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Brian Anderson made skateboarding history as the most visible pro skateboarder to come out as gay.

Anderson speaks freely in the interview with Vice Sports and also addressed serious issues, including how hearing sexual slurs in conversation frequently throughout his youth made him afraid to talk about his sexuality.

He said: “I never thought I would sit here and talk about being gay on camera, but I wanted to. I think about how I felt when I was younger, totally scared—a lot of these kids don’t have hope…To hear what I went through and how everything got better for me and how I felt a lot happier and felt more free and didn’t have all this shame buried inside my body…to convey that message was really important to me.”

As the winner of Thrasher Magazine’s 1999 “Skater of the Year” award and a 1999 World Cup Skateboarding street title, Anderson’s credentials in the world of skateboarding are undisputable.

Despite there being only a handful of openly LGBT people in the professional skateboarding world, Anderson has been embraced by the community.

He spoke about his sexuality in the latest installment of Vice Sports’ Reda for the World with Giovanni Reda.

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