A Look at Skateboardings Gay History

Tuesday will go down in history as Brian Anderson Day, as he came out of the closet to become the first gay ‘legit’ pro street skateboarder. Sounds pretty niche when you break it all down, but it was big enough news to rock The New York Times!

It’s opened up all kinds of debate regarding the closed mindedness of the lifestyle that’s supposed to be the opposite. When it comes down to it though having a big name homosexual pro skateboarder is going to make the world more accepting of skateboarding in general. Still a big thing. Girls and gays have always had a hard time being accepted in the world of skateboarding and that’s starting to change.

Jenkem Mag is has another gay skateboarding male take a look back at it’s past. After being bombarded by hetero male skaters opinions on the matter over the last few days it’s refreshing to get a more insider take.

Let’s take a peak…

“Sexual identity would be irrelevant to skateboarding if skateboarding wasn’t so thoroughly identified with macho toughness and male heterosexuality. If you crack open a skateboard magazine you’re gonna see a lot of straight, mostly white dudes skateboarding, and some almost-naked chicks who probably don’t skate advertising skate products. When women are shown actually skateboarding, they’re usually presented to titillate the straight male viewers that brands consider their real customers. If you’re a woman or a gay dude, the message was pretty clear: skateboarding is a subculture for straight men, not you.

That’s why your friends might tell you to “stop being a pussy and fucking go for it” when you hesitate on a trick, and why they might call you a fag if you back down. When Nyjah said, “Some girls can skate, but I personally believe that skateboarding is not for girls at all,” he was saying he didn’t think women are tough enough to take slams. Calling someone a faggot is akin to calling them weak, cowardly, and feminine.

This is all some sexist, homophobic, jock-mentality bullshit. It cannot go away soon enough. But that doesn’t mean skateboarding is super homophobic, right? I mean, most skaters I know are cool with gay people. Nah. With some notable exceptions, the skateboard industry has a long and occasionally repulsive history of homophobia.”

 

Click over to JENKEM Mag for the whole A Brief Look at Skateboardings Gay Past article

 

 

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