg late his life that he had slept wh both men and women.

He was om a time when homosexuals were not lled "gay" and he hated the word once was ed to scribe him when he fally end three s of speculatn.

The Cuban never revered and died a few days emerged later that Paret had lled Griffh a marin, the Spanish word for homosexual, and had touched him appropriately when the pair weighed for the fight; Paret was naked at the time, which is not unmon for a tle fight.