San Francisco Bay artist, Jeffrey Cheung who is also known as a master of zines, established Unity Skateboarding in February 2017. Southern California surfers changed the rules of skateboarding ultimately in the 1970s by moving the sport’s focus from its more technical competition routine components, to skating in empty pools. This move made by what is known as the Z-Boys, specifically Tony Alva, Jay Adams, and Stacey Peralta, created the framework for the modern skate mentality. This new mentality makes room for community and individualism in chorus and proudly creates a non-conformist platform. It is surprising that despite the fact that skating’s spirit has been rooted in inclusivity, no professional skateboarders were openly queer up until quite recently with the coming out of pro skateboarder, Brian Anderson.
Brian Anderson, named Thrasher’s Skater of the Year, came out publicly in September 2016 in a Vice Sports video, discussing skate culture’s history of homophobia with openness and compassion. The public release of the video met with an outburst of support. Unity Skateboards, the new California-based company, is therefore another important step in fostering inclusivity and ease the marginalization that is still, a reality for the queer community today.
Cheung, who has lived and skated in the California area all his life, created the face of Unity by hand painting naked bodies of various sizes and skin tones in loving embraces on skate decks. These decks featuring boobs, butts, hugs, and words like “Unity: together as one”, display the all-embracing nature and proud queer ethos that Unity has at heart.
Stating that the idea to start his own queer skate company came into actualization when he started skating with other gay skaters for the first time, Cheung had initially hoped to start a skate crew. Cheung realized that they knew many queer skateboarders and decided to start hand-painting boards and the company grew from there. Brian Anderson’s officially coming out and female skate companies also inspired Cheung to mold Unity.
“I thought about myself when I was a teenager — that it would have been so life changing for me if there was a queer skate company with gay skaters. It would have been reaffirming of who I was during a very confusing and challenging time, and I feel that is the same for most queer teenagers. So that is what I hope Unity Skateboards will be for queer youth and queer people out there: an encouraging and positive force.’’ – Cheung stated in an interview with Vice earlier this year.
The idea behind Unity was to promote queer pride in skateboarding, and to prioritize queer skaters. By making Unity an all-inclusive project, Cheung hopes that it will play a part in the breaking down of barriers.
“I am very happy to see that Brian Anderson has received a tremendous amount of support since coming out. I think that makes a big difference in the skate world and especially for queer teens coming out today. It’s funny that skateboarding — which is something that stemmed from going against the mainstream — can also be so much a part of that same heteronormative culture. Unfortunately, there are a lot of ignorant and close-minded people out there, but I have faith in the momentum that is happening and am appreciative of that. I know I can’t be the only one who is inspired to do something like this; there must be many other queer skate projects in the works right now, and I hope the future of skateboarding will be more accessible for women and queer people of color.” – Cheung tells Vice in an interview.
Cheung aspires to combat homophobia, sexism and racism with Unity while creating a space for queer youth to feel included and proud of who they are.