HOPEFULLY NOT MY vice-pres mike pence will be able to keep his ignorance in check when he travels to Pyeongchang, S Korea for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Not only do we have to worry about his misogynistic, racist, xenophobic, fascist beliefs being expressed, we also have to be concerned that he will unleash his rabid homophobia on the gays on the U.S. Olympic team, especially if they don't will gold in their events. Still, I think Adam Rippon and Gus Kenworthy can handle pence and the pressure of Olympic competition, and we should be proud our team does not reflect the views of the fascist drumpf/trump-pence administration. From The Nation and NPR.....
Olympian Adam Rippon Stands Up to Mike Pence’s Homophobia
Joining the historic ranks of Olympic dissenters, the first openly gay US Winter Olympian has challenged the Oval Office.
By Dave Zirin
JANUARY 19, 2018
Adam Rippon at the US Figure Skating Championships in January 2018. (AP Photo / Marcio Jose Sanchez)
The Olympics has long been a site of not only sports, pageantry, and flag-waving nationalism but also dissent. While most people associate that with the 1968 Games where John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their fists, this tradition goes back for as long as there has been an Olympics. (Read Activism and the Olympics, by Jules Boykoff, to see how far back it goes.)
In 2018, a chapter has already been added to this history, and it could not have happened soon enough. For the first time, the United States Winter Olympics team has two open LGBT athletes: figure skater Adam Rippon and freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy. For the first time as well, the Olympic delegation is being led by Vice President Mike Pence, a virulent homophobe, who (as Donald Trump likes to joke) “wants to hang” LGBT people.
In addition, these Winter Olympics come on the heels of a dictate by this administration that medical professionals do not have to provide services to trans people. They believe that if you state a religious objection, you can leave a trans person in a life-threatening situation to die. Well, Adam Rippon was not going to partake in this quietly.
Rippon was asked by USA Today what he, as the first openly gay US Winter Olympian, thought about Vice President Mike Pence’s leading the Olympic delegation. He said, “You mean Mike Pence, the same Mike Pence that funded gay conversion therapy? I’m not buying it.” If it were before my event, I would absolutely not go out of my way to meet somebody who I felt has gone out of their way to not only show that they aren’t a friend of a gay person but that they think that they’re sick. I wouldn’t go out of my way to meet somebody like that.”
He also said of Pence, “I don’t think he has a real concept of reality. To stand by some of the things that Donald Trump has said and for Mike Pence to say he’s a devout Christian man is completely contradictory. If he’s okay with what’s being said about people and Americans and foreigners and about different countries that are being called ‘shitholes,’ I think he should really go to church.” Rippon said that he was open to speaking to Pence about his views even if he would not be visiting the White House following the Olympics.
Pence was clearly wounded by the comment, and his office issued an immediate statement saying, “The vice president is proud to lead the U.S. delegation to the Olympics and support America’s incredible athletes. This accusation is totally false and has no basis in fact. Despite these misinformed claims, the vice president will be enthusiastically supporting all the U.S. athletes competing next month in Pyeongchang.”
For a White House that lies as easily as it talks, this was another whopper. In 2000, when running for Congress, Mike Pence “supported the use of federal funding to treat people ‘seeking to change their sexual behavior.’” His website read, “Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.”
I spoke to Cyd Zeigler, author of Fair Play: How LGBT Athletes Are Claiming Their Rightful Place in Sports, who said, “The most important piece of what Adam said about Mike Pence is his willingness to sit down with the vice president for an open conversation. We have let the divisions in our country get way out of hand, and Adam’s openness to conversation with someone he disagrees with shows the leadership we’ve come to expect from our greatest American athletes. I wish we would all take his lead.”
Given this administration’s treatment of dissenting members of the congressional black caucus, protesting athletes and even members of his own party, there is little evidence that Donald Trump or Mike Pence are seeking dialogue over demonization. As with athletes like Colin Kaepernick, Megan Rapinoe, and Michael Bennett, we’ve long passed the point where our athletes are acting more presidential than whoever is skulking around the Oval Office.
Gus Kenworthy Will Be The Second Openly Gay Man To Compete For U.S. In Winter Games
Having earned a spot Sunday on the U.S. Ski Team, Gus Kenworthy is the second openly gay man who will compete for the United States at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Kenworthy, 26, placed second at the final Olympic qualifier for freeski slopestyle, according to NBC.
Twenty-eight-year-old figure skater Adam Rippon, the first openly gay man to qualify for the Winter Olympics, was selected for the figure skating team on Jan. 7.
Before this year, the U.S. had never sent an openly gay man to compete in the Winter Games. The last time an out male athlete competed on Team USA in the Summer Olympics was 14 years ago in Athens, Greece.
As NPR reported earlier this month:
Kenworthy came out publicly in 2015, a year and a half after he took silver in slopestyle at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
He told Reuters earlier this month that competing as an openly gay athlete had boosted his confidence on the way to Pyeongchang.
"I am more open with everyone in my life, and I think it just translates into me being able to ski a little bit more freely and not have so much to focus on and worry about," Kenworthy said.
Rippon made headlines earlier this month for publicly criticizing the selection of Vice President Pence to lead the U.S. delegation to Pyeongchang, citing Pence's alleged support of gay conversion therapy. (Pence's spokesperson called "this accusation ... totally false.")
nothing has made me feel more PRIDE than getting to wave a rainbow flag in a national TV commercial! #ShouldersOfGreatness youtu.be/7oxxUtkLCWw
Both Rippon and Kenworthy have indicated they would not accept invitations from President Trump to visit the White House with Team USA after the Winter Games.
Over the past two years, Kenworthy has become a vocal advocate of LGBTQ visibility in sports — and is widely known as "the gay skier."
He was recently named a brand ambassador for Head & Shoulders and appears in a new commercial, sporting a Team USA uniform and a rainbow flag.
"The Olympics is a cool opportunity to represent our country, which is amazing," Kenworthy told Reuters. "But I have another community I am competing for, and that is the LGBT community."
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