By Katelynn Rise
RATING: 3/5 Paws
Society often tends to think that being gay and coming out is only difficult when it comes time to telling your family, classmates or even your co-workers. But what happens when being gay starts to affect your only escape from reality and tears you away from doing the things that you love most?
“OUT In the Line-up,” directed in 2014 by Ian W. Thomson, showed how surfing is connected to one’s sexuality. This documentary presented stories of gay surfers all over the world that have been discriminated against by their own surfing peers just because of their sexuality.
Thomas Castets, producer of “OUT In the Line-up” and founder of GaySurfers.net was an openly gay Australian surfer living in France who wanted to embark on a journey to find others like himself all around the world. He started his journey locally then travelled to countries all over the world, including the U.S., to interview gay surfers.
Eventually, Castets made his way to Carlsbad, CA. and meets up with Cori Schumacher, a three time Women’s World Champion Longboarder who is openly gay. Schumacher explained that the surfing world is very hush-hush about homosexuality and said that some surfers are afraid of coming out in fear of losing their sponsors. She continued talking about how the media and big name sponsors were to blame for the homophobia that surrounds surfing.
Schumacher claimed that all women in surfing advertisements are skinny, tan, blonde women that were not accurately representing what real female surfers look like. She expressed that she looked forward to the day when sponsors and advertisers become brave enough to get rid of the blonde bombshell models in the surfing magazines and portray women surfers as normal human beings, whether gay or straight.
“OUT In the Line-up” is a must watch for many reasons. The cinematography is gorgeous, the surfers are talented and the desire for acceptance and tolerance in not only surfing, but also the world as a whole, has made this documentary a great starting point for equality.