Love, acceptance, and time traveling gay robots on the half pipe

Love and Acceptance on the Half Pipe: Sexy Skateboarding Ads Attack Discrimination is the title of the Gaysports.com (Who knew?) article about the MTV’s gay skateboarder anti-discrimination commercial that appears to have been written by a time traveling robot. The article, not the commercial. I’m not exactly sure why they wrote the article, because it’s more of a primer on skateboard culture than it is a commentary on the TV commercial or gay skaters. A few choice quotes and more after the jump

Check out the beefcake pic from the story (above, bottom right). Maybe that’s the reason more female skaters aren’t taken seriously. They need to get dolled up for a photo session like Biff did so the X-Games will take them seriously. The pic on the left? Oh, I uh, found that on my hard drive. Someone must have put it there as a practical joke. I swear!

..the history of the sport and the antiestablishment nature of skateboarding ironically parallels the early generations of gay men and women. Invented in the 1950s by southern California surfers who sought a way to surf without waves, skateboarding has itself experienced several machinations through its history.

I see. So being gay was also invented in the 1950’s by southern California surfers.

Skateboard parks offer a compromise that is often at least partially successful. Parks like the Savanna Slamma and Milwaukee’s Turf Skateboard Park attract hundreds of skaters to show off their tricks on ramps and half-pipes constructed especially for safe skating.

Wow. That’s amazing because the Turf has been closed for over 10 years and Savanna Slamma was a contest, not a park. Is that thing even still going? And I don’t know about you, but I always built my ramps becasue I couldn’t find a safe spot to skate. Yeah, that’s it.

Skateboarding has also spawned its own music genre, with a similarly wild image. Groups with names like Septic Death and Gang Green record their “speed metal” music on small labels devoted to “skate rock.” One skate rock disc jockey, Skatemaster Tate, describes the music vividly: “It’s punk rock and skating rolled up in a ball of confusion and screaming down the alley in a gutter.”

Yes! Another Skatemaster Tate reference! must be all the recent publicity he’s been getting. I also like the use of quotes around “speed metal” and “skate rock.” Does anyone know if Septic Death skates?

One young gay skateboarding blogger, Patrick O’Neil posted a message about his experience in the skating world. “Once all of the other skaters at my local skate park found out I was gay, they have been threatening me and treating me very badly. They all call my stuff like ‘fag boy,’ or ‘Gay Pat’ and it’s so inappropriate. Usually I show them all up at skating but it doesn’t stop them. I always feel left out when the guys bring their girlfriends to watch them skate cuz I know that if I brought my boyfriend to watch me skate they would probably beat us up.

I can’t find this guy Patrick O’Neil blogging on the web anywhere, at least not the gay, skateboarding one. Google key sentences in his quote and you’ll find they only show up in articles and reprints of this story. I smell a crisis in journalistic integrity.

And lastly:

As gay people become more accepted in both sports and mainstream society it is easy to see the parallels that can be made with the resounding success of skateboarding. It’s an underground sport that through persistence and pursuit of perfection has proven that boarders are just like everyone else, they just do it on four wheels.

Yeah… not really. We were born skateboarders, and homosexuality is a choice. HARDY HAR HAR! Just kidding! But seriously though, is there a substantial part of the gay population that wants it to remain underground? Can you get paid for being gay? Are there Gay-Stoppers available out there? As I said before, Gay is the new Extreme!