Thank you for your comment and for sharing the Washington Blade article, Jody Bourgeois! You’re absolutely right that Johnny Weir fits in perfectly here. In my response to James Finn’s comment I briefly outlined my thoughts on Weir, which I’ll repeat here:

As I wrote, Rudy Galindo was out, but was heavily policed so that his performances did not cross an unspoken gender boundary. Johnny Weir was forced to make compromises, I think, electing to be true to his personal style over being out (though everyone knew he was queer). At the time, performing the way he did and being out would have been too much for the figure skating establishment. Joey DiGuglielmo hits the nail on the head when he describes Weir’s distinctive style as “glorious faggotry.”

I was always perturbed by the way commentators would go out of their way to point out how “flamboyant” and out of the box Weir’s style was, essentially conveying it wasn’t normal for men to be “feminine.”

I would love to write a future essay about Weir, though I’m no figure skating expert — just an avid fan. Thanks for the idea!