Forrest Kirby was a fixture of 2000’s skateboarding, riding for Zoo York at the height of its popularity, starring in Josh Stewart’s original Static video, and even directing his own—F.O.R.E. and Friends. He had a trick for seemingly any spot, as he demonstrated by skating a good majority of the world’s spots in Zoo York’s epic world tour video, City of Killers, and I always saw him as a true skater’s skater. Stylish, solid, and super productive.
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WEARING PINK SHIRTS IS SO GAY, BUT THATS OK BECAUSE SO AM I. 🌸 #gayskateboarder
He was the skater’s skater, of course, but he was also gay. For the vast majority of his pro career, the former was predicated on no one knowing about the latter. One of Kirby’s fellow Miamians, Birdhouse am Tim Von Werne, who was also gay, was pretty much shown the door by pro skateboarding when he talked about it in a never-printed Skateboarder magazine interview. While most women were just straight up excluded from professional skateboarding, gay men were faced with a choice: Pass and go pro, or come out and watch the dream die?
I, for one, am glad Kirby chose the way he did, having grown up on his footage. But it’s also maddening that he had to. His coming out post—a selfie of him in a pink t-shirt—is captioned, “WEARING PINK SHIRTS IS SO GAY, BUT THATS OK BECAUSE SO AM I.” Would that it were okay for him to have been out the whole time, sensible brown pants, company logo shirts, waist-high switch back tails and all.
But then, skateboarding has only very recently come around to the idea that its favorite dudes might be into dudes. Brian Anderson’s groundbreaking revelation in 2016 that he was gay blew apart a lot of skateboarding’s preconceived notions about gayness and masculinity. That said, when I caught up with Kirby—now officially the second gay pro—to talk about his own announcement, I was reminded how deeply ingrained those notions were, and for how long. That skateboarding’s homophobia is something that is collectively, culturally enforced, and that it announcement, I was reminded how deeply ingrained those notions were, and for how long. That skateboarding’s homophobia is something that is collectively, culturally enforced, and that it has had a profound effect on the skaters living under it.
Words: Tobias Coughlin-Bogue
Featured Image: Ian O’Connor
Are you skating much these days?
Well, I haven’t been skating for maybe the past year. I’d injured my knee and my shoulder.
Did you tear one of the ligaments?
I actually thought I tore my ACL, but it turned out that I just pulled some ligaments and nothing got torn.
That’s extremely good news for skateboarding!
But it took a long time to heal for some reason. Just the way I fell. I had no strength in my leg at all. But I started doing physical therapy just on my own. I’ve had so many injuries that I kind of know what to do, y’know?
That makes sense, after a lifetime of skateboarding. So what prompted you to come out now, then? Because it’s a pretty big deal for the skateboarding world, but it seems like now is a time where you’re less connected with that world.
It’s weird because I had come out to some close friends back in probably 2006 or 2005.
Wow, so right at the height of when you were skating a lot and getting a ton of coverage?
Yes, pretty much. I was just kind of lying to close people and basically one of my friends called me out and was like, Hey, dude, do you just hate me or not like me anymore? What’s going on? He just knew something was going on.
“Okay, let’s put a rainbow on this shit”
Things were strained between you?
I was dating someone, so I was being super secretive about that and just kind of disconnecting. Y’know, not hanging out as much or going out on skate missions.
Because you just wanted to avoid ever having to discuss your boyfriend?
It was like, Oh, I’m hanging out with my “friend.” And it just got to the point where I had to tell Ed [Selego].
So Ed Selego was the first person in skateboarding that you told!? What was his reaction?
He was like, No way, dude! I’ve seen you with chicks. Kind of to, like, talk me out of it? [laughing] I was like, Yeah, yeah, dude, I’m pretty sure.
Ha! When did you know? Were you already in skate culture when you figured it out?
I want to say I’ve known since I was four or five.
What’s interesting to me is that you’ve never presented differently than other skaters. I always thought of you as one of the most “skater’s skater” type of dudes, and you were just putting out so much solid footage. I felt like you were very much a part of the “core” of skateboarding. Was there ever a disconnect between, like, I am a gay man and being part of a subculture that was very, very macho?
Yeah, I mean, the more footage and photos and coverage and kind of being upped to whoever you want to compare me to, I almost got a social anxiety where I wanted to disconnect from that. And I moved as far away from the industry as you probably can move in America, which is Miami. It was like, I’m gonna go hide here and do my thing and be myself.
But then in Miami you put out the Welcome to MIA part, which is incredible. And you were still riding for Zoo York, which was one of the most core, tough guy brands. I guess, I was just very surprised by your Instagram post. Even in the current climate.
I was actually really surprised by it! I had no intention of even doing that. I was at my sister’s house that day and I was hanging out with my 4-year-old nephew. I shot that selfie and I was trying to think of a caption to put on it.
Because you’re wearing the pink shirt?
Yeah. I don’t think I’d posted anything for awhile before that. I was just kind of not really Instagramming a lot. Anyway, I was about to cook them dinner, my sister’s family, and that 
It’s okay if you get a boner, you can talk to your therapist about that!
[Laughing] Go talk to your wife!
But it did make people uncomfortable to see you in that kind of sexualized light, basically?
I think so. And even a couple of older heads, skaters that are in the industry, they’ll comment and just say something about it.
Like, telling you that you should post more skate photos?
I don’t always post something without clothes on, but, like, someone called me a thot. It was a pro skater that said that to me. I just responded like, Oh thanks.
Do they know what it stands for? That’s not exactly a compliment!
I mean some of the shit I post can be kind of thirsty I guess, but…
But think about how long you weren’t allowed to celebrate your sexuality for? Whereas we had Hookups boards and shit like that forever. I think you should make up for lost time!
Believe me I’m going to! I’m doing my best. But I have to be tasteful because I have family on there too.
What’s next in skateboarding for you? After you recover?
I’ve been working on that. There’s a few opportunities that have presented themselves, and I’m working on doing something that would be helpful to the gay community. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be with skating, but it could be through skating. I’m still trying to figure it out. I have a few people that are gay that are younger, that are battling with what to do and how to tell their parents asking me how I told my parents and how I told my family.
Just people DMing you?
Yeah. When I did the post, you know how on your direct messages—say I direct message you and because I’ve never direct messaged you, you have to accept it—I didn’t know about that feature. I was like, What the hell is this? It was, like, 400 DMs. I clicked it and just started going through them. Reading all this stuff from people that I didn’t know. My followers doubled after that posting. So I went through all these messages and it’s a lot of people saying congratulations or people who didn’t want to hit me up in the comments, friends I hadn’t talked to in a long time, and then just kids. With a whole paragraph of what they’re going through. Like, Where I live, you can’t be gay or whatever they’re going through. Crazy shit.
Well, if you wanted to do something to help the gay community, maybe that’s it?
Someone was like, you can’t respond to all the DMs. Don’t respond to them. I was like, Why would I do that? I’d read it and be feeling some kind of way from whatever they said, and I would respond to them. I’m not, like, penpal-ing all of these people, but just trying to help out by responding. It was cool to be able to do that.
