![famous gay men in hawaii famous gay men in hawaii](http://america.aljazeera.com/content/ajam/articles/2015/11/4/betrayed-by-their-bodies/jcr:content/image.img.jpg)
Just poke around on social media for a bit and you might see Stab’s Instagram post about renaming the “sex change” skateboard trick the “Caitlyn Jenner” in surfing. Parking lots, the problem persists in different forms. While today you aren’t as likely to hear the once-constant homophobic slurs in beachside But surf culture seems to skew even more regressive on LGBTQ+ issues than our demographics would suggest.
![famous gay men in hawaii famous gay men in hawaii](https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/150128140834-joel-grey-super-169.jpg)
Surf culture reflects our demographics to an extent, and most surfers-certainly those with the most influence in the culture-likely live in homogenous, affluent, socially-conservative coastal enclaves. The ocean may not judge based on sexuality or gender identity, but many surfers do. But the truth is that every LGBTQ+ surfer deals with it on some level. I reached out to a friend who does this kind of work as well and asked, ‘Am I doing the right thing here? Do you ever have these conversations around your work?’ And he goes, ‘No, dude, I’m strictly in the art world and your work is now floating into the surf world, and you’re going to have to deal with that.’”Īs a queer artist in the surf world, Milner may be in a position of particular exposure to surf culture’s homophobia. When those comments first started happening, it was hard. “I know that my artwork isn’t going to be for everyone, and I want to have difficult conversations through my art.” Milner says. Milner wasn’t shocked-he knows surf culture, after all-but it did give him some pause. From “Brokeback Mountain” jokes to comments like “Queer surfers are kooks” to claims of “the media shoving gay culture down throat”, it was a bit of a dumpster fire. The conversation was nuanced, but the reactions from other surfers on social media were anything but. In the SURFER article, Milner opened up about his upbringing, feeling unable to come out to his surf friends, and why he thought it was important to challenge homophobia and toxic masculinity in surfing. Milner and I are having this conversation about a week after SURFER published an online interview about his book project. I didn’t have that for a very long time.”-Cori Schumacher “Part of my coming out process was finding worth in myself. “Even though I started making work based on surfing, surfers were never my intended audience,” says Milner, “because I knew I would get the reactions I’m getting now.” When Milner’s work started making its way into surfy circles, however, all bets were off. Edgy, sure, but no one is going to tear anything off a gallery wall in outrage. In the fine art world, this would be seen as pretty low-stakes stuff.
![famous gay men in hawaii famous gay men in hawaii](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Tglz4_clzHw/maxresdefault.jpg)
And most recently he created a book splicing up found photographs from old surf magazines and similarly beachy images from gay publications, creating a kind of alternative, queer visual surf history. He then made nude sculptures à la Michelangelo using Mr. It started with Milner painting Beach Boys lyrics with all the gender pronouns switched around. As a lifelong surfer from Long Island, New York, it was only a matter of time before his work exploring queer identity connected to his experience with surf culture. Sculpture, photography, video and installation. Milner holds a master’s degree in fine art from the University of Oregon, where he worked in “I’m thinking I’ll probably write ‘locals only’ on it,” Milner says, surely smirking under his mask.
![famous gay men in hawaii famous gay men in hawaii](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1200x800/public/d8/images/canvas/2021/05/26/21ece670-0a60-4421-acd7-d05f66e60acd_2c6b1180.jpg)
Where the sun should be, however, Milner’s cut a circle out of the wood and replaced it with, well, a glory hole. The wood’s surface is printed with a very-Instagrammable beach scene, the golden rays of a setting sun dancing off the surface of the water. I’d imagine the nervous laughter is a regular occurrence for the 29-year-old, given the provocative nature of his work, which explores themes like queer identity and toxic masculinity in a world not known to do so-the surf world.īetween us sits a large sheet of plywood resting on a pair of sawhorses. We’re masked up in typical pandemic fashion, standing in a hot San Diego garage that’s served as Milner’s studio this summer. Hopefully SURFER will one day return, in some form, but in the meantime please enjoy this feature from the final issue.Īrtist Stephen Milner is laughing nervously as we look upon his latest creation. Since that issue’s release, due to the impact of the pandemic on SURFER’s business, the staff has been furloughed indefinitely and all content production has been paused. This feature originally appeared in SURFER Volume 61, Number 3.