Being queer and skating is a rare combo. It seems to defy stereotypes of both and leave identity in a liminal place. Skating had a reputation as a straight, white, middle-class and masculine place, but this has never exclusively been the case and the community still battle these stereotypes. Elissa Steamer (the first female skater in a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game) and BA (Brian Anderson, 1999 Skater of The Year) show that queer skateboarding is nothing new, and with skating priding itself on its counter-cultural edge, it would be hypocritical not to embrace other avant-garde communities.

Queer skateboarding has grown dramatically. American companies such as Glue, There, Unity, and Bottom Feeder are positioning themselves as the queer skate companies. This business model allowed for the growth and promotion of queer skateboarding while resulting in some pretty fucking cool skate clips, deck designs, and fashion. There “Ruining Skateboarding (2022)” video held space for queer skaters in the industry in a capacity that had never been done before. This video is the first queer skating full-length video part by a queer skate company and has only one “token straight” rider on the team. I have watched this hour-plus video well over ten times. The team, editing, fashion, skating and music always inspired me to pick up my board.

To understand why we need these companies, you need to understand how the skate industry works. It boils down to marketing, with skaters getting sponsored by a company because they skate well enough and look cool enough to sell boards, wheels, shoes etc. Without queer skate companies, regular brands will have one (at best) queer skating receiving their product. Companies like Glue, There, Unity, and Bottom Feeder allow the intersection between skateboarding and queerness to grow beyond tokenism and into a genuine, unique, and flourishing scene.

In a VICE documentary, BA, who didn’t publicly come out until 2016, discusses how “Hearing, you know, faggot, made the think at a young age that it was really dangerous to talk about it [being gay]”. Phelps, R.I.P, threw a nonchalant “Who cares it’s about skateboarding. We’re skaters, you skate, I skate, we skate. Great… Who gives a fuck if your gay” into the doco. This resonated with Brian’s sentiment of not wanting to be paraded poster boy of inclusivity for the skate company Toy Machine, a sentiment now actualized in the creation of primarily queer spaces within skateboarding.

In a YOU SHOULD KNOW YouTube video Chandler Burton, co-owner of Bottom Feeder, pro skater for There, and drag monster (not queen!), shared how “Being queer is still not that cool. It’s not that tight. The grass is not greener on this other side. Like I love it because I’m a part of it, and that’s what I am and, I’m proud to be that, but it’s not like this fantasy land, but that’s what I make it.”.

Verdict: Gnar