Boxer Orlando Cruz buoyed by support since announcing he's gay

By Kevin Lole

Orlando Cruz will fight Orlando Salido in Las Vegas (Getty Images)

LAS VEGAS – A year ago, Orlando Cruz had come to something of a crossroads. A member of the 2000 Puerto Rican Olympic boxing team, he'd won his first 12 pro bouts and 18 of his first 21.

By all accounts, he was on a path to a world title. He wasn't a particularly big puncher, but he was smart in the ring. He had that sixth sense about when a punch was coming and how to get away from it. He was clever and cunning and had the ability to dictate the way a match unfolded.

Cruz, though, wasn't completely at ease.

 

Cruz will bring a 20-2-1 record with 10 knockouts into his fight with Salido (Getty Images) 

He is gay, and proudly so, and wanted to share the news with the world. Ever since he left the Olympics, there had been suspicions about his orientation. He knew it. He'd hear the gay slurs coming from a fight crowd, directed not only at him, but toward anyone they didn't believe was fearless enough, tough enough.

"Boxing is a macho sport, everyone yelling gay slurs all the time," he said.

He was through living a lie, trying to pretend he is someone other than who he is. He wanted to tell the world his secret, but it was hard to work up the nerve.

Here was a guy who is tough enough to stand across from the hardest-hitting fighters in his division and go toe-to-toe with them, fearful about what a bigoted, thoughtless person might shout from the safety of a crowd in a lame and cowardly attempt to demean him.

 Orlando Cruz Media Workout  (Getty Images) 

 "I was scared," said Cruz, who admitted he saw a psychologist in New York to help him work through his feelings. "I was worried about other boxers. I was worried about the fans. I would cry many, many nights thinking about it."

After the toughest fight of his life – the battle within him – he decided to finally break the secret. On Oct. 4, 2012, Cruz told the world what he had known for years, that he is gay. He became the first openly gay man in professional boxing, a sport not exactly overrun with people known for tolerance and understanding.

Since that announcement, Cruz has won back-to-back fights and he'll carry a 20-2-1 mark and 10 knockouts to the ring when he meets Orlando Salido for the vacant WBO featherweight belt Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center.

By speaking a few short words, a great burden was lifted from Cruz's shoulders. He proposed to his boyfriend, Jose Manuel, earlier this year on Facebook, and the couple is set to be married next month in New York.

Cruz's fear that he would become the target of angry boxing fans never materialized. The LGBT community embraced him, and on June 18 in Chicago, he was a part of the first class of the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame. He was inducted alongside such luminaries as tennis stars Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova, diver Greg Louganis and NBA player Jason Collins.

Salido, as tough and hard-nosed a competitor as there is in the game, essentially shrugged when asked about fighting an openly gay opponent.

Salido professed his respect for Cruz for having the courage to come out of the closet, but otherwise, saw little noteworthy about it.

"We are just two human beings fighting for a world title," Salido said.

Salido, of course, is correct. No one should have to hide who they are, to feel afraid to be themselves. There are people who say their religious beliefs forbid homosexuality, but thousands of people have given their lives for our right to be free and to make those personal choices. Those who disagree have a right to their opinion, but not a right to abuse, to hate, to mock.

It's not going to be a breeze for Cruz going forward, because there will always be someone who wants to impose his or her beliefs.

Cruz said on Monday, "I am a man. I am not a girl. I have to fight on Saturday night."

That's the kind of a statement made by someone who has endured years of abuse.

The good thing, though, is that there has been at least grudging acceptance. He's here to fight, and wasn't interested in talking at length about his personal life.

He praised Salido's ability and said he'd have to be "intelligent all the time, very smart, and give him [a lot of lateral] movement" in order to win.

He's probably always going to be the guy with the asterisk after his name: Orlando Cruz, first openly gay fighter. Still, there are encouraging signs.

Since his psychologist convinced him to speak freely, the hostility that Cruz was fearful of hasn't really been there.

"He made me feel better about it and that is how I made the decision to come out," Cruz said of his psychologist. "He made me ready. Since I made the announcement, I have been getting nothing but support. I am happy. I am free. I am comfortable.

"Everybody gives me support and respect. When I interview with a newspaper, I would just like to have respect. Now, when I walk into the ring, I feel I have the support of a lot of people [in the LGBT community], and it makes me very happy."

Josh Hutcherson Gets Candid About His Sexuality

Josh Hutcherson Gets Candid About His Sexuality

by Jeremy Blacklow                                                           

 

 

Josh Hutcherson certainly knows how to give a provocative interview. The young actor, who turns 21 on Saturday, gears up for all the hoopla surrounding the release of "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" (out November 22) — the second of four movies based on Suzanne Collins's best-selling book series — he's not holding back at all about who he is and his attitudes towards sexuality.

 

Josh Hutcherson (Nino Muñoz/OUT)

"I would probably list myself as mostly straight," he tells Out magazine in its November cover story. "Maybe I could say right now I'm 100 percent straight. But who knows? In a f---ing year, I could meet a guy and be like, 'Whoa, I'm attracted to this person … I've met guys all the time that I'm like, 'Damn, that's a good-looking guy,' you know? I've never been, like, 'Oh, I want to kiss that guy.' I really love women. But I think defining yourself as 100% anything is kind of near-sighted and close-minded."

Josh Hutcherson (Nino Muñoz/OUT)

He continues, "I have this dream that one day, my kid's gonna come home from school and be like, 'Dad, there's this girl that I like, and there's this guy that I like, and I don't know which one I like more, and I don't know what to do.' And it'd just be a non-issue, like, 'Which one is a good person? Which one makes you laugh more?'"

Josh Hutcherson (copied from PerezHilton.com)

The actor also explains how the AIDS-related deaths of his two gay uncles, Steve and Jamie, in the early '90s played a big role in shaping his progressive outlook on life. In fact, one of his uncles, Steve, died only one day after Josh's mom revealed to her brother that she was pregnant with Josh. "[My mom] was really sad that I never got to meet them," he notes. "I am, too — they sound amazing."

Sounds like they'd certainly be proud of the path their nephew's chosen to walk.

In the "Hunger Games" films, Josh plays Peeta Mellark, a baker's son from the impoverished District 12, who finds himself in an unconventional love triangle with heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth). In the movies, Peeta and 23 other "tributes" are forced to battle to the death in a game-like arena.

 

Josh Hutcherson (copied from Just Jared)

When asked if he thinks a threesome might be "a more expedient solution to at least some of Peeta's problems," he replies: "I know Peeta would be into it, for sure. He's very sensitive, in touch with his emotions. I think it really might solve a lot of their problems. You know what? I'm going to pitch that idea. Let's make it a — what's it called when three people are in a relationship together? A triad? … That'll go over well with Middle America."

Peeta sounds a lot like Josh. And despite what Middle America thinks, Hutcherson is extremely progressive in his views about equality, and has a strong history of activism in the gay community. In fact, he co-founded the group Straight But Not Narrow, which helps equip heterosexual-identified young people with the tools they need to fight homophobia.

"As soon as I got any ounce of notoriety to bring attention to any kind of issue, it was just an obvious choice," Hutcherson tells Out. "Look at any voting map, and even in a state that's completely red, if you look where a college is — young, educated people — it's blue, without fail. That's got to show that the next generation, and people who get an education, are less ignorant."

In 2012, Josh was presented with the Vanguard Award by GLAAD in recognition of his work, an honor that's given to a straight ally who fights for LGBT equality.

In his acceptance speech, he spoke about why he launched Straight But Not Narrow. "We wanted to create a place where straight people felt safe coming out and saying, 'It’s okay to be gay,'" he said. "And I didn't know one, so we decided we were going to make one and we have. It's gaining momentum and it means the world to me."