Conor McDermott-Mostowy won 2 US Champnships. He is also gay. - Outsports

Contents:

• THERE HAVE BEEN AT LEAST 39 GAY OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS. HERE’S THE LIST
• CONOR MCDERMOTT-MOSTOWY JT WON 2 US CHAMPNSHIPS. NOW HE’S G OUT AS GAY.
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPENLY GAY OLYMPIANS
• WELE TO THE ‘GAY GAM,’ AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE OLYMPICS, WHERE ACTIVISM IS ENURAGED AND EVERYONE’S AN ATHLETE
• WTER OLYMPICS: THREE OPENLY GAY MEN PETE FOR A SPOT ON U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM

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

After g out as gay an Instagram post 2020, Bank hop to show younger athlet “that they n be whomever they are, or want to be, whout discrimatn. Radford ma history as the first petive figure skater to e out as gay while still petg for champnship tl 2014, pavg the way for future LGBTQ+ athlet to e out. At least 186 publicly out gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, queer and nonbary athlet were Tokyo for the Summer Olympic Gam, more than triple the number who participated at the 2016 R Gam.

Elissa Alarie (Canada)#Brt Benn (Canada)#Kelly Brazier (New Zealand)Gayle Broughton (New Zealand)#Isadora Cello (Brazil) Lren Doyle (USA)#Mara Fravanti (Brazil)#Megan Jon (Bra)Alev Kelter (USA)Ghislae Landry (Canada)#Kaili Lan (Canada)#Celia Quansah (Bra)Kristen Thomas (USA)Ruby Tui (New Zealand)#Sharni Williams (Atralia)Portia Woodman (New Zealand). "Not knowg I was gay at the time, I felt a ltle awkward around my peers and this was a really good outlet for me to put my energy to, and I found a really healthy place to do that, " Wagman said on the Five Rgs To Rule Them All podst.

"Due to the creased homophobia directed towards me recently and also the untry, I have never felt more empowered, " Doonan wrote.

CONOR MCDERMOTT-MOSTOWY JT WON 2 US CHAMPNSHIPS. NOW HE’S G OUT AS GAY.

"Julian Venonsky -- Men's RowgOut gay xswa Julian Venonsky is leadg his team Tokyo after g fourth at the R Gam 2016. "Halfway through my llege reer, my sophomore year, I started actually thkg about datg or what kd of my life I wanted to look like and I found my boyiend on Tr...

"Beg gay pecially means happy, and that's one thg I have started to really take pri , " Snrs told Go Mag USA's lbian wrtler Kayla Miracle ma history when she qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, beg the first out wrtler to do so. A total of 186 publicly out gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, queer and nonbary athlet participated the Tokyo Gam, acrdg to Not only was that the most at any Olympics ever, but was also more than triple the number of LGBTQ athlet at the 2016 R Gam. The 27-year-old Cizeron, who is gay, and 26-year-old Papadakis have formed a domant partnership, pturg four World Champnship tl, five European Champnship tl and seven natnal tl.

Radford and partner Meagan Duhamel skated to a first-place fish the team event, makg Radford the first openly gay man to w gold at a Wter Olympics. Peltzer ran at the 1928 Amsterdam and 1932 Los Angel Olympics before he was arrted and imprisoned by the Nazis for his homosexualy 1935. It wasn’t until the 2018 Gam when Team USA featured s first openly gay Wter Olympians, as figure skater Adam Rippon, ekier G Kenworthy and speed skater Brtany Bowe peted PyeongChang.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPENLY GAY OLYMPIANS

Rippon earned bronze the 2018 team figure skatg petn to make him the Uned Stat’ first openly gay medalist at the Wter Gam. 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.

WELE TO THE ‘GAY GAM,’ AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE OLYMPICS, WHERE ACTIVISM IS ENURAGED AND EVERYONE’S AN ATHLETE

Through all of — the years toilg short track, multiple Junr World Teams and reprentg Team USA — McDermott-Mostowy has never hidn beg gay om his fellow speed skaters. While acceptance has abound his fay and speed skatg work, the ra of sports and the misnceptns of gay athlet have part held him back om beg more fully “out” the open. Instead, subtle nods — some face sparkl and taggg men’s swimwear signer Parke and Ronen, popular wh gay men — did the talkg.

The ia of gay men not beg athletic or good at sports has sat wh McDermott-Mostowy for years and kept him om beg more — for lack of a better term — proactively out. “I don’t want to talk about beg gay, bee there’s a stereotype that gay guys aren’t athletic, and I don’t want that to be held agast me or ed to jtify a bad rult. Prevly we saw Amerin Keh Carney e out on Outsports after a top-10 fish at the US Champnships; Amerin Matt Rtenhoe lived openly after he retired and talked to Outsports earlier this year about beg gay.

“I n’t thk of anythg that’s ever been directed at me specifilly, ” he said of possible negative reactns to him beg gay. To improve LGBTQ reprentatn profsnal sports, Schweighofer and Denison said, ach and lears youth sports should set a precent that homophobic language and discrimatn are unacceptable. Sometim the Gam have taken place untri where homosexualy is not wily accepted or where legislatn impacts LGBTQ rints.

WTER OLYMPICS: THREE OPENLY GAY MEN PETE FOR A SPOT ON U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM

Denison’s rearch fds that most LGBTQ athlet leave their sports as young people, a parture driven by a culture of homophobic language and stereotyp. Daley has said that while he’s accepted his sport of divg, he often pet agast divers om untri where beg gay is crimalized.

And Rapoe 2018 said that, as a kid, she “would have loved to have more rmatn” about what meant to be gay and why g homophobic slurs was wrong. “Anytime you hear somebody say, ‘Oh, that’s gay, ’ or whatever, those thgs matter, ” said Rapoe, who didn’t e out to her teammat until llege. Homophobic slurs ntue to be prevalent sports – a 2020 study om Out on the Fields, which studi LGBTQ cln sports, found that more than 80% of gay participants had heard them ed while playg.

When ach and teammat e gay slurs equently, sends the msage that the language is harmls and OK to e – and solidifi the belief that all members of the team are heterosexual, Denison said. The same Out on the Fields study reported that over 81% of gay men unr 22 hid their sexualy to avoid rejectn by teammat or discrimatn by ach or officials, among other reasons.