Adam Rippon got called a ‘f****t’ while holding hands with his boyfriend in New York City
The gay figure skater opens up about abuse he received while competing in the Winter Olympics
By Steve Brown
Adam Rippon has revealed he was called a “f****t” while holding hands with his boyfriend in the streets of New York City.
The Olympic figure skater made history by becoming the first openly gay athlete to represent the US in this year’s Winter Olympics.
Since then, Rippon has gone on to become a spokesperson for the LGBT+ community in America but his actions have not been welcomed by all.
While speaking exclusively to Attitude’s November Awards issue where he was honoured with the Sport Award, Rippon recalls how he was verbally abused in the streets of New York for holding hands with his boyfriend Jussi-Pekka Kajaala.
He says:”I was walking in New York City and was holding my boyfriend’s hand.
“Some guy came up to us and said, ‘I hate f*****s’, then ran away. I just said, ‘That’s so sad that somebody would still want to do that’.”
Rippon also recalls how while he was representing the US in the Winter Olympics, he was constantly receiving homophobic abuse from other Americans and he was hesitant to open any tweets which contained the American flag.
He continues: “When I was at the Olympics, and this shouldn’t be the case, but every time I got a tweet or a message that had an American flag in their name, I was always hesitant because it was almost always a nasty Trump supporter.
“It was always somebody who had something bad to say about me, which is awful because I was representing their country at the Olympics and I don’t even want to open a message that has my own country’s flag.
“It was always something nasty and it was always something homophobic, but it doesn’t bother me because I’m very comfortable and very confident with who I am, and they’re not.”
Read Adam’s full interview and read about the winners from the Virgin Holidays Attitude Awards 2018, powered by Jaguar in the November Awards issue of Attitude, out now.
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