Pro Snowboarder Tanner Pendleton Comes Out as Gay

Pro snowboarder and film director Tanner Pendelton came out as gay in an exclusive interview for Torment magazine timed for Pride.

“For me, ever since I was really young, I knew,” Pendleton told his close personal friend Java Fernandez who interviewed him. “But it was something that the world told me was bad—so I kept it bottled up in a way, you know?”

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Pendleton says, “I first knew when I was really young. I can think back really far and remember being like, ‘Oh shit, I think I’m gay.’ To be honest, it was a confusing road, and not everything is black and white, in my opinion. I also think there’s a difference between knowing that you’re gay and accepting that you’re gay. For me, ever since I was really young, I knew. But it was something that the world told me was bad—so I kept it bottled up in a way, you know? It honestly wasn’t until maybe five years ago that I was like, ‘Okay, yeah, this is me and I’m gay.’  Almost as if I needed to come out to myself first and foremost.”

Read the full interview here.