Gay figure skater
By: Jimmy Morgan, Professional figure skater and Athlete Ally Ambassador
“You’re a figure skater? What, are you gay?” Older hockey players laughed as I walked down the hall to exercise. I was an year-old kid wondering why figure skating made me queer and why hockey players found that so funny.
This made me think creature gay was bad. As I grew older, I had been laughed at and called gay so many times, that I hoped to never be gay.
To my dismay, I started realizing I was attracted to men. Since my life had taught me that being queer led to being made fun of, I suppressed those feelings and started to convince myself that I was straight. On top of that, I didn’t want to symbolize further proof that every male figure skater is gay. I didn’t long for those hockey players to be right.
When I was 16, I started pairs skating. I thought it was so cool to be part of a team and to be able to perform lifts and tricks impossible for solo skaters.
But now, I was expected to accomplish with my partner, Alex Shaughnessy, and I was told by coaches and judges that our production would be partially s
This is not a knock on Adam - he had an amazing skate last night (judging issues aside). I just can't assist but go to youtube and view some of the ones that came before Adam. They in many ways paved the way. Point being: without the ones that came before, Adam most likely could not have broken down that concluding barrier. I don't think we'd be seeing him stick his tongue out suggestively at the judges in an Olympic season without the likes of Boitano, Galindo (who did not produce it to the Olympics, but certainly deserves credit), Goebel, Savoie, and of course Weir.
I'm not going to list all of them, and since the media is focused on him existence the first US man, I'll just share a scant of my favorite Olympic moments by known (out) lgbtq+ men because I think they desire a shout out.
Probably most notable is our Olympic Champion Brian Boitano. If you grew up with skating in the 90's you know who Brian is. Brian only came out in , but I'm fairly certain most fans "knew". It just wasn't something we cared about. As Brian said in a recent interview it is a part of who he is, but it's only a part. H
Figure skater Adam Rippon gives LGBTQ community athlete they can relate to
Adam Rippon isn’t a hulking football player like Michael Sam. He’s not a 7-foot basketball center like Jason Collins. He’s dissimilar from Robbie Rogers, a soccer player whose recent retirement from MLS left zero openly queer men in major professional sports in the U.S.
The fact that he happens to have reach out as gay and did so as an active player is about the only thing that links Rippon to some of the more “masc” sports figures who courageously came out over the years — and that’s part of his appeal.
“I think it’s huge that he does not project the way other professional athletes have when it comes to masculinity,” Anthony Nicodemo, a high school basketball coach in New York and LGBTQ activist, told USA TODAY Sports. “He marches to the beat of his own drum the way somebody like Michael (Sam) and Jason (Collins) didn’t. They fit that piece of masculinity we have come to expect in sports being big and powerful. Adam doesn’t fit into that box.”
Rippon became the first openly gay U.S. figure skater to com
LGBTQ Figure Skaters
Figure skating is one of the most iconic of winter sports, as evidenced by its popularity as an Olympic competitive event. There is an abundance of talented LGBTQ individuals in the sport, though the list of prominent individuals is entirely populated by homosexual men. The list is long, but it is only recently that figure skaters have declared their sexual orientation while competing - most have waited until retirement and fought public recognition of their sexual identity. Skaters still comment on the pressure to remain in the closet while competing and to avoid speaking out about LGBTQ rights, though it is also considered one of the gayest sports.
Britain's gay Captain Robert Jones popularized the sport of figure skating back in with his highly popular book 'A Treatise on Skating'. The book was reissued with engravings in ; a second edition printed in with a new lyric 'The Skater's March'; and many other editions printed including , , , , and more. Skates manufactured to Jones' layout could be obtained at Riccards Manufactory in London.
These individua