So, who is Leo Baker? HollywoodLife has rounded up five key things to know about the pro skateboarder below.
Leo Baker (Photo: Courtesy of Netflix) Leo started skateboarding at a very young age.
Leo, who was born female with the name Lacey Baker, got into skateboarding when he was around two or three years old. He said in an interview with Time , “For a brief period I was in foster care, and my two foster brothers had a mini ramp in their backyard. I’d stand out there and watch them skate. I got a board shortly thereafter and have been skating ever since.”
Leo realized he was transgender at 19 years old.
As the years went on, and Leo became a huge force in the skateboarding world, he began to question his gender identity. At 19 years old, he realized he was transgender, thought he didn’t transition for another ten years. “It was two different worlds, and for a decade, my life was splintered as I was trying to figure out what I was doing,” he told Time . Leo identified as non-binary and used they/them pronouns for some time. He now uses he/him pronouns.
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Leo quit the Olympics.
Leo was a member of the U.S. Women’s Olympic Skateboarding Team heading into the 2020 Summer Olympics, which were delayed by one year due to the pandemic. In February 2020, Leo quit the team and officially changed his name to begin transitioning. “It was a big fear that I was going to lose everything that I’ve worked literally my whole life for,” Leo recalled of his life-changing decision in the Time interview. “It’s a scary thing to embark on, though in my circle of family and close friends, everyone has always been supportive.”
Also in the interview, Leo explained that he “doesn’t identify” with any gender. “All of it feels so foreign. I’m not a woman, and if you take the ‘standard’ definition of what a man is, I’m definitely not that,” he said. “I’m floating around in space somewhere between the two.”
Leo Baker (Photo: Courtesy of Netflix) Leo has a queer skateboarding company.
Since transitioning, Leo helped create the queer skateboarding company Glue with Steve Ostrowski . The company will be highlighted in the Netflix documentary. Leo gushed over Glue in an interview with Them.com . “I love the company so much. Steve and I are having a really great time with it and doing graphics and just having the overall goal of creating resources for skaters like us, who are just unique and dope but don’t fit these traditional molds.”
Leo has high hopes for the Netflix doc.
Leo is really putting his whole life out there for the world to see. But he’s proud of the documentary and hopes that the major takeaway for viewers is to “listen to the children” when they’re going through something at a young age. “The kids know what they want. Let them be,” he told Time .
Source : https://hollywoodlife.com/feature/who-is-leo-baker-4813909/
