Gay Bodybuilder Bob Paris: Vintage Photos and Oprah Update

Gay bodybuilder Bob Paris earns the distinction as the first professional athlete, in any sport, to come out in public while still in competition. He did so in a 1989 interview with Lonnie Teper of Iron Man magazine. Here's an excerpt from that interview:

Iron Man: In addition to the normal stresses you’ve talked about, you’ve had something tormenting you over the past few years. You’ve been private about it to date with the media, but now I understand you finally want to clear the air.

Bob Paris: Yes, I do. We’ve been talking about my life and things that have happened since 1983. In all the other times I’ve ever spoken in interviews, I’ve always skirted around in certain issues like my family. I’ve been protected by the bodybuilding media. The pressures that have been there came from a lot of different directions. You talk about going from the amateur to the pro level, but it was much more than that.

I’m gay. However, my burden is not my gayness but that I was raised by my family and by society to hate myself for being gay. I grew up being taught to dislike the person I really was. It was a very difficult cycle to break out of.

Gus Kenworthy Gay Freeskier: Boyfriend? And Shirtless Hot Pics

Let's add Gus Kentworthy to our list of gay athletes. He came out a few days ago when he posted this message on his Facebook page:

Shad Smith: A Portrait of a Gay MMA Fighter

Shad is the first openly gay mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter. From the New York Times:

I asked Smith why he spent so much of his youth looking for trouble. I expected some sort of clichéd, though possibly true, explanation — a difficult childhood or a Napoleon complex. What I didn’t expect him to say was, “You know, bro, the sexual-preference thing.”