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| Warwick Rower Tristen, my friend Mike & I |
I never thought I would get to interview 3 hot, straight college guys about how
they get naked to stop homophobia! Last week three of the Warwick Rowers
visited NYC to celebrate the British issue of OutThere/Travel Magazine – and I
had the chance to ask them about their work to end homophobia in sports as well
as taboos about being naked.
These sweet, hunky boys with incredibly sexy
accents sat with me for a few minutes at the exquisite Marmara Hotel and
exposed a lot about who they are (everyone has already seen everything else).
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Even though the boys are (still apparently) not gay, I started
off by asking asked each of them what they thought might be their favorite gay
destination:
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| Warwick Rowers pose for OutThere/Travel Mag |
Tristen: I went to West
Hollywood last year (promoting our calendar) and that was amazing fun so much
going on, really a great time. But I also want to plug home, Cornwall, England
– big beautiful touristy area [the southwestern tip of the UK].
Lucas: Mykonos – is
quite nice – a pretty high standard place – you’ve got quite a good mix of gay
culture and more global culture.
What I quite like about LGBT+ people is they do like to party more than we do and I’ve been to gay clubs not only in Mykonos but in Melbourne and London.
The atmosphere is crazy; I really like it. I don’t
go [to places like that] all the time but it’s always a great experience.
Also, Australia is an amazing place to travel to I’ve lived
there for a year and went back since and it’s just beautiful.
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| Warwick Rowers & Austin, Frank & Alex! |
Tristen: It’s more of
a big deal in England then the rest of Europe. We had members of the club come
over from Germany and France we’ll go for a sauna session and they will come in
without wearing anything! We have to tell them, that’s not the rules here.
I wouldn’t say that the UK is that open to nudity.
For example when we went to Spain, we took off our clothes and started running on the beach – and people applauded us.
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| How big? Warwick Rowers interview continues... |
Lucas [who’s French]:
Coming from France, it’s totally true – when we went to Spain to shoot and
guys were like whoa: Those girls are
topless. I [said] ‘its not that big a deal get over it.’
Tristen: Any country
in Europe is quite more relaxed than Britain is UK – Where the US gets it is
from the UK – it is the “proper side” of the monarchy. We’re very apologetic as
a culture.
Also, that’s why it does work pretty well; the naked
calendar is not something common – people really like it people like the fact
that you have a bunch of university students out there who are comfortable
[being naked] and it works very well.
Question 3: How do
your parents feel about you doing it?
Tristen: My mom loves
it, at the beginning she was not so thrilled
about it. I also told her the documentary which she thought was going a bit too
far but now she gets it and really appreciates what we are doing.
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| Warwick Rowers - clothed version at the Marmara Hotel |
Lucas: My dad [tells me] it’s a great cause, it’s with your mates [friends]; just do it – if u don’t do it now then you won’t do it.
Tristen: His mom sends me emails – she entered a contest we
held!
William: My parents
both love it, they are really supportive and really proud of me Grandparents
find it a little – bit – too much. Grandma doesn’t quite want to see it!
Tristen: We originally
started the calendar to fund our club. We needed to find a way to make some
money – it didn’t really work initially – but when it did we realized that’s
where it was from (the LGBT community).
We found out we were gaining from the gay community – so we wanted give back to the community who has helped us so much.
We started up a foundation and our own organization Sport
Allies; it’s really started to shape the values and the ethos of our club.
Question 4: What do you think is different about sports in
the UK and in the US?
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| GAYography Interviews the Warwick Rowers at the Marmara |
With Sport Allies – we want to get to a place in the world where sport is a the beacon of promoting diversity in life.
With sports allies we can get to a place where that’s not a big deal anymore.
It’s a world culture problem – specifically in it’s in team sports. It’s easier to come out in individual sports and there are a lot of professional athletes that come out only after they retire.
Question 5: Are their
many gay members of the club?
Tristen: Not many but
some – not more than in the general population; a few have been in the calendar
in previous years.
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| Warwick Rowers & the OutRight Action gang! |
Being involved with the project makes people feel like that
being inclusive is important.
Question 6: What does
does the rowing universe look like in the UK?
Tristen: All the big universities have clubs, about 30-40. It is seen
as an elite sport – I would say at Warwick it’s less so because of the
calendar, we made it accessible so it’s not as expensive for people who want to
participate.
Question 7: How has
being involved in the calendar changed your life?
Lucas: As a student
the calendar it’s made me realize that it’s a big problem – if you’re not gay
then you don’t especially feel it or witness it. Getting the support and
messages made me realize that nudity is not the big a deal. Now I probably get
naked a lot more.
My parents noticed that I was a lot more naked around the house when I was home.
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| Austin & I look so small! |
A special thanks to Austin Cartagena, one of our great interns at OutRight Action International who assisted with photography and had the best (final) question
for the crew!
Don't forget to follow Tristen, Lucas & Will and the Warwick Rowers on Instagram and...
