The figure-skating world is still in the closet:
To outsiders, men’s figure skating is widely perceived as the Gayest Sport Ever, the butt of endless jokes – consider last weekend’s SNL cold open about the “US Men’s Heterosexual Figure Skating Team.” The direct action group Queer Nation has recently protested figure skaters Brian Boitano and Johnny Weir for not speaking up against Russia’s anti-gay laws. One of the group’s representatives, who asked to not be named, tells me, “Everyone assumes all male skaters are gay. So what? … I don’t understand this impulse, particularly from figure skaters, to hide their sexuality. You can’t tell me that if Jeremy Abbott came out as gay that it would affect his standing in the skating world.”
To insiders, though, it’s no surprise that skaters are reluctant to speak out on LGBT rights, let alone come out themselves. Most male skaters and officials are committed to keeping their sport in the closet, whether that means choosing “masculine” music, hinting about a girlfriend, or outright denying any connection to homosexuality. A figure skater can never quite outskate the judges’ opinion of him, and judges and institutions, it turns out, are notoriously conservative –as some would say, “family-friendly.” At the National Championships, which took place this January in Boston, a phrase I heard often was “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Or as a former Olympic judge puts it:
You can’t get ahead in figure skating if you don’t play the politics. It’s the most ironic sport. It truly is probably the gayest sport, and yet it’s right up there as the most homophobic sport.
Consider the case of Johnny Weir in 2010 (seen above):
The media’s treatment of Weir, who somewhat controversially took sixth place at the Vancouver games (fans thought he deserved a higher finish), underscored the unspoken tensions around sexual orientation in men’s figure skating. While Evan Lysacek was often portrayed as the athlete, Weir was the artist – “ornate,” “unapologetic,” and “flamboyant” (code for “gay”). Broadcasters made derogatory comments about Weir’s skating and costumes, questioned his gender and wondered if his flamboyant image might damage the sport. In 2010, after representing the U.S. in Vancouver, he was left off of the post-Olympics Stars on Ice skating tour, although he finished first in an online poll asking fans who they wanted to see in the tour. Reports quickly surfaced that he was excluded for being “not family-friendly” enough.
Update from a reader:
Someone who “asked not to be named” is calling on skaters to come out themselves and be a voice for LGBT rights? That’s fucking priceless, right there.
The Dish 