Gus Kenworthy hits out at Donald Trump, Mike Pence and Brunei in a powerful speech
The openly gay Olympian slammed the US government for their treatment of LGBTQ people
By Steve Brown
Gus Kenworthy hits out at Donald Trump and Brunei in a powerful speech.
The openly gay Olympic skier was awarded the Point Leadership Award, by the Point Foundation – an organisation that provides scholarships to LGBTQ+ students – and during his acceptance speech, he criticised Trump and Brunei’s treatment of gay people.
He said: “There are countries like Brunei where gays are being stoned to death in the streets.
“Even here in the US we have a president who has made repeated attacks on our community and our trans brothers, sisters, and gender non-binary siblings.
“We have a vice president who still believes in conversion therapy, for fuck sake.”
He also opened up about how he wished he had been ‘comfortable’ in his own skin and how he suffered from stress and anxiety growing up.
Gus continued: “I wish that I had been comfortable enough in my own skin to acknowledge who I was and to share that person with the world. But it took me many years to get to that point.
“The adolescent years of a queer person’s life are not easy. They involve a great deal of stress and anxiety. We often face ridicule and we fear torment.
“The person on stage in Russia bowing their head to have a medal put around their neck was me, sure, but it wasn’t the real me. I remember just not even being able to feel the gravity of that moment because I was so distracted trying to keep up a façade, trying to continue to make the world believe that I was someone that I just was not.”
Watch his acceptance speech below: