Chris Cheng, winner of The History Channel's Top Shot ( Season 4 ), revealed Tuesday, Dec. 17, on his blog that he is gay. Cheng and partner Nate Smith have been together for almost five years and their families will be together for Christmas, just as they are annually for Thanksgiving. Cheng has participated three times, including in 2013, in the annual AIDS LifeCycle bicycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Opera BRAVO! Club and is a volunteer baritone singer for the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. Cheng also is a co-founder of Home For A Home, a nonprofit organization that builds homes for the needy. Cheng spoke with Windy City Times reporter Ross Forman for his first newspaper interview since coming-out.
Chris Cheng was the "gay guy applying for a shooting competition" when he auditioned two years ago to appear on The History Channel's Top Shot ( season 4 ). That was part of his persona, no doubt a hot button.
But the gay card was never played.
"The entire cast of Top Shot knew that I was gay, and there were plenty of recorded discussions about [my sexual-orientation]," Cheng said. "The interesting thing was, it really was a non-issue for the other marksmen on the cast. The History Channel never aired any of that footage because, and this is the quote that they gave me: 'It never became relevant.'
"The uniform response that I got from everyone [associated with the TV show] was, 'Chris, we don't care that you're gay; this is a shooting competition; we want to see how well you shoot.'"
Cheng admits he was "caught off guard" by that response. "I was expecting much more of a fight, so to speak," he said.
The finale for Cheng's season on Top Shotwhen he learned he was the champion, winner of a $100,000 cash prize and a professional marksman contract with the show's sponsor, Bass Pro Shopsaired in May, 2012.
Cheng was the winner, not the gay winner.
"For the past year and a half, I have learned how very tolerant the gun community is with respects to LGBT rights and the LGBT community," Cheng said. "There are a ton of gun owners who are supportive [of the gay community], and many gun people don't care about [other's sexual orientation.]"
Cheng admits he was surprised he was not outed on Top Shot.
Cheng came out Dec. 17, posting on his blog under the headline: I'm Gay for Guns.
"What prompted [Tuesday's] announcement was, now that I've spent a year and a half in the gun community, and am a mini-celebrity in the gun world, I keep thinking, 'What do I want my place to be in the gun community?'" Cheng said. "I'm very interested in diversity in the gun industry and the gun community. The interesting thing is, the diversity is already there, but we just don't have a lot of outdoor media people talking about it. So that's where I saw an opportunity to shine this light on diversity in the gun community, that gun owners are not just this stereotypical white, redneck, bigoted gun owner."
Showcasing diversity, particularly in the gun community, is Cheng's drive.
On his coming-out blog, Cheng thanked many, including the National Rifle Association and the National Shooting Sports Foundation, "who are supportive of my decision as they recognize the diverse perspective I bring to the conversation about the safe and responsible use of firearms," he wrote.
Cheng said he has received 60 percent positive/supportive responses to his coming-out, while 5 percent have been negative, "which I think is to be expected and I'm not really caught off-guard by that." He said that the remaining 35 percent have had a "So what, who cares, why is this an issue," attitude. "I think that's actually a great response," he said.
"Overall, it has been a supportive, accepting and tolerant response. There is much more support for gay rights in the gun community than one may think."
Such that, a gun friend of Cheng's who quickly came to his support. The man lives in the Deep South, is white, and married with kids, Cheng said. The two have shot together for two days, and he didn't know that Cheng was gay at the time.
"I wasn't expecting to receive a positive response [from him], but he has been very, very supportive," Cheng said. "He gets it, that this is about breaking stereotypes."
Cheng comes from a diverse background. His dad, Benjamin, is Chinese-American; his mom, Maggie, Japanese-Cuban. Cheng said his parents were "a little hesitant and concerned" about his coming-out blog, though they have known he is gay since 2008.
Benjamin asked his son, "Why do you need to do this? Why is it important for you to come out?'"
Cheng replied: "This is important because gay people are a marginalized group [so] we have to be vocal and visible if we want to have an impact in the world."
After all, Cheng admits he definitely want to be a role-model to others in the LGBT community.
"Coming-out is not easy. You may lose friends or family members; that is the reality; it can happen," he said. "But coming-out has been nothing but a very good experience for me."
Cheng, 34, came out to friends at age 19 while attending UCLA. He graduated in 2003, and worked for Google, Inc., from 2007-2012, primarily in technical support.
He came out to his parents in 2008 at a pizza restaurant in San Francisco.
"Like a lot of gay people, I ran this narrative through my head, [including] how I'm going to do it, what I'm going to say, and how I'll respond to any reaction they may have. It was like I had a contingency plan for anything," Cheng said.
Today, his parents are "totally fine" with his sexual-orientation, he said. "Things are at a great place with my folks."
Cheng and Nate Smith, 29, the CEO and co-founder of a start-up company in the Silicon Valley in the software industry, have been together for almost five years. They met at Google.
"The impact I want to have [for the gay community] is to just show people that you can be yourself, and if you want to do something, just go do it," Cheng said. "If I'm at any way able to put people at ease, help them be themselves, be who they are, that's great, definitely something I hope I can do."
Cheng tours the country for Bass Pro Shops, competes in various shooting competitions, and works with the NRA and others to promote the sport of shooting.
He is writing a book, titled Shoot To Win, due out next July, and developing a gun-focused TV show for 2014.
"I love what I do for my job. I'm living the American dream, doing stuff that people often only dream about," Cheng said. "I have a lot of fun competing, demonstrating weapons, and just learning as much as I can about the shooting community.
"I never envisioned this is where my life would be. While at UCLA, I was debating whether to be an engineer, working for Apple or Google. Then, I envisioned working in government, either for the government or for an elected official.
"Even five years ago, if someone had said, 'Chris, you are going to have a career in the gun industry,' I would have said, 'No way; that just doesn't make any sense.'"
But Cheng has shined in the gun community, a self-taught marksman who never was in the military or with law enforcement experience.
Cheng has participated in the annual seven-day, 545-mile AIDS LifeCycle three timesin 2009, 2010 and 2013.
"It truly is a wonderful event," Cheng said. "You are around LGBT people, and supporters, for a week, and it really is a warm, open, loving and accepting community.
"The impact of the week is really all about seeing [participants] from areas that are not as gay-friendly as San Francisco. It's a very emotional experience. I would love to do it again in 2014, but the challenge is, my schedule. I absolutely will do the ALC again, just not sure if it will be in 2014."