Olympian Johnny Weir Was Told He 'Can't Be Gay" If He Wanted to Skate

[CellarDweller]

Olympian Johnny Weir Was Told He 'Can't Be Gay" If He Wanted to Skate

BY Donald Padgett OCTOBER 27 2020


Olympian skater and three-time U.S. National champion figure skater Johnny Weir recently talked about his experiences breaking into the sport as a gay teen. Despite his abundance of undeniable talent on the ice, one agent told the teen phenom his sexual orientation was going to be a problem.

“I had just turned 16 and I was competing internationally at the Olympic level," Weir said Monday night on the Halloween-themed Villians Night on Dancing With The Stars. “An agent approached me with my mom and said the world is your oyster and we’re the agency that can take you where you want to be. But he then looked at me and my mom and he said if you work with us and we create this future for you, you can't be gay.”

Weir remembered being “mortified” not just at the agent’s bigoted statements, but also because “at 16 standing with your mother that isn’t necessarily a topic that you want to address.”
Luckily for Weir (and the skating community), he had a supportive family that didn’t listen to the so-called expert.

“I remember going up to our room and my mom just said, we don’t need them,’ he recalled. "You're just going to skate really well, you're gonna book the jobs by yourself.”



https://www.out.com/sports/2020/10/27/ol...nted-skate

[Bhp91126]

Wouldn’t surprise me if that agent had been gay himself.

[CellarDweller]

Wouldn’t surprise me if that agent had been gay himself.

I'm sure you're completely right.

The ones who seem most eager to hold us down are the ones still in the closet.