Why rowing is gay

Who's going to suspect that I'm gay if I'm a rower, right? Although that wasn't the main reason for taking up an oar, or in my case a set of sculls.

My younger brother, Karl, had just started rowing, Mum was coaching him and my competitive nature took over: I didn't want him getting fitter or stronger than I was! Today we're still in the same squad in the New Zealand team , so we have that fierce competition between us on a daily basis, trying to get one up on each other.

We've rowed together twice internationally, in at under level and in at elite level, both times in the double. And we are the current New Zealand champions together in the double and the quad. So rowing is a bit of a family affair in our household. Although it hasn't always been in the forefront of my mind, deep down I was terrified of anyone finding out that I was gay, especially my teammates.

I seriously thought that if anyone found out I wouldn't be able to row anymore. The thought of coming out, in my mind, felt so limiting and terrifying. Also, in a strange way, I looked down on other people who were gay, and to a degree felt sorry for them, thinking to be gay was to be "less than.

I would get quite depressed about. I thought that I would be inadequate if I was gay, that people would treat me differently. If anyone mentioned anything or anyone "gay," I would feel desperately uncomfortable, like I had to escape to avoid them seeing that I was bright red. I was so scared. I felt like I would implode. When I was 19 I knew I was attracted to guys, but I still didn't want to admit it to myself. I thought that I could just deny those feelings and be straight.

I was initially shocked. But then I sat back and realized that there had been little clues all along - I had just been blindly caught up in my own struggle. But I was in no way ready to admit that I was gay to myself let alone come out to anyone else. It took me until I was 21 to come out to my older brother and to myself. About 10 months later I decided to take the next step and told Mum - over Christmas break.

When she picked me up from the airport I played a guessing game with her. IT took her a few tries, but she ultimately said that she thought I was probably going to come out to her but didn't want to say it in case she was wrong. I thought Mum was never going to have a problem with it, but knowing that she knew made me feel a lot better. Just stick to books, J. After J. Rowling completed her decade long franchise with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , Jack Thorne wrote a screenplay sequel taking place 19 years afterwards called Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Rowling gave her stamped approval that The Cursed Child was canon in her universe. Which wouldn't be a problem, if The Cursed Child wasn't such a terrible story that so many fans despise. Based on a supplementary spin-off book, J. While the first film received positive reviews, The Crimes of Grindelwald received poor reviews and is currently the lowest-grossing film in the franchise.

And don't get us started on the controversy they received in casting Johnny Depp amid domestic abuse allegations. Rowling admitted that she had second thoughts about Ron ending up with Hermione. She said that she paired these two up as a sort of personal "wish fulfillment" and over a second glance, thinks Harry and Hermione should have ended up together. And yet, in Grindelwald , we got a huge twist in learning that Credence Barebone was actually Dumbledore's long lost brother, Aurelius, the whole time.

Fans felt the twist was both unnecessary and retconning of what we know about Dumbledore to this point, especially when the brother doesn't factor into the final books before Dumbledore's death. The way J. Rowling just randomly offers tidbits and reveals about the books that no one asked her about, it feels like she is just making it up on the fly without thinking about what her words really mean.

It's as if she wakes up every morning and randomly has a thought bubble, and whether it be via Twitter or at a conference, she feels compelled to share it. It seems like every now and again, J. Rowling tries too hard to highlight that her books were full of diverse characters, even though they weren't. She tried to defend The Cursed Child casting Hermione as a black woman because she never explicitly said she wasn't black in the books, but she also never explicitly said she was black either.

Same with the Dumbledore thing. Newsflash: if it wasn't explicitly said in the books, it might as well not have happened. In "revealing" that Dumbledore was gay for the entire franchise, J. It was passionate, and it was a love relationship. You can't know, you can believe you know," Rowling continued. Rowling previously revealed Dumbledore was gay and even responded to a fan who tweeted they couldn't "see" the headmaster of Hogwarts as homosexual.

Some fans, however, believe the author divulging these details after the fact is not productive. Many wish the characters actually identified as gay in the books and movies Rowling created, not just in her mind. One person suggested characters that Rowling should have "developed as queer" in the books.

Another suggested what Rowling is doing is "performative activism.