Harrison Wilkerson gravitated to athletics as a young age. He loved gymnastics, and eventually started playing soccer and football.
But while he found acceptance as part of his high school football team, there was something that separated him from the pack.
“Deep down I knew I was gay, and there was nothing I could do about it.
“I wanted so badly to be straight, but I knew there was no more denying who I was,” he wrote in a 2015 first-person piece for OutSports.
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He decided to come out, and while friends and family supported him, the football team was another story.
“I was ran off the road as homophobic slurs were shouted from the passing cars’ window,” he shared.
But as is often the case, college has been an opportunity for Wilderson to embrace his passion, which led him back to gymnastics when he decided to try out for the cheerleading team.
“While there is still much progress to be made in this region of the country, thankfully I haven’t encountered any of the hate that once had caused me so much inner turmoil,” he writes in an updated OutSports post.
“Not once have I been made to feel uncomfortable because of my sexuality,” he says.
“I like how much trust cheerleading requires of each team member,” Wilkerson adds to GSN.
“It really creates a closeness with each team member unlike any other sport I have played before.”
“Learning to be me – totally, openly, for the world to see – has been one of the most freeing revelations of my life, and I am thankful for every day I’m able to just be me.”
Kieran
A picture is worth a thousand words……if they come with some labeling. The problem with your pictures is we have no idea who these pictures are of.
Chevelter
So true. So annoying. Are these pictures of generic people/couples or is the guy in the story in them somewhere?
Knight
Chev nah…these are just random stock photos of hot white gay guys (with a random POC thrown in ever third pic to show inclusiveness).
demetreus
@Knight A random POC to throw in a picture for “inclusiveness” that is missing is Mexican. Seeing as you clearly are of that decent, why don’t you ask Queerty if they could feature people like yourself in stories? That way, you won’t feel the need to represent (or mis-represent, as you always do) any other nationalities but your own.
Bryguyf69
I agree that Queerty had an annoying habit of using generic pretty boy photos to illustrate a point. But in this case, the photo choice was appropriate since the Pack cheerleading photo from Harrison Wilkerson’s Instagram. GSN used the same photo, but unlike Queerty, they had the journalistic ethics to caption and credit the photo to its source. Both GSN and OutSports also used a headshot which Queerty curiously decided not to use. Check out GSN in the first link for a very provocative photo of him in a chair…
https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/gay-footballer-turned-cheerleader-openly-gay-north-carolina-comes-struggles/#gs.9nDY6mU
https://www.outsports.com/2015/10/27/9589858/gay-football-harrison-wilkerson-north-carolina
JaredMacBride
Queerty can’t be bothered to do the hard stuff like identify photos, but for the record Wilkerson (also called Wilderson in this very well-edited piece) is the guy on the left in bed and on the top in the cheerleader photo.
marc sfe
Seriously? That’s what you took out of the article? I feel sorry for you.
charlie_jackpot
Who takes these pictures of Instagram couples?
startenout
Wow. You’re just as horrendous as any other homophobe.
PinkoOfTheGange
Good for him that he found a great place for himself.
Evji108
That cheerleader is resting her head on his boner.
Shirley Marquez
Cheerleaders have a lot of physical contact with each other, sometimes in places that would be considered intimate in other contexts. It’s in the nature of the routines they do. They have to be comfortable with that. This group looks like everyone is comfortable in the presence of the others, which is how a good cheer squad should be.
andreasmahlhaus
disgusting
Daniel-Reader
Good for him for finding something he enjoys doing.
Coreydnyc
*YAWN
Steve
Hate to cause an argument here but everyone says negative things about Queerty but if any of you lazy individuals did a google image search for Harrison you can confirm the image is him rather then stock pieces.
Bryguyf69
Er, it’s not about the reader being lazy. This is about journalistic ethics where the writer should caption and give credit to the photos’ source. In this case, the “laziness” is on the writer, not the reader. Simple. Furthermore, Queerty had a history of using stock images. Duh!
Bryguyf69
I agree that Queerty had an annoying habit of using generic pretty boy photos to illustrate a point. But in this case, the photo choice was appropriate since the Pack cheerleading photo from Harrison Wilkerson’s Instagram. GSN used the same photo, but unlike Queerty, they had the journalistic ethics to caption and credit the photo to its source. Both GSN and OutSports also used a headshot which Queerty curiously decided not to use. Check out GSN in the first link for a very provocative photo of him in a chair…
https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/gay-footballer-turned-cheerleader-openly-gay-north-carolina-comes-struggles/#gs.9nDY6mU
https://www.outsports.com/2015/10/27/9589858/gay-football-harrison-wilkerson-north-carolina
natosio
Whoa, guys, let’s all calm down. Queerty did drop the ball by skipping the captioning, but still, both pictures are taken from Harrison Wilkerson’s own Instagram page. Of the bedroom couple, he’s the guy on the left; of the four cheerleaders, he’s at the top of the photo.