UKC

This week's Friday Night Video features leading adventure photographer and regular UKC contributor, Hamish Frost. The film explores the side of himself that he has kept hidden from the outdoor community, in a story of confidence and connection, and a reminder of the importance of diversity in the outdoors.

Read more

Just saw this on Hamish's Facebook feed with some lovely and thoughtful words about deciding to take part in the project on the 'wrong' side of the camera. 

A lovely little film, some super Scottish winter footage and a really interesting and ultimately positive message.

Such a beautiful film, nice one to all involved.

I'm not trying to derail the topic of the feature but can we stop for a minute and appreciate what a flipping good winter climber he is! The rest of the video was very good too but yes I got distracted by that bit of Scottish winter goodness.

Top film, top climber and top bloke in general , 

Can't help wonder if things would have turned out differently for others if the openness and acceptance we have in our community had been as visible a few years ago, thinking dave pegg as an example? 

My perception is that the outdoor community with its love of quiet and beautiful places might seem an 'easier', more welcoming environment than a rugby team which seems almost the definition of macho. But it's heartening that it appears he didn't/hasn't received much negativity in either environment.

Touching & heartwarming. Thank you to Hamish & the filmmakers 

Thanks Hamish - love it.

Great little film, really enjoyed watching that.  Well done.

Well Hamish talks in the film about almost becoming almost 're-closeted' when he first started to try and make a living in the outdoor sports world, and there being few or no openly gay people in that space. Great that he found he didn't have to hide that part of himself as his career progressed, but I can well understand why he might have felt that at first.

Since 2020 and the discussions on inclusion in climbing/mountaineering/outdoors after the George Floyd murder, focusing on ethnic, religious and national minorities, plenty of people from those backgrounds have said much the same - that climbing wasn't obviously welcoming or inclusive because the lack of people who look like them in some way. Basically all the people I've met through 3 decades of climbing have been pretty open-minded tolerant woolly liberal types, but the majority of them have also been white men, and mainly although not solely, straight white men. So even if we are all guardian-reading tofu-eating wokerati - someone who is Black, Muslim, Queer or even just female isn't going to know that automatically. My best mate and first main climbing partner is gay but didn't come out until his early 20s after uni - he wasn't worried about what his close friends thought, we sort of knew, but more generally. I have other climbing friends who don't discuss their religious beliefs openly because they fear the reaction.

Yeah - I know nothing about rugby, but I wonder if it is any more welcoming to Queer folk than football is (or at least has been until very very recently)?

Great words, well spoken.

Climbing is pretty good too  

Great film, thanks all for this film, the more we are open about sexuality and gender the better for the next generations of outdoor lovers 

Brilliant Hamish!  You've had quite a journey and been very honest here, and this film will give hope and happiness to many I'm sure.

Wow, great film.

Thanks everyone for the kind words, it really means a lot. To address some of what you’ve talked about and go into a bit more detail.

With regards to the rugby world, I personally found it to be a similarly welcoming/accepting place to the outdoors world, but I went on a similar journey to the one that I’ve been on more recently in the outdoors world. Again I had the same trepidation and fear about coming out to my friends there and almost felt that I had to prove my character and myself as a person before I felt comfortable coming out. This was entirely down to the anxieties and insecurities in my own head, rather than the behaviours of the people around me though. It’s common amongst people who are queer that when you’re growing up you learn to believe that you’re lesser in some way and therefore have to go above and beyond to prove your worth to others in order to be seen as an equal. This is something that gets ingrained and is hard to get rid of. It explains why perfectionism and a sometimes unhealthy work ethic are common behaviours amongst LGBTQ people. For me personally I don’t think this has been too extreme, and in some ways has been a positive thing as it’s led me to work hard at the things I’ve applied myself to in life (my photography is probably a good example!). There’s a really good book called ‘Straight Jacket’ by Matthew Todd which goes into more detail about this and helped me to understand a lot of my own behaviours and how I’ve formed as a person.

I’m not going to lie, at the start of this project (nearly 2.5 years ago now!) the prospect of ‘coming out’ in a very public way like this was absolutely terrifying. I knew that I wanted my friends in the outdoors world to hear about my sexuality from me personally, rather than from a film, so I knew that it was going to involve a lot of conversations which were always going to be slightly intimidating and fairly emotionally exhausting (even though I expected the reception would always be a positive one). After a lot of thought, I realised that potential for this doing a lot of good vastly outweighed these fears though. The main motivations for doing the film were twofold really.  Firstly that one of the reasons I was perhaps hesitant to be open about my sexuality, were because of the lack of other queer people I knew within my own social spheres in the outdoors world. I thought that if I could be that visibly queer person for someone else, then that’s a positive thing I can do. Secondly, I hoped that this film would help normalise conversations about differences in sexuality in the UK outdoors community, which on a micro level might create the space and opportunity for someone to feel comfortable coming out to their own pals. This is something I’ve seen happen already within my own circles of friends during the buildup to the film, so I’m feeling pretty positive about this one

As it was, all the coming out conversations I had with friends in the last year or so were overwhelmingly positive and I feel lucky to be surrounded by such a brilliant group of friends in the community. I’m now happier and more at ease with myself than I think I’ve ever been, which has been a nice side result from the whole thing. The film is also now out, seems to be being really well received, and I hope is going to do a lot of good!