While many LGBTQ+ skaters today enjoy supportive messaging from their skating associations, such was absolutely not the case in the not-so-distant past. Decades ago, a skater's decision to come out of the closet could have had dozens of consequences on their career, including discrimination by federation officials and judges "of a different generation", lost sponsorships and opportunities and harassment by off-kilter "fans".
During LGBTQ+ History Month, Skate Guard celebrates the milestones and achievements of LGBTQ+ skaters with a historical timeline and links to articles from the Archive for further reading!
A TIMELINE OF LGBTQ+ SKATING HISTORY
1772 - Captain Robert Jones pens the first English language book on figure skating, "A Treatise On Skating". The same year, he is charged with sodomy.
1869 - Callie C. Curtis causes a stir when he masquerades in drag as 'Miss Godbout, the lady from New Brunswick' to compete in a women's skating competition in the state of New York.
1871 - Thirty-two year old Jackson Haines and fifteen year old Franz Bellazi give a performance at Wenceslas Square in Prague. Highlights include a performance where Haines dressed as a woman and a same-sex ice dancing act. Austrian coach Rudolf Kutzer later wrote, "The young Bellazi was so intoxicated by the success that it took a word of power from his father to dissuade him from the plan to become a professional."
Crown Prince Gustav V of Sweden. Photo courtesy Köpings museum.
1905 - Gustav V, then Crown Prince of Sweden and Norway, shows a special interest in figure skating. He awards World Champion Ulrich Salchow a special prize. During his reign as King of Sweden, Gustav V is embroiled in scandal when the Royal Court pays off a man who claimed he was the King's lover.
1938 - Virginia sportswriter Gayle Talbot complains that Sonja Henie should be "charged with having a made a lot of... fancy Dan's out of this country's ice skaters."
Bobby Specht
1942 - U.S. Champion Bobby Specht joins the cast of the Ice Capades. Bob Turk got his start with the tour as Bobby's understudy and went on to work as a producer and choreographer for the show. In a 2016 interview Bob recalled, "Bobby was very, very gay and never tried to hide it. He and Alan Konrad were sort of lovers for a time, but he never really had a lover until the end of his life... He was the sweetest person in the world."
1942 - British Olympian Freddie Tomlins brings down the house with his skating/drag act 'The Blonde Bombshell'. The following year, Freddie (an Air Gunner with the Royal Air Force) is tragically killed during an operational flight over the English Channel.
1945 - LGBTQ+ icon Judy Garland attends the Ice Follies in Los Angeles.
Judy Garland attending the Ice Follies. Photo courtesy Los Angeles Public Library.
1950 - A long-term relationship between a well-known female figure skating coach and international judge is an open secret in the figure skating world.
1951 - Peter Firstbrook wins his first of three Canadian titles. A 2018 memoir penned by Gordon Crosland highlights a liason between the two skaters.
1952 - Armando 'Pancho' Rodriguez wins the silver medal in the junior men's event at the U.S. Championships. In 2014, writer Kenneth Caldwell penned a piece called "Postcard from 1970s San Francisco" that recalled his time working for Armando and his partner Harry.
1953 - A prominent American figure skater is arrested on 'morals charges'. A benevolent judge found him and his friend not guilty. Bringing men up on "morals charges" and tarnishing their names in the press was a typical tactic of the time to 'shame' young men into 'going on the straight and narrow'. This kind of 'scandal' would have no doubt generated a great deal of rink locker room gossip and unpleasantness at the time.
Tab Hunter
1956 - Ronnie Robertson wins the Olympic silver medal in men's figure skating. He is publicly outed in a 2000 memoir penned by Michael Kirby. His relationship with fellow skater Arthur Gelien (a.k.a. Tab Hunter) is discussed in Tab's 2005 autobiography.
1965 - The four thousand, two hundred seat Winterland arena in San Francisco, established summer home of the Ice Follies, plays host to the Beaux Arts Ball where José Julio Sarria, the Widow Norton, is named Royal Empress de San Francisco, Jose I.
Photo courtesy Arquives Canada
1968 - Antique dealer and figure skating coach Frank Thornton is fined and charged with gross indecency. He was arrested when plain-clothes police officers spied on him hooking up in a washroom at the Bloor-Yonge Streets Subway station in Toronto. He faces deportation to the United States but won the first round of his contestation.
1969 - Boston skating coach and Spiritualist church minister Marion Proctor's book "Figure Skating" makes a point of stating that skating isn't a "sissy" sport. She wrote, "Figure skating does not have to be performed in an effeminate manner... A real man can have exquisite timing and express rhythm and grace, yet still retain or perhaps enhance his masculinity... Our men champions are very male."
1972 - Ondrej Nepela wins the Olympic gold medal. Toller Cranston later recalls a hook-up with Nepela during the 1973 World Championships in Bratislava in his 2000 book "When Hell Freezes Over, Should I Bring My Skates?"
John Curry
1976 - John Curry wins the Olympic gold medal in Innsbruck. At press conference the next day, one reporter asked him, "Don't you keep getting asked if you're gay?" He replied, "I am." This admission was not included in Associated Press dispatches, but made front page news in European papers nonetheless. In a subsequent interview with the "Daily Express", he stated that he wasn't "a militant gay... I don't talk about sex. There is a lot of rubbish about gays being extra artistic. I don't think sexuality has anything to do with sensitivity. For every great gay actor there is one who isn't."
1976 - Toller Cranston is criticized in "The Body Politic Gay Liberation Journal". In the "Trash" column, an unnamed columnist writes, "Poor boy doesn't even admit to going down Yonge St... which is taking closetry pretty far for a 26 year old." Cranston never put labels on his sexuality but was an icon to the LGBTQ+ community in Canada.
1978 - Religious zealots speak out about the 'sins of skating'. A reporter for "La Voz Eterna" magazine wrote, "Roller skating or ice skating at a rink where music is played is not a place for a Christian, whether it is a school class party or otherwise. One may try to justify the music by saying: music is played to drown out the loud noise of the skates, but this is not so. This is the voice of the devil speaking. The music here, too, gets under the feet and in the body. Before one is even aware of it, one is listening to the music and unconsciously moving with the music."
1981 - A clip of Toller Cranston skating in his special "Dream Weaver" is included in the film "Taxi zum Klo", which highlighted gay culture in West Berlin.
Michael Seibert, Judy Blumberg, John Curry, Ken Shelley, JoJo Starbuck, Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner at the AIDS benefit show "Skating For Life"
1981 - San Francisco LGBTQ+ newspaper the "Bay Area Reporter" publishes its first mention of 'Gay Men's Pneumonia'. In the decades that follow, more than twice as members of the figure skating community die as a result of complications of HIV/AIDS than the 1961 Sabena Crash. Among them, Olympic Medallists, World Champions, coaches, choreographers and ice show stars. Read all about their stories in the Skate Guard feature "Forever Young".
1985 - Toronto teacher and librarian Kenneth Zeller is beaten to death by five youths in Toronto's High Park. The tragedy forced the Toronto District School Board to implement a program to end discrimination based on sexual orientation. In his youth, Kenneth was an enthusiastic member of the Stouffville Figure Skating Club.
1987 - Stuart Livie passes away in San Francisco. A Canadian veteran of World War II, Stuart toured with Sonja Henie's Hollywood Ice Revue and Holiday On Ice in the forties and fifties. His obituary in the "Bay Area Reporter" mentioned that he was "widely known in San Francisco's gay community for his association with the Round Up and Endup bars".
1987 - San Francisco gay bar The Pilsner Inn holds a Sonja Henie lookalike pageant as part of its Norwegian Independence Day Party.
1988 - America's Mark Mitchell and Sweden's Peter Johansson meet while competing against each other at the Novarat Trophy in Budapest. They go on to become an on and off-ice power couple, teaching their Mitchell Johansson Method at the historic Skating Club of Boston.
1989 - In his acceptance speech as USFSA President, Hugh Graham complains of "the mixed image of the sport and the very real difficulty of attracting more participation by young men." The same year, Graham suggests making rule changes surrounding men's costuming and putting a stop to giving men bouquets of flowers on the podium.
1991 - The International Gay Figure Skating Union is founded in New York by Arthur Luiz and Laura Moore. By the late nineties, the Union had members from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Great Britain, Israel and the United States.
1992 – Canadian Bronze Medallist Matthew Hall is one of the first elite Canadian athletes to publicly come out during their competitive career.
Trevor Kruse and Darren Singbeil's program about the military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy at the 1994 Gay Games
1994 - Figure skating is included in the Gay Games for the first time. Charles Sinek, the winner of one of the same-sex ice dancing events, goes on to win four consecutive pewter medals in senior ice dancing at the U.S. Championships.
1994 – U.S. Junior Champion Doug Mattis comes out publicly when he gives two exhibitions during the first Gay Games to feature figure skating competitions. Two years later, his story is featured in “The Advocate”.
1994 - After leaving a restaurant with a friend, San Francisco skating coach Victor Rohana is the victim of a hate crime. He is followed by two men in a jeep who yell "You fuckin' faggot!" and shot. He suffers serious injuries and a fund is set up to assist with his medical bills, which exceed ninety thousand dollars.
1994 - Fiona Cunningham-Reid's film "Thin Ice" is a romantic drama about two women who fall in love and join forces to compete as figure skaters in the Gay Games.
1995 - Courtney Jones and Bobby Thompson's long-term relationship is mentioned in Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean's autobiography "Facing The Music".
1995 - For the first time, figure skating competitions are included in Team Seattle's Annual Gay/Lesbian Winter Sports Festival Slide For Pride.
1996 - A year after the landmark decision of the Supreme Court of Canada that sexual orientation is constitutionally protected under the equality clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a Pride flag is displayed at an ISU Championship for the first time, at the World Championships in Edmonton.
1996 - Rudy Galindo wins the U.S. senior men's title in San Jose, California. He came out publicly shortly before winning the title. That same year, Rudy is the guest speaker at the 10th Annual AIDS Walk San Francisco.
1996 - Out skater Jay Kobayashi of Silicon Valley, California wins a gold medal at the U.S. Adult Championships in Lake Placid. Jay's skating exploits are regularly featured in the "Bay Area Reporter".
1997 - "Skates Of Pride" is presented at the Ice Theatre Of New York's Ice Rink not long after the city's Pride Parade. Doug Mattis, Angelo D'Agostino and Martin Marceau are among the performers.
1997 - Jennifer Lyon's "The Strong And The Sequined" makes it debut on the RSSIF Usenet newsgroup. It is the first internet skating serial to feature several LGBTQ+ characters.
1998 - Lorrie Kim launches Rainbow Ice, the first site on the World Wide Web dedicated to promoting LGBTQ+ figure skaters.
1998 – Greg Wittrock introduces his drag persona Whorita to mainstream skating audiences in the Show Act category at the first American Open Pro Figure Skating Championships. Whorita is prominently featured in his ice theatre production “Freezer Burn”, which debuted just days before the 2001 New York City Pride Parade.
1998 - "Spectrum On Ice", a benefit for the charity Under One Roof, is held in Oakland, California. Angelo D'Agostino and Don Corbiell's similar pairs performance is a highlight.
1998 – Ice dancer Nick Traxler comes out to friends and family long before he makes his first appearance in the senior ranks at the U.S. Championships.
Katarina Witt and Brian Orser. Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.
1998 – Brian Orser is outed when his former partner sues him for palimony and he loses a legal battle to stop public disclosure. In an affidavit he wrote that he believed it was "highly likely that if... allegations [that I am gay| were made public, I would not be invited to return to a number of major ice shows. In hindsight, I may have overreacted in trying to protect my privacy."
1998 - Due to sanctioning issues, the figure skating competition at the Gay Games in Amsterdam is turned into a series of "public practices".
1999 - Rudy Galindo makes a cameo appearance on "Will And Grace".
2000 - Canadian scholar Samantha King's thesis "Consuming Compassion: AIDS, Figure Skating and Canadian Identity" is one of the first academic works to explore the impact of the LGBTQ+ community in figure skating.
Advertisement for the film "Ma vraie vie à Rouen"
2001 - Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau's film "Ma vraie vie à Rouen" tells the coming of age story of a gay figure skater.
2001 - Canadian Champion Emanuel Sandhu appeared on the front cover of LGBTQ+ magazine "Xtra! West".
2003 - "My mother used to say that there are no strangers, only friends you haven't met yet. She's now in a maximum security twilight home in Australia."... Thom Mullins earns a silver medal at the U.S. Adult Championships with a skating/drag performance impersonating the spooky Dame Edna Everage.
2003 - Ben Tyler's book "Gay Blades" is published. The book highlights the backstage stories and sexual exploits of a skater touring with a fictional ice revue called 'Gold On Ice". Book reviewer Robert Julian bemoans, "Trashy gay novels, like the ones Jackie Collins write, pop up everywhere these days."
Cover of Ben Tyler's book "Gay Blades"
2006 – Randy Gardner comes out publicly in a feature in the "Los Angeles Times".
2006 - Figure skating competitions are included in the first World OutGames in Montreal.
2006 - Figure skating competitions are included in the Gay Games in Chicago. Among the medallists are Edward Vancampen, Franklyn Singley, Amy Entwistle and Josh Figurido.
2007 - Robin Cousins marries his partner in a civil ceremony.
Jamie Silverstein and Ryan O'Meara
2008 – Ryan O'Meara comes out publicly. His story is featured on Gay.com and "Outsports".
2009 - Skate Canada is criticized for messaging about making figure skating in Canada more "tough", in an attempt to attract more young men to the sport. Many perceive the messaging as being anti-gay.
Skate Canada's CEO denies any campaign to 'toughen up the sport' even existed. Skate Canada's President Benoît Lavoie, a Canadian senior men's competitor in the eighties, is openly gay.
2010 - Eddie McGuire and Mick Molloy come under fire for making homophobic comments while working as figure skating commentators for Channel Nine in Australia during the Winter Olympic Games.
2010 - The It Gets Better Project is founded in New York. In the years that follow, countless skaters share their #ItGetsBetter stories on social media.
Promotional material for the 2010 Gay Games in Germany
2010 - The figure skating competitions at the Gay Games in Cologne, Germany draw one of the largest entries yet. The winners include Barbara Jaujou and Cecile Husson, Bettina Keil and Andreas Wagner.
2011 - Athlete Ally, a non-profit LGBTQ+ sport advocacy group is founded in New York. U.S. pairs skater Jimmy Morgan, who comes out a year later, becomes one of the group's Ambassadors.
2011 - Mary Louise Adams' book "Artistic Impressions: Figure Skating, Masculinity, and the Limits of Sport" explores the issues of gender and sexuality in figure skating.
2011 – The Ice Theatre Of New York has a float in the New York Pride Parade, complete with skaters performing on plastic ice.
2011 – Johnny Weir comes out publicly in his autobiography “Welcome To My World”. That year, he is named the Grand Marshal of the Los Angeles Pride Parade. A Washington sports writer once called him "relentlessly" flamboyant.
Christopher Mabee, Filip Stiller and Jeffrey Buttle
2012 – Jeffrey Buttle acknowledges that he is gay publicly in a feature in Toronto Gay Hockey Association's magazine.
2012 – Benjamin Miller marries his partner in New York City.
2012 – Matthew Savoie marries his partner in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.
Editorial cartoon from "The Daily Trojan" reflecting on how hosting an Olympic Games in Russia neglected the safety of LGBTQ+ athletes. Photo courtesy University of Southern California Libraries.
2013 – Activists, athletes, politicians and protectors alike voice their concerns about Russia's limits on LGBTQ+ rights in the lead-up to the Sochi Olympics. When he is named to the U.S. Delegation to the Games by President Barack Obama, Brian Boitano comes out in an unplanned statement. He receives words of encouragement from Olympic Gold Medallists Dick Button and Carol Heiss Jenkins.
2013 - French Olympian Axel Médéric publicly comes out.
2014 - Over seventy categories are included in the figure skating competitions at the Gay Games in Cleveland. The winners include J. Scott Driscoll, Amy Entwhistle and the ensemble Three Babes and a Blind Guy.
2014 - Blair Braverman's Buzzfeed article "Why Is The World's Gayest Sport Stuck In The Closet?" goes viral.
2014 – Daniel Donigan, the last-place finisher in the junior ice dance event at the 2009 U.S. Championships, reinvents himself as the fabulous drag queen MILK and earns legions of fans as a contestant on RuPaul's Drag Race.
Eric Radford and Luis Fenero. Photo courtesy "Outsports" magazine.
2014 – Eric Radford comes out in an interview with "Outsports" magazine. Later that season, he won a second World title, making him the first openly gay figure skater to win an ISU Championship.
2014 – U.S. Champion and Olympian Russ Witherby and Holiday On Ice and Disney On Ice star turned fashion designer Michael Kuluva tie the knot in Los Angeles.
2014 – World Junior Bronze Medallist Damon Allen marries his partner in New Mexico.
2014 – The Canadian Olympic Committee collaborates with Egale Canada and You Can Ply to launch the #OneTeam initiative. Eric Radford and ally Dylan Moscovitch are named ambassadors to the program which aims to bolster inclusivity in Canadian sport.
2015 - In the lead-up to the 2016 Canadian Championships, the Halifax Pride Committee presents "Queers On Ice", a LGBTQ+ public skate on the Emera Oval.
2015 – Adam Rippon comes out in an interview with Amy Rosewater in "Skating" magazine.
2016 - Spanish Olympian Javier Raya publicly comes out by sharing a photo with his partner on Instagram.
2017 – Timothy Goebel marries his partner in Rhode Island.
2017 – Swiss Olympian Jamal Othman and French ice dance coach Romain Haguenauer marry in Montreal.
2017 - Skate Canada joins the LGBTQI2S Sport Inclusion Task Force.
Poster advertising a Baltimore screening of "The Ice King"
2018 - James Erskine's brilliant documentary "The Ice King" highlights the story of John Curry.
2018 - Fifty-eight medals are awarded for the figure skating events at the Gay Games in Paris. The winners include Alexandra Ievleva, Michael Solonoski and Mauro Bruni.
2018 – Karina Manta comes out as bisexual in a video released with her partner. The following year, Karina and partner Joe Johnson make history as the first openly LGBTQ+ ice dance duo to compete at the U.S. Championships. Their free dance to reimaginings of Annie Lennox's hit "Sweet Dreams (are Made Of This)" earns a standing ovation.
Karina Manta and Joe Johnson's "Sweet Dreams" free dance from the 2019 U.S. Championships
2018 – Adam Rippon makes history as the first openly gay Olympic figure skater from the United States and the first gay man to win Dancing With The Stars. He serves as the Grand Marshal of the Celebrity Cruises Pride At Sea cruise.
2018 – Jorik Hendrickx comes out publicly in an interview in the Belgian LGBTQ+ magazine “ZiZo”. Scott Dyer talks coming out and his journey as a gay skater on "Outsports".
2019 - Skate Canada implements its Trans Inclusion Policy "to ensure that Skate Canada has a diverse and inclusive, barrier-free environment where every employee, Board member, skater, official, coach, volunteer, and affiliate organizations of Skate Canada feels valued, respected and supported."
2019 – Timothy LeDuc wins the national senior pairs title. They are the first openly LGBTQ+ pairs skater to win a gold medal at the U.S. Championships.
Amber Glenn
2019 - Amber Glenn comes out as bisexual/pansexual in an interview with the "Dallas Voice". Rachel Parsons comes out as bisexual via a Tweet.
2019 – U.S. Junior Champion Eliot Halverson comes out publicly as non-binary in an Instagram post. Two years later, U.S. Figure Skating features her story as part of its Centenary celebrations.
2020 - The International Skating Union revises its Code Of Ethics to protect skaters from facing discrimination because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics. Previously, the amended article had stated, "Persons subject to this Code of Ethics shall not discriminate in any kind against anyone on the basis of reasons such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, or athletic ability."
Jeremy Abbott's interview on SkateProud
2020 – Olympic Medallists Jeremy Abbott and Guillaume Cizeron come out publicly.
2020 - On National Coming Out Day, Kelly Rippon shares a touching video message for her son Adam through Good Morning America's digital platforms.
2020 - SkateProud chat launches on YouTube and Instagram Live. The videocast presents a series of wonderful interviews with LGBTQ+ figure skaters and allies past and present. Guests include Guillaume Cizeron, Eric Radford, Rachel Nevares, Shawn Sawyer and Amber Glenn.
Colin Ratushniak
2020 – Dancing On Ice star Colin Ratushniak is elected mayor of the town of La Ronge, Saskatchewan. He is the town's first openly gay mayor.
2021 – Amber Glenn makes history at the first U.S. Championships held since the COVID-19 pandemic began as the first openly LGBTQ+ woman to win a medal at the U.S. Championships. She came out as pansexual the season prior.
Left: Jason Brown. Right: Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje.
2021 – Kaitlyn Weaver, Paul Poirier, Jason Brown and Jeremy Ten come out publicly.
2021 – Six Olympic athletes from France, including Kévin Aymoz, come out at once in the Canal+ documentary “Faut qu’on parle”.
2021 - Cordero Zuckerman, the 2010 Pacific Coast novice men's bronze medallist, sashays away in eighth place as his alter ego Denali Foxx on the thirteenth season of "RuPaul's Drag Race".
Denali Foxx on ice
2021 - The International Skating Union releases its Transgender Policy to address eligibility of trans athletes in international figure skating competitions.
2021 - U.S. Figure Skating celebrates LGBTQ+ skating history as part of its Centenary Celebrations.
2022 - The Skating Club of Boston hosted Be Here! Be You!, an LGBTQ+ Skating and Dancing Party benefiting the Boston Children's Hospital Center For Gender Surgery. Among those in attendance were World Champions Randy Gardner and Dr. Tenley Albright.
FURTHER READING
A Conversation With Bob Turk (2017)
Interview with Amber Glenn (2014)
Interview with Axel Médéric (2013)
Interview with Doug Mattis (2013)
Interview with Shawn Sawyer (2013)
For more LGBTQ+ skating history, check out this handy Pinterest board!