Adam Rippon Is The Athlete Queer People Need Right Now

It seemed like everyone was already talking about Adam Rippon, the first openly gay American male figure skater to compete at the Olympics, in the weeks leading up to the Pyeongchang Games, thanks (or no thanks) to the controversy he found himself in after he reportedly refused to meet with Vice President Mike Pence before the opening ceremony. Then, on Sunday, Rippon performed an incredible free skate in the team event that helped the U.S. win bronze and promptly launched him into global stardom.

His candid sound bites regularly lead U.S. primetime coverage as he prepares for the men’s event. He has the support of celebrities like Reese Witherspoon, Jessica Chastain and Busy Philipps. But for many LGBTQ people, not just in the U.S. or Canada (where I live) but around the world, Rippon is so much more than a Twitter trending topic or skating star. He’s the athlete we’ve been waiting for our entire lives.

Gay men have come to see ourselves represented in art, film, television, music and fashion over the years, but rarely do we see ourselves in sport. And if we do, the athlete is often a diluted version of a gay man who has been told to dull it down, blend in, be one of the guys and act straight.

After Rippon’s free skate in the team event, comedian Billy Eichner tweeted, “To give you some idea of how homophobic the sports world still is, it took until this year for us to have an openly gay American man compete in FIGURE SKATING.”

Source: Huffingtonpost News