are the first two openly gay men to compete in the Winter Olympics for the United States, ever. But they are not the only ones in this group of “first openly gay athletes” to compete for Team USA.
Brittany Bowe,29, is a former inline skater who took up speed-skating in 2010 and competed in the Winter Olympicsin Sochi, Russia in 2014.She is also competing this year in Pyeongchang,and even though she hasn’t publicly labeled herself, she is decidedly queer, having candidly discussed her partner, Dutch speed skater Manon Kamminga, in an NBC Sports article in October. Bowe isn’t the first LGBTQ+ woman to compete in the Olympic Games, either. During the 2016 Summer Olympics, the U.S. had a handful of openly gay women compete — more than any other country. Yet there were no gay male athletes competing for Team USA in 2016 or 2012.
In other words, queer women have been there and done that for the U.S. And they haven’t received nearly this much attention or fanfare from social media or mainstream news outlets.
Rippon and Kenworthy deserve all the support and adoration they’ve received from the likes of Ellen Degeneres, Reese Witherspoon, and fans within and outside of the LGBTQ+ community. But we can’t forget that they aren’t the only LGBTQ+ athletes competing for the U.S. Bowe’s visibility matters, too. And when the media leaves her out of the overall conversation, they end up effectively erasing her story from LGBTQ+ history altogether.
Before the opening ceremonies, Bowe posted an Instagram picture of her sandwiched between Kenworthy and Rippon that simply read “Opening Ceremonies with the best of US.”
It may not have been as bold or as glorious as Kenworthy’s viral tweet, but it did feature all three of the amazing gay athletes competing for the U.S. in the Winter Olympics in one photo.
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