PHOTO: The skier Gus Kenworthy comes out as gay this year and wins again the Toyota Dew Tour 2015 Men's FreeSki Slopestyle Championship at Breckenridge broadcast live on the NBC TV Network, Sun. Dec. 13, 2015 10:30AM-PT. The NBC TV network sports announcer used only the euphemism Gus Kenworthy had "made a decision" this year instead of saying explicitly that Gus had "come out as gay" before the Dew Tour competition in Breckenridge. In addition, it appears that Gus was allowed to say on-the-air only that he "had come out of the closet" without explicitly saying he had come out as gay, despite the fact that Gus has talked about his coming out as gay in other media. Sadly, this type of homophobic censorship has been commonly practiced by mainstream media outlets that justify the censorship by saying they don't want to sound "political" or "push the gay agenda." In reality, the thought of "gay" probably disgusts them and they fear losing viewers who have a similar homophobic reaction. Overall, it is a good sign of progress that Gus has been able to come out because decades ago his sponsors would have demanded that he stay in the closet, whereas today his sponsor Nike seems to be OK with it, however, NBC's refusal to say Gus came out as gay is a good example of the progress that has yet to be made in America. (See previous post Breckenridge skier comes out apes 1963 ski flip by Stein Eriksen (12/10/15))
VIDEO: Gus Kenworthy discusses coming out gay on ESPN espn.go.com (video accessed Dec. 10, 2015). Gus Kenworthy's story, which includes being a Breckenridge local, was featured in a Dec. 6 NBC TV preview of the Dew tour Breckenridge Dec. 10-13, 2015 that was broadcast 10-12 noon by the NBC network in HDTV Dec. 12 and 13, 2015 as part of the NBC Sports coverage of winter Dew Tour in Breckenridge. (See previous post Breckenridge skier comes out apes 1963 ski flip by Stein Eriksen (12/10/15))
