• Paleontologist & athlete Francesc Gascó is serving serious buff and beard (above).
• Anti-LGBT bakers Aaron and Melissa Klein, who owned and operated Sweet Cakes by Melissa in Oregon, are still trying to get out of paying their $135,000 fine for refusing to sell a lesbian couple a wedding cake even though a crowd-funding campaign gave them a $500,000 windfall. #MakingMoneyOnHate
• Some folks didn’t appreciate out Olympian Adam Rippon’s leather harness-styled tux at the Oscars, but he says it made him feel “cool AF.” I thought he rocked it.
I think fashion is all about self expression and I chose to wear what I wore on the red carpet because I felt cool AF. Everyone should take risks, be bold, and not give a 💩. It’s LOTS of fun. Huge thanks to my team for dressing me and make me feel like a sexy MF. pic.twitter.com/gimDFyJPYd
• Menswear ads in the Netherlands featuring male couples kissing are being vandalized. Who knew there were such haters in the Netherlands?
• Gus Kenworthy (looking totally swoon-worthy) penned a clever Instagram post in the style of a “missed connections” ad after he and bf Matt Wilkas chatted up superstar Ricky Martin and his husband Jwan Yosef at the Vanity Fair Oscar party.
Ok, just because I love my Olympic boys Gus Kenworthy and Adam Rippon, I have to share these pics from their social media accounts as both were invited to last night’s Academy Award ceremonies.
Above, Gus snapped a quick pic with boyfriend Matthew Wilkas as they were heading out for the evening. Word is they were on the list for just about every important post-Oscar party there was – Vanity Fair’s soiree, Elton John’s party…
Gus also co-hosted the “Eonline Puppy Pick” where he may or may not have helped steer the Call Me By Your Name pup to the finish line.
And below, Adam, as always, was Adam bringing his own sense of style to the red carpet. That look included a leather harness which Adam pulled off flawlessly.
I think fashion is all about self expression and I chose to wear what I wore on the red carpet because I felt cool AF. Everyone should take risks, be bold, and not give a 💩. It’s LOTS of fun. Huge thanks to my team for dressing me and make me feel like a sexy MF. pic.twitter.com/gimDFyJPYd— Adam Rippon (@Adaripp) March 6, 2018
In the second installment of three videos produced by sponsor Samsung, out Olympian Gus Kenworthy reflects on how letters and messages from his boyfriend, actor Matthew Wilkas, kept him inspired and on track for competition at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
“I am so happy for you. I am so proud of you. Because I know how hard you have worked to get here.”
“You are loved by so many people Gus,’ says Matthew, as he forwards video messages from family and friends.
The spot also deals directly with the coming out experience for gay men. Says one friend, “As a gay man growing up, I think the minute we realize we’re gay – it’s a flaw – but people when they look at you, they think ‘I can do anything and be gay and that there’s nothing wrong with me.’”
In another message, a fan named Wendle thanks Gus for being the inspiration that helped him find the courage to come out.
The good wishes serve as a sonic landscape as we watch Gus train in solitude as so many world-class athletes do.
The video is accompanied by a message from the handsome freestyle skier: “This became so much bigger than skiing. You all let me be myself and that’s all I’ve ever wanted. Thank you to my partner Samsung for helping share my story.”
Yesterday I reported on Olympic freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy sharing some of the hateful comments he’s received on his YouTube channel.
Well, it turns out YouTube was listening and plans to do something about it.
YouTube tweeted the Gus man saying, “This is unacceptable, we’re so sorry these comments and notifications came through to you. We’re actively working to fix this so you won’t see or be notified of abusive comments and exploring more ways to protect people from abusive comments overall.”
And Kenworthy was ready with a solution: “Thank you YouTube! Maybe consider filtering out keywords and phrases like “faggot” and “kill yourself” so that they just never show up in anyone’s comments? I’m confident enough to brush it off but a younger me would have had a harder time.”
This is unacceptable, we’re so sorry these comments and notifications came through to you. We’re actively working to fix this so you won’t see or be notified of abusive comments and exploring more ways to protect people from abusive comments overall.
Thank you YouTube! Maybe consider filtering out keywords and phrases like “faggot” and “kill yourself” so that they just never show up in anyone’s comments? I’m confident enough to brush it off but a younger me would have had a harder time. https://t.co/9Iugwoev1q
Bonus Gus: Kenworthy also shared that he and several other U.S. Olympians will be at the NYC Ralph Lauren store this evening for a meet & greet with fans! Bring him dipping dots and you may catch his eye!
Hi NYC peeps! I’ll be at the @RalphLauren SoHo store tmrw from 5 – 6:30pm along w/ other RL & USA teammates @JamieAsnow, @AjaLEvans, @AlexShibutani & @MaiaShibutani! Come get a picture or an autograph (if ppl still do that). If anybody brings me dippin’ dots I’ll love u 4 ever.
Along with the increased visibility that comes with being one of the first openly gay U.S. Olympic athletes, freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy has also become something of a target for hateful homophobic comments on his YouTube videos, making the point that homophobia is alive and well in 2018.
In a tweet, Kenworthy shared comments he’s received calling him “faggot” and wishes for him to die an agonizing death from AIDS or some accident.
The tweet began, “Them: It’s 2018 nobody cares that you’re gay. Homophobia doesn’t exist anymore. Get over yourself.”
That was followed with screen captures of the hateful messages.
“Gross faggot. Fuck you. Go die of aids. Sodom and Gomorrah will return. Sick nasty pedi-fag.”
“But you are not a “champion” you are a faggot. With any luck you die a horribly painful and drawn out death mangled in a car wreck. Or a mussy pushes you off a building would also be just fine. Or maybe someone just walks up to you and play the “knock-out” game on you and your skull cracks wide open when you hit the ground and bleed out in the street.”
“Gus you are nothing but a sperm drinking, ass fucking FAG – a fucking FREAK of nature, hurry and get AIDS.”
Lovely people, no?
Them: It’s 2018 nobody cares that you’re gay. Homophobia doesn’t exist anymore. Get over yourself.
Yes, kids, homophobia is alive and well in Trump country.
But, that said, there were lots of folks who spoke out on Gus’s behalf.
I am so sorry Gus you are dealing with this. All those vile comments reflect on the people making them, not you. Thank you for always representing #TeamUSA so well, on and off skis.
Love you, man. Stay strong. You’re helping to change the world so scared, pathetic, afraid-they’d-like-it-if-they-tried-it assholes like this disappear into oblivion and are forgotten forever.
U.S. Olympians Adam Rippon (L) and Gus Kenworthy (R)
In an interview with The Washington Post, freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy and figure skater Adam Rippon shared their thoughts on being the first two out male Winter Olympians and how it affected not only themselves but other athletes.
Both acknowledged that one byproduct of their openness about being gay was the encounters with closeted athletes and coaches who thanked them for the representation.
Kenworthy said two athletes and a coach approached him while Rippon spoke of a coach did the same.
The duo, who became friends thanks to their shared status as “America’s gay Olympians,” also noted the enormous fear and energy that being closeted took from each of their lives.
Said Rippon, “I think you spend so much time worrying about what other people think about, that you realize that you had all of this extra energy that you didn’t need to be using. And, you know, I think straight people never have this experience of coming out. And it’s such a life-changing moment that you become so strong. I gained so much power and strength from that moment.”
“And I agree with what he said about it being effortless,” Kenworthy added, “because when I was in the closet, it was so [pause] much [pause] effort to stay in the closet and constantly worrying, and fearing I was going to fall asleep before the other guys on my team and say something in my sleep, or anything. I was just, all the time, always nervous that I was going to out myself, that someone was going to find out, and it was this horrible, horrible thing. And now that I’m out, and I realize how great it is, and I’m just getting to enjoy my life, I feel like I just feel free and liberated and I’m competing better, interviews, anything, I just get to be myself, and it’s a strange thing to be thanked for that, but it’s also amazing.”
The two athletes also agreed that they felt the need to be at the top of their respective sports before they could come out in that being “the best” meant haters couldn’t throw shade.
“For myself,” Kenworthy said, “when I came out [in 2015], I felt like I needed to be the best, because that was what I thought it would take to be accepted. No one can talk s— on you if you’re the No. 1 ranked in the world, and so that’s what my whole thing was, and so I made sure that the season before I came out, I was the No. 1-ranked guy in the world, and that was how I wanted to come out. Because I felt like, ‘You can’t argue with that.’ But in the end, no one was trying to argue with it anyway.”
“I actually feel exactly the same,” Rippon said, “where I made sure that when I came out, I was skating very well, so that I would be taken seriously. And after I came out, I won my national title.”
Truly, Rippon and Kenworthy were taken very seriously in their sports.
And regarding the “gay Olympian” label? Rippon summed it all up thusly:
“I think, at the end of the day, that we’re just Olympians. And I think we’re ‘gay Olympians,’ and the next gay Olympians will just be called Olympians, and I think that’s what we really hope, that it won’t be a story.”
2018 Winter Olympians Adam Rippon (L) and Gus Kenworthy (R)
Out Olympic freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy is having a sassy time on the Twitter today as he enjoys the closing ceremonies in PyeongChang.
From sharing the news of Team Russia’s gold medal win in men’s hockey (“Russia’s biggest win since the 2016 Presidential election!”) to questioning Ivanka Trump’s “hard work” to get to the Olympics to teasing his new bestie Adam Rippon (“Please stop calling me. You’re honestly starting to get v clingy and I can’t anymore”).
So proud of all these people! Everybody here has worked so hard to make it to the Olympics and have the opportunity to walk in the closing ceremony! Well… Everyone except Ivanka. Honestly, tf is she doing here?? pic.twitter.com/sfJKi0VTDb
Two weeks ago, at opening ceremonies, we met and a friendship began. Today, at closing ceremonies, it ends. @Adaripp, please stop calling me. You’re honestly starting to get v clingy and I can’t anymore. pic.twitter.com/h9GArWda9b
Out U.S. Olympians (L-R) Adam Rippon, Brittany Bowe and Gus Kenworthy
As the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang come to a close, join me as I celebrate the awesome accomplishments of the openly gay, lesbian and bisexual Olympians at these games.
Of a record 15 out LGBTQ athletes (including out men for the first time at a Winter Olympics), four athletes won a combined seven medals.
The number of out Olympians at these Games is more than double the seven from the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. In contrast, there were 56 out Olympians at the much larger Summer Olympics in 2016.
Listen as I recap the fantastic achievements of U.S. Olympians Adam Rippon, Gus Kenworthy and Brittany Bowe as well as Canada’s Eric Radford, the Netherlands’ Ireen Wust, Belgium’s Jorik Hendrickx, Belle Brockhoff and Barbara Jezeršek of Australia, Swiss snowboarder Simona Meiler and more.
As the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang are coming to a close, The Today Show sat down with American Olympians Adam Rippon and Gus Kenworthy to reflect on their journey through these Games as the first ever openly gay U.S. Winter Olympians.
Freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy, who came out in 2015 after he won a silver medal in Sochi, admitted that he didn’t know if the support he’d enjoyed would continue as an out athlete.
“I was very much in the closet and very much ashamed of who I was, and I actually didn’t get to appreciate the medal that I won because of that,” he said. “I didn’t know if the gay skier would be an image anyone wanted to get behind or support.”
In reality, Gus has enjoyed more endorsements than just about any other U.S. Olympian.
Figure skater Adam Rippon, who earned a bronze medal at these Games, said it was important to him to show up and be exactly who he is.
“I came here being authentically myself and sharing my story, and being gay is part of that,” Rippon told NBC’s Craig Melvin. “But I came here as an American athlete and I came here to help my team get a medal in that team event, and that was what I focused on.”
Adam found himself at the center of a political firestorm before the Games began with a comment about Vice President Mike Pence’s history of anti-LGBT policies. He also turned down an opportunity to speak with the Vice President.
But Adam handled the issue with aplomb: “I didn’t take the phone call [with Pence] because I needed to focus on the competition.”
Rippon says he would “totally” be open to chatting with the veep after the closing ceremonies in PyeongChang.
“Mike Pence doesn’t stand for anything that I was taught when I grew up, and I think that it’s important if you’re given the platform to speak up for those who don’t have a voice.” @Adaripp tells @craigmelvinpic.twitter.com/w3No1ksMq4
“My entire life in movies and commercials in public… you see straight, heterosexual love, and that’s completely fine because it’s normal but us also showing the same type of affection isn’t shoving it in your face. It’s just us existing.” –@guskenworthypic.twitter.com/JBCfylt7rn
Out Olympian Gus Kenworthy, who famously saved two puppies found near Olympic Village during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, has rescued another pup – this time from Korea.
In a moving social media post, Kenworthy shared pictures from a visit he and his boyfriend Matthew Wilkas made to a “dog farm” in South Korea.
The term “dog farm” makes my skin crawl.
In the post, he introduced the world to his new furry family member (above) named “Beemo.”
This morning Matt and I had a heart-wrenching visited to one of the 17,000 dog farms here in South Korea. Across the country there are 2.5 million dogs being raised for food in some of the most disturbing conditions imaginable.
Yes, there is an argument to be made that eating dogs is a part of Korean culture. And, while don’t personally agree with it, I do agree that it’s not my place to impose western ideals on the people here.
The way these animals are being treated, however, is completely inhumane and culture should never be a scapegoat for cruelty. I was told that the dogs on this particular farm were kept in “good conditions” by comparison to other farms. The dogs here are malnourished and physically abused, crammed into tiny wire-floored pens, and exposed to the freezing winter elements and scorching summer conditions.
When it comes time to put one down it is done so in front of the other dogs by means of electrocution sometimes taking up to 20 agonizing minutes.
Despite the beliefs of the Korean public at large, these dogs are no different from the ones we call pets back home. Some of them were even pets at one time and were stolen or found and sold into the dog meat trade.
Luckily, this particular farm (thanks to the hard work of the Humane Society International and the cooperation of a farmer who’s seen the error of his ways) is being permanently shut down and all 90 of the dogs here will be brought to the US and Canada where they’ll find their fur-ever homes.
I adopted the sweet baby in the first pic (we named her Beemo) and she’ll be coming to the US to live with me as soon as she’s through with her vaccinations in a short couple of weeks. I cannot wait to give her the best life possible!
There are still millions of dogs here in need of help though (like the Great Pyrenees in the 2nd pic who was truly the sweetest dog ever). I’m hoping to use this visit as an opportunity to raise awareness to the inhumanity of the dog meat trade here in Korea and the plight of dogs everywhere, including back home in the US where millions of dogs are in need of loving homes!
Go to @hsiglobal’s page to see how you can help. #dogsarefriendsnotfood #adoptdontshop ❤️🐶
