Dear Snowboarding: Stop Using the Word Gay as an Insult
Last week, pro skier Gus Kentworthy came out to ESPN. Overall, the response has been great and supportive, Kenworthy told the Wall Street Journal. “I’ve had a ton of people reach out to me, which has been amazing. I’ve had other athletes in my sport, Bobby Brown, Josh Christensen, Tom Wallisch, I’ve had snowboarders..” Unfortunately, one snowboarder, who’s legendary status raises his voice louder than the others, took to twitter with a poorly-worded joke.
This tweet has brought a firestorm of unwanted attention upon Terje, who just doesn’t seem to understand what the big deal is. “Every time someone shockingly “admits” to be gay he pins under “abnormality.” For me sexuality is insignificant,” Terje went on to tweet after receiving blowback on social media.
Terje is right in some ways – your sexuality doesn’t and shouldn’t matter when it comes to your skiing or snowboarding. But after the triple corking is done, Gus and every other athlete lives in the real world. In the real world homophobia still runs rampant, words and thoughtless jokes hurt, which is one of the things Gus opens up about in the article. Since Terje probably didn’t even read it, here’s the actual excerpt that explains it:
Kenworthy has watched carefully these past few years as the world around him has grown more accepting. Gay marriage is legal now, attitudes are changing. He was excited this spring when Caitlyn Jenner came out. He believes that people are more aware.
“But then at the same time,” he says, “people are literally oblivious.”
For him, there have existed day-to-day reminders. Take, for instance, the former sponsor who made a crude anti-gay remark about why Kenworthy was once late to a competition. Take his physical therapist, who once told Kenworthy that he couldn’t even imagine talking to a gay guy all night. (“I thought, ‘You’ve talked to a gay guy for two hours a day, four days a week for seven months.’ “)
Take the constant drumbeat of living in a culture that uses the words “gay” and “fag” as commonly as “stoked.” A daily check of social media for Kenworthy means encountering posts written by friends or peers who, without knowing it, reveal what they think about his sexuality. Today, it might be a Facebook rant or an Instagram post from a pro snowboarder who’s annoyed that “skier fags” have infiltrated another contest or complaining that a shoddy halfpipe is “gay.” Tomorrow, it might be a tweet written by an athlete he admires who is “sickened” by same-sex marriage.
“There’s a lot of testosterone in our sport, and those derogatory words get thrown around like crazy,” says Canadian freeskier Justin Dorey. “A lot of people don’t think twice about it because those words don’t mean anything to them.”
In 2015, where news travels at the speed of the Internet and you’re constantly inundated with new information, its easy for the non-affected to shrug and say, big fucking deal. But this is a big fucking deal, and it’s time for snowboarding and all action sports to remove homophobic slurs from our lexicon entirely. Terje made himself look like a moron and deserves every bit of media scrutiny he did and will receive. Todd Richards, who had a front row seat for the shitshow thanks to a seemingly out of nowhere mention in the tweet, said the whole situation is a case of stupidity.
“100 percent of comedy is timing, and if you’re going to diss someone in English, at least use spell check. Utmost respect for Gus’s courage in a close-minded world.”
Has YoBeat become the SJW meeting headquarters?
thanks for posting this yobeat. yes a bad joke but it was said. i wonder if transworld or snowboarder will post the tweet and comment??? burton’s $$$$$ say hell no.
great work.
And Scandinavians don´t get Terjes jokes either.
Didn’t Jed Anderson make out with a guy on instagram? Maybe he’s just bi???
I wonder what Stan would say about this!
Hype is ridiculous. Because it’s these two characters twittering fire at each other, bunch of people take notice. Good to know nobody pays attention to regular old snowboard dudes. I’ve been questioning the use of the word “gay” by homophobes since elementary school. Fuck the media hype over ignorant comments on Twitter. Reminds me of bullshit religious types who talk a lot, but end up being hypocrites. YoBeat and the entire industry have been gay bashing for years…..either blatantly or inadvertently and now all of a sudden, everyone is anti-use-gay-as-a-derogatory-term. But if Terje and Todd are talking, everyone pays attention? Hype over substance is typical in this shallow world. Fucking hypocrites everywhere, me included. Lighten up, none of this shit is really that important, not as important as Alyssa’s article and Gus’ open admission. All this shit is fluff.
I came here to watch snowboard videos, not be lectured about something people should already now and have advertisements shoved in my face. Bring back catfish chronicles
…and oh yeah, stop trying to become Thrasher, cause u copy almost everything they do
this is gay as hell
people praise gays when they come out and make them out to be heroes..
Right, and I have a black friend so I can say the N word.
Make out
Haha old crusty snowboarders getting all flustered because they are being asked to enter the 21 century and join the rest of us.
Just so you all know there is a very strong correlation between homophobia and penile response to gay porn.
There is also a very strong coloration between being gay and penile response to gay porn.
All you salty fucks just did yourself a favor and came out. Congrats on your new life!
DONALD???
your butthole is between your legs? weird, you should get that checked out.
getUM
I’m just confused as to how it’s even a discussion anymore. Who cares? If we all literally don’t care, then there will be no “coming out of the closest” and it will be normal. People need to worry about more important shit like, i dunno, 9/11 truth nd the fact that there are actually people that think Donald Trump should be president and is a rational human being.
ah come on dude, grow some
he was talking about their inability to naturally reproduce, duh. though dark, i found it clever and funny. i like gays, i choose to laugh with them instead of at them
then your heater friends are fags
alright auto correct, you know i meant hetero
I’m having so much fun tho!
i am a redhead… wait does this mean i can get offended now?! cause that was all really hard for me when i was in jr.high school, you know when i was a bitch
Clayton… i was really enjoying all your comments thus far. and then you ruined everything you worked so hard for by demeaning the snowboarding way in the exact way your advocating against. come on man
that was lame, B
Bravo mike, Trump is soon gay.
Too soon?
sooo
not soon
WHO GIVES A FUCK.
people need to stop being such fucking sensitive little pussies about everything around you.
open your eyes and stop using every stupid little thing as an excuse to bitch.
as upstatemike said, THERE IS MORE IMPORTANT SHIT out there to focus your aggression on.
fuck you all.
Brooke???
Do you think Terje Haakonsen, who is dating a gay person, hates gay people?
Or is it possible that he uses ‘gay’ as an insult like a fifth grader would?
The latter is stupid, but it’s way milder than the former.
There are plenty of things in the snowboarding community to be made fun of that don’t involve people’s personal lives. IE: people who still ride clickers, Shawn White in general, the Too Hard crew, Torstein’s new DC graphics… just to name a few.
Oh he´s as gay as they come
A gay skiier rips harder than almost every straight one… so theres that.
read terje’s interview on snowboarder, he is being a total unapologetic jerk.
hmm yes, I was desperately looking for more examples of straight white guys telling the world how inconsequential and unimportant it is to come out of the closet in america/the action sports industry. shoutout to the dregs of yobeat commenters for providing.
mike, you’re better than that.
im not waiting for an apology. im waiting for people to stop white knighting these type of micro-aggressions and handwaving them away as ‘bad jokes’ or trying to refocus on ‘the real issues’
why does terje have twitter. he’s like 50 years old
is terje the mat hoffman of snowboarding? inquiring minds want to know
i finally get it. the way i feel right now must be similar to how my friends on facebook feel when i reply to their status updates about football and say ‘NOBODY CARES ABOUT UR STUPID SPORT BOO HOO UR PREFERRED SQUAD OF MUSCLEMEN DIDNT WIN A GAME THAT MEANS NOTHING A BLOO BLOO GET OVER IT U BABY’
oh wait i dont do that because im not a complete shitheel. nevermind.
i enjoy the company of most everybody doesnt matter if your gay or straight….i just dont like people that have tissue paper fucking skin and cant take a joke or a serious comment for that matter. You gotta be able to brush shit off and move on with your life, if you cant learn to do that your gonna have a shitty fucking life.
Like yelling in ALL CAPS on the internet.
be sorry for what? a fucking tweet LOL
dude shut up. your rant was pointless and obnoxious
for someone titling their post “nuance,” you really don’t have much nuance in your views of sexuality/romance…
This is case in point why I don’t want to hang out with most snowboarders
Cry about it. Calling most snowboarders edgy-appealing jocks isn’t a stretch, and you fucking know it.
Don’t conflate my demeaning of a completely social, apolitical identity (snowboarder) to a highly contested, highly political/politicized identity which is heavily marginalized in ways which you will never experience.
Don’t ask me to be polite or respectable when even in comments supposedly supporting queers on this thread the word ‘fag’ is used as a derogatory title. FUCK RIGHT OFF
Again, it’s pretty fucking easy to do that when you aren’t constantly being reminded that everyone around you still holds homophobic views in one register or another.
Telling people who are the implicit butt of all-too-many jokes to “take a joke” is to tell them to let other people make their identity not only into a joke, but into a marginalized category, you fuck.
Ok. Why don’t you actually state your point, instead of just insinuating. What nuance am I missing?
WHICH IS LITERALLY THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER!
does anyone ever stop to think how much better of a world this would be if Twitter was never invented?
Sorry… wasn’t saying “who cares” about him coming out…was assuming someone may take what i said the wrong way. What i meant was, who cares if people are gay/straight/bi…imagine if it wasn’t even a thing and no one needed to “come out of the closet”. Hopefully it can be that way someday, where everyone is just a person and we don’t have to be shocked when someone comes out. If everyone starts talking and caring about bigger issues that face humanity than what someone else wants to put their penis in, then maybe we’ll be on the right path.
Regardless, props to Gus. I’m just hoping the next generation won’t even need to think about it.