Associated Press and Reuters photos
Figure skater Johnny Weir, shown in Vancouver on Thursday, refuses to state his sexual orientation. Like we really need him to, but still…
Some French-language Canadian broadcasters are under fire for having teased gender-bending American figure skater Johnny Weir on air.
Among other things, the two French male broadcasters (named Claude and Alain; I don’t know if it’s ”The Claude & Alain Show” or not, but it would appear as though some things, like ignorant, juvenile white male radio hosts, are cross-cultural) suggested that Weir should go through gender testing, like South African track star Caster Semenya, who indeed possesses the XY (male) chromosomes although he/she was competing against biological (XX-chromosomal) women.
(As I noted at the time that that story broke, if Caster truly considers him- or herself to be a female, then I am fine with that, as I am happy to go along with any other individual’s own gender identity, and as I love gender-bending, but a biological male should not be allowed to compete athletically against biological females, as it is unfair to those biological females who do not possess the same biological athletic advantage.)
Although I haven’t been between his legs, I have precious little doubt that Johnny Weir is a biological male who is attracted, predominantly or exclusively, to members of his own sex.
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
I, too, am attracted predominantly to members of my own sex.
But I’m open about it.
Weir, however, despite the fact that Helen Fucking Keller could tell that he’s a poof, won’t say.
This is how Weir has responded to the question as to whether or not he is a flamer on ice:
“I don’t feel the need to express my sexual being because it’s not part of my sport and it’s private. I can sleep with whomever I choose and it doesn’t affect what I’m doing on the ice, so speculation is speculation.”
Bullshit.
One’s sexual orientation and gender identity are a huge part of him- or herself, as are one’s race and one’s biological gender — and one’s age, for that matter. One’s sexual orientation, like these other demographics, has profound affects on his or her social interactions.
Therefore, we cannot neatly compartmentalize our sexual orientation, as Weir apparently attempts to do, stating that his sexuality off the ice has no bearing whatsoever upon what he does upon the ice.
The fuck that his sexuality has no bearing upon his sport. Look at the news photos above, for fuck’s sake, and then ponder his claim, “I don’t feel the need to express my sexual being because it’s not part of my sport and it’s private.” He’s not expressing his sexual being in those photos? He keeps his sexual being strictly private?
Right…
Except that Johnny Weir doesn’t exist in a vacuum, but is a member of a social species, and so while he apparently would like all discussion of his sexual orientation to stop, it isn’t going to.
And, of course, by refusing to publicly claim a team, so to speak, Weir is only keeping the speculation alive.
Is that what he wants to do, though? Keep the speculation alive?
One wonders.
Regardless of his motives — whether he is too ashamed of being gay to come out (you only want to keep something “private” if you are ashamed of it, it seems to me*) or whether he likes the attention that making people “speculate” about the obvious gets him — Weir does a disservice to all gay men and lesbians and other non-heterosexuals and other non-gender-conforming individuals by refusing to just come out and say what everyone knows anyway.
I have no problem with the way that Weir dresses or acts. It’s his right to be who he wants to be. I’m not one of these gay men who is going to bash Weir or any other effeminate gay man because I, a non-effeminate (or so I’m told, anyway) gay man, doesn’t want to be associated with effeminate gay men. (Nor do I distance myself from the leather crowd or any other segment of the gay community that the wingnuts bash, because fuck the wingnuts! They crow about freedom and liberty, but those motherfucking fascists want freedom and liberty only for those who march in lockstep with them.)
But I resent the fact that Johnny Weir refuses to claim his own tribe.
Many members of his tribe have even died fighting for his right to be who he is, and by refusing to acknowledge his tribe, he spits, shits and pisses on the faces of those who have been far, far braver than is he.
*Any actual sexual acts that Weir practices in private are indeed his own business, but his overall sexual orientation, in my book, is not. And again, to claim that one’s sexual orientation is “private” means that one is ashamed of his or her sexual orientation. It cannot mean anything else.
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