Out in the Line-Up

Gr 9 Up—In step with the broadening acceptance of LGBTQ people in society as a whole, more and more professional athletes have been coming out and living their lives openly. After the coming out of Jason Collins and Michael Sam, the idea of a gay athlete seems less and less unusual. One sport where such progress has not been made is the territorial world of professional surfing. This documentary explores this often-overlooked group of athletes, many of whom are isolated. As the husband of a surfer, former U.S. Representative Barney Frank (MA) draws the analogy that when someone visits a new town and goes to a park to play tennis, most other tennis players do not try to drive the visitor off the court and away from "their" part of a public space. Not so with surfers, who often shun outsiders and anyone who does not conform to expected norms of gender behavior. Those who do stray from these norms are sometimes subjected to anti-gay slurs from their fellow surfers, language that may prevent this film from being shown to general or younger audiences. Also requiring a more mature outlook is the inclusion of footage from the Mardi Gras parade in Sydney, an event in which many participants wear very little clothing.