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8 trailblazing gay and bisexual male boxers

The part I keep circling back to is how late some of these stories arrived. Boxing's macho reputation kept plenty of mouths shut, and the eight fighters here each found a different way to push against that, clearing room for LGBTQ+ acceptance in a sport that never made it easy. Emile Griffith sits at the heaviest end. A Hall of Fame champion whose life ran on two separate tracks: the ring on one, New York's gay bars on the other, never touching. Then in 1962 Benny Paret threw a homophobic slur at him mid-fight, and the bout ended with Paret fatally injured in the ring. No record really holds that. Orlando Cruz, a Puerto Rican Olympian, became the first active professional boxer to come out publicly as gay in 2012, and his framing was plain: a proud gay man. Oscar Bonifacino, a Uruguayan professional, was open about being gay and turned the platform he had toward taking on the stereotypes and pushing for acceptance. Yusaf "Mack Attack" Mack, an American former pro, addressed his sexuality publicly once he'd retired, and that set off conversations about what boxing does to gay fighters. Mark Leduc took a Canadian Olympic silver medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games, and during the 1990s he spoke openly about being gay, later putting his name behind LGBTQ+ visibility. Panama Al Brown, the legendary Panamanian, was the first Latin American world boxing champion, lived openly gay in many aspects of his life, and still met discrimination in an era of widespread prejudice. Mike Turner, British, is known for taking on the stereotypes around gay men in the sport and raising visibility. Charles "The Pink Pounder" Jones, also British, counts among the early openly gay men in boxing, and he pushed against the usual ideas about masculinity and professional boxing. What they loosened was the grip of a culture of silence and discrimination, and that's why future generations can picture this sport as somewhere a fighter gets to be themselves without fear of judgment 🍿

11h

Kimon@kimon

Follow

8 trailblazing gay and bisexual male boxers

The part I keep circling back to is how late some of these stories arrived. Boxing's macho reputation kept plenty of mouths shut, and the eight fighters here each found a different way to push against that, clearing room for LGBTQ+ acceptance in a sport that never made it easy. Emile Griffith sits at the heaviest end. A Hall of Fame champion whose life ran on two separate tracks: the ring on one, New York's gay bars on the other, never touching. Then in 1962 Benny Paret threw a homophobic slur at him mid-fight, and the bout ended with Paret fatally injured in the ring. No record really holds that. Orlando Cruz, a Puerto Rican Olympian, became the first active professional boxer to come out publicly as gay in 2012, and his framing was plain: a proud gay man. Oscar Bonifacino, a Uruguayan professional, was open about being gay and turned the platform he had toward taking on the stereotypes and pushing for acceptance. Yusaf "Mack Attack" Mack, an American former pro, addressed his sexuality publicly once he'd retired, and that set off conversations about what boxing does to gay fighters. Mark Leduc took a Canadian Olympic silver medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games, and during the 1990s he spoke openly about being gay, later putting his name behind LGBTQ+ visibility. Panama Al Brown, the legendary Panamanian, was the first Latin American world boxing champion, lived openly gay in many aspects of his life, and still met discrimination in an era of widespread prejudice. Mike Turner, British, is known for taking on the stereotypes around gay men in the sport and raising visibility. Charles "The Pink Pounder" Jones, also British, counts among the early openly gay men in boxing, and he pushed against the usual ideas about masculinity and professional boxing. What they loosened was the grip of a culture of silence and discrimination, and that's why future generations can picture this sport as somewhere a fighter gets to be themselves without fear of judgment 🍿

11h