You say itâs a clichĂ© for figure skaters to be gay. Does that mean when you started skating you found a gay-friendly world that welcomed you?
No, I donât think I found a world that welcomed me. Along with that stereotype thereâs sometimes the push back, the âNot another one, we donât want them.â Thatâs the way some people feel. And I got to a point where I thought, âLike me for who I am and if you donât like me just because Iâm gay, I feel sorry for you.â But what skating did do was allow me to start training in bigger cities, and all around the country and the world, and through this I met so many types of people.
Which came first, starting to skate or starting to understand that you were attracted to boys rather than girls?
Skating. When youâre in elite sports, itâs so easy for you to put your feelings of having a crush on someone on the back burner and just think, âIâm focused on what Iâm doing right now, Iâll deal with that later.â I think it means a lot of different experiences happen later in life. Skating takes so much time and itâs a full-time job so you donât have time to get into relationships or have those experiences when youâre younger.
So when did you first become aware of being attracted to men?
At first I was trying so hard and hoping that I wasnât gay and I had one or two girlfriends when I was in my late teens. I was giving it my best shot and thinking, âMaybe Iâm bisexual.â And then when I had my first kiss with a boy, I was like, âHa ha, no Iâm not. Babe, youâre gay!â
âFine Figure of a Man: Adam Rippon will be the first out gay man to represent America in the Winter Olympics when he skates out onto the ice in South Koreaâ in Attitude MagazineÂ
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