But, and it’s a big but - thinking back to my teenage years, it didn’t feel that way at all! It’s easy to forget how much of the skate scene is made up of insecure teenage boys acting like complete dicks. Sure, most of them grow out of it, but as a teenager I remember hearing so much relentlessly homophobic comments, and feeling utterly alone as a gay kid skating. After I came out I had to have endless awkward conversations with people trying to apologise for the things they’d said around me before they realised I was gay.
So yeah, as an adult I’m happy enough not seeking out any of these queer skate crews on the odd occasion I go out skating, and generally just hang out with the same bunch of middle aged straight men I’ve been skating, drinking, and generally getting old with for the last 20 years or so, but I still absolutely get why a lot of teenagers think they’re necessary. Sure, in an ideal world they wouldn’t need exist, but we’re sure as hell not there yet!
There is a difficult balance between the need for visibility, and the risk of LGBT folks isolating themselves from wider society, and I completely understand that people will have differing but equally valid opinions on this. But for now, as long as some kid skating in the middle of nowhere is able to see that these queer skate crews exist, and as a result not feel as alone as I did as a teenager, then more fucking power to them.
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yeah kids are cruel so I can totes see at a younger more fragile age needing some solidarity the same kind a lot of us got by skating together in the 80's when just being a skater was dangerous now add being queer I totally get that, thanks for the perspective punch.
Topic: Queer Skating in LA (Read 18896 times)