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Winter Olympics: Three Openly Gay Men Compete for a Spot on US Olympic Team

The number of publicly out American athletes is not so shocking considering the U.S. has been slow to pass laws that protect LGBTQ Americans

An openly gay man has never competed for the U.S. in a Winter Games, and it's been 14 years since one did in a Summer Games, NBC News reported. 

John Fennell is one of three publicly out male athletes competing to qualify for the Pyeongchang Games. He is joined by figure skater Adam Rippon and freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy, who came out publicly after winning the silver medal in Sochi in 2014, NBC News reported.

Fennell will find out in December if he makes the U.S. Olympic luge team, and Rippon and Kenworthy will know their 2018 Olympic status by January.

Since 2004, gay men from Great Britain, the Netherlands, Finland, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil and Tonga have competed, reported NBC News. 

The U.S. is not liberal as it seems when pushing for gay rights. For example, the U.S. enacted legislation in 2015 that allows same-sex couples to marry, but gay marriage has been widely accepted in several other countries — like Netherlands (2000), Belgium (2003), Spain (2005), Sweden (2009) and Argentina (2010) — for years now, reported NBC News.

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