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This article Johnny Weir Doesn't Hate Bethenny Frankel (Even Though His Friend Jill Zarin Does) points out something all the loonies who are attacking Johnny for his scores for Bethenny versus his scores for the skaters that fell haven't acknowledged; both of them received lower technical merit scores from him than Bethenny did. Interesting these fans have failed to acknowledge or notice this fact.
In this article, posted November 30, 2010 Bethenny Frankel makes an absolutely infuriating comment. This comment appears in the article: "I am the woman Johnny Weir wants to be and he clearly has an issue with that,” she joked.
Some might look at this comment and think 'So what?' or 'It's a joke!' It's not a joke, and it isn't funny. As stated below in this Blog, Ms. Frankel hosted the GLAAD Manhattan 2010 event, and is considered a spokesperson for the organization. In fact, she appears on the GLAAD.org website on the page for the GLAAD Manhattan event. Ms. Frankel knows, or should know, through her association with GLAAD how hurtful comments such as her flippant remark can be. Johnny Weir is NOT a woman, he is a man. Whatever his sexual orientation is or his not, he clearly identifies himself as a man and has said so repeatedly. For someone in Ms. Frankel's position to make a remark like this one and then try to pass it off as a joke is unfortunate, sad and hurtful to a great many people. When Ms. Frankel was told repeatedly (and she can not say she wasn't, she has answered Tweets from fans posted in the same Twitter stream as the ones informing her of what was going on, as well as posts on her Facebook page) about the attacks on Weir and did not make any comment whatsoever, I thought her lack of response was at least partially due to stubbornness. However, now I'm not so sure. Knowing what she has already been told about the attacks on Weir (and to a lesser degree on Laurieann Gibson, Dick Button and some of the other contestants), for her to make this remark now is even more hurtful, sad and mean.
Hasn't anyone learned anything from the recent rash of suicides of young people who were LGBT or the attacks on gay citizens in New York City and elsewhere? What is wrong with this woman?
The attacks against Johnny Weir began after the first episode of ‘Skating With the Stars’ on November 22nd. They reached a crescendo during and immediately after, the November 29th episode. They have now died down significantly; however , it is my fear at least they will start up again with the next episode no matter what Johnny Weir says, and no matter how good (or bad) Bethenny Frankel skates or scores. I noticed when looking at Johnny Weir’s twitter stream today that a LOT of tweets have been deleted since Monday evening; including a pile of them attacking him with gay slurs. In fact, despite the fact I saw a number of them Monday night, today I could only find one. Interesting! I doubt the people who posted those tweets cared enough about hurting Johnny Weir or his fans feelings to delete them for that reason; so I must assume someone suggested they be deleted. (A friend of mine counted twenty-nine separate Tweeters sending hate tweets and insults to Johnny Weir after the deleted tweets were already gone. This does not count the number of Tweets sent by 'fans' who criticized his judging, told him to stay in Australia, or told him he should be fired.)
Several of these people are following Johnny Weir on Twitter. Why? So they can harass him and jump on every word he says? One person answered a question by a Weir fan as to why she followed him on Twitter with '...To see what he is going to say next! I follow several people I despise!'; as if being unhappy with a few scores and misinterpreted comments was a good enough reason to 'despise' someone?
I have noticed many of these people are heavily into the ’Real Housewives…’ franchise, and most, if not all, read the ’The "I Hate Jill Zarin" Blog written by LynnNChicago. Many of the attack tweeters railing against Johnny Weir on Twitter and Facebook both are not even spelling their idol Bethenny Frankel’s name correctly. I would say at least fifty percent of them spell her name wrong.
It’s ridiculous to accuse Johnny of personal vendettas, and raging against Bethenny, especially when you consider how many of them are accusing Jill Zarin of somehow arranging for perfect, Olympic caliber skater Bethenny Frankel to be harshly judged on this show. They are also putting words in Johnny’s mouth that he never said, and conveniently forgetting that all three judges are judging similarly. It apparently doesn’t matter to any of these people that they are calling the other skaters, as well as the judges, names (for example, saying that Vince Neil fell on his ‘fat ass’, referring to Laurieann Gibson as a ‘bitch’ and an ‘idiot broad‘; Johnny Weir as a ’snake’, ‘creep‘, ‘moron‘, ‘loser‘, ‘ass’, ‘idiot’, ‘embarrassing’, mocking Brandon Mychael Smith, and so on), not to mention making ridiculous accusations such as Weir’s being paid off to judge Bethenny harshly, against a judge on a figure skating reality show.
At least one Bethenny 'fan' flat out threatened Johnny Weir with violence (unless of course you can interpret a comment that they would like to 'shove a fairy wand up his ass', or that he should have a 'broken champagne glass shoved up his ass' as something else).
Several have praised Bethenny's skating partner for apparently saying the judging was 'F++king Bullshit' (he should know better since he's been judged in the past and should be able to see what is wrong with her skating himself. Besides Ethan, I have news for you! Some of her fans are criticizing and badmouthing YOU! You're next honey!); and I haven't seen a single one of them mention having a problem with Bethenny's 'F++k Johnny Weir' comment during the November 29 segment. What is WRONG with these people? Why can they not see that what they are doing and saying is far worse than anything they think Johnny Weir is doing or saying?
Another thing that bothers me is why Bethenny Frankel, who is quite aware of what has been going on between her fans and Johnny Weir, has not said anything. She is a spokesperson for GLAAD, and hosted the GLAAD Manhattan benefit at which Johnny Weir appeared with her; yet she has not even opened her mouth regarding the attacks on Weir. No one expects her to be able to control her fans behavior, but saying SOMETHING about at least the homophobic slurs against him would be advisable and helpful. Yet she continues to say absolutely NOTHING and lets it all continue unabated! It obviously was not her who encouraged her ‘fans’ who hurled homophobic slurs at Weir to delete them, she hasn’t said a word other than to jab the judges and promote herself.
A number of gay references on Facebook on the 'Skating With the Stars' page have already been flagged, and at least some of them removed by Facebook. Personally I flagged so many personal attacks on Johnny Weir in the comments on Bethenny Frankel's Facebook page that I lost count of them all. (Referring to Johnny Weir as Johnny WeirD? Please, at least be original!) I also flagged some attacks on Laurieann Gibson, and a gay slur against Dick Button, as well as a few attacks against the other contestants that were a little too personal.
Truthfully many of the fans, while possibly over reacting a little to the judging, were not launching personal attacks on Johnny Weir or anyone else; however enough were that it was quite disturbing to me and should be disturbing to anyone.
Monday November 15 Johnny WeirTweeted he had some videos of his Triple Axel training. He told his fans he did not know how to post them, but he would find someone who did.
Of course this Tweet resulted in a number of fans telling Johnny how much they wanted to see the videos of him working on his triple axel, myself included. He had told us the previous week his triple axel was back
after telling us the day before he was going to work on it:
Tuesday morning Johnny let us know he was still working on the videos:
Tuesday evening Johnny Tweeted he had learned how to use YouTube and gave his fans the URL's of two videos he had put up on his new Official Johnny Weir channel.
Of this video Johnny said: 'I learned how to "YouTube"! Me trying to get in shape again at Hackensack, New Jersey. The triple toe was cheated, but I'm trying! I'm sorry for the video quality but I train alone and needed to ask the wall to film me.'
These two little videos resulted in numerous tweets at Twitter and comments underneath the videos at YouTube from fans telling Johnny how glad they were he was doing the triple axel again, we love your black practice outfit, welcome to YouTube, please post more videos and so on. A number of us also volunteered to be his videographer, of course! Johnny currently has several hundred views and over two hundred subscribers, and this number is certain to go up as he (hopefully) posts more video. Yay Johnny! Welcome to YouTube!
Phoenix Suns star Steve Nash, who is quoted in this Blog below for being one of the few professional athletes who have publicly stated they would have no problem playing against or being teammates with openly gay players, has spoken out in favor of gay marriage in a video released today by the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
Nash's decision to join the campaign follows in the footsteps of New York Rangers forward Sean Avery, who also appeared in a video for the HRC earlier this month; and it also comes one week after Suns CEO Rick Welts revealed he is gay.
I touch briefly on a very important (to me at least) issue that I take seriously in Chapter Twenty-Three of my FanFic 'A Force of Nature: Part II'. This story is one of my eight 'Criminal Minds' related FanFiction stories that focus on the character of Spencer Reid. The story is posted on my page at FanFiction.net. The issue is the treatment of gays in sports, and also in life in general.
We hear about tragic incidents such as the murder of Matthew Shepard; a twenty-one year old gay man who had his whole life in front of him. Matthew was murdered October 7, 1998 by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson for no reason other than he was a gay man. I do not believe I need to go into the details of this wonderful young man's brutal murder to get the point across his tragic death stands as an example of the homophobic idiocy of a segment of the population. Matthew's parents Judy and Dennis have attempted to make sense of their son's death by creating a foundation in his name. Judy has also written ‘The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed’; a book about her son's life and death, and the changes she believes have come about since people found it acceptable to show up at her son's funeral with signs containing hateful slogans such as 'God Hates Fags' and 'Fag Matt Burn In Hell'. The same group also showed up at a hearing for Russell Henderson carrying signs with similar slogans, but was met by peaceful counter demonstrators.
Despite the morons who claim Matthew deserved to die because he was gay, I remember a number of Wyoming residents coming forward in an attempt to let the world know not everyone who lived in the state where Matthew was murdered were of the same opinion. Matthew's own parents stated their son would "emphasize he does not want the horrible actions of a few very disturbed individuals to mar the fine reputations of Laramie or the university." Dennis Shepard reportedly relayed through Wyoming governor Jim Geringer, that he did not want his son's death to become "a media circus" and that "we should not use Matt to further an agenda." Personally I feel like crying every time I think of this young man's tragic death.
Matthew Shepard is only one example of a gay or lesbian person who was attacked, beaten or murdered simply because they were gay. It happens far too often in the United States. Or course it happens other places as well; for example two teenage boys were recently executed in Iran for the 'sin of being gay'. However, I can speak far more knowledgeably regarding what I observe in my own society and the encounters I have online and in everyday life.
There are three recent incidents that have prompted me to finally write this Blog. Neither of these incidents resulted in any physical violence; they involved verbal insults, homophobic slurs and the questioning of an athlete's gender. I would like to state at this point in time questioning a person's gender is not the same as questioning whether a person is gay or straight. The questions of whether a person is gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, trans-gender, or even a cross dresser often get lumped together. However, they are not the same issues, and should not be treated as if they were. Most gay people are neither trans-gender nor cross dressers; and people who are cross dressers or trans-gender are not necessarily gay. In fact, most cross dressers are not gay.
I would also like to point out words can often do as much damage as physical violence can. Verbal assaults and insults can leave scars that last for years if they go away at all. Scars of the psyche or the soul can be more damaging than physical ones. Using the questioning of a person's gender or sexuality against them for any reason is simply never acceptable period, and should not be tolerated in our society.
The anonymity of the Internet has certainly made it easier for individuals and groups to spew their hate by feeling safe hiding behind 'fake' or 'anonymous' e-mail accounts and screen names. These sorts of people are too cowardly to spew their hateful vitriol to people in person to their face; therefore they hurl their insults 'anonymously' and refuse to accept any criticism of their opinions without going into attack mode, or disappearing and/or changing their online 'identity'.
My first example took place on July 31, 2010 in a minor league baseball stadium. Brent Bowers, manager of the Golden League Edmonton Capitals, stormed the field to argue with the umpires over a close call during the first inning of a game between his team and the Orange County Flyers. The crew chief that day was thirty-four year old Billy Van Raaphorst, a California resident who also happens to be gay. Van Raaphorst had ejected Bowers from a game the previous day; and had warned Bowers and some of his players regarding their heated objections in the current game. It is at this point Bowers tirade against Van Raaphorst began. Bowers referred to Van Raaphorst several times as 'a faggot' and a 'fucking faggot' among other things; and demonstrated by bending over and grabbing his ankles how he thought the Umpire 'took it in the ass'. After Van Raaphorst calmly walked away Bowers continued to hurl insults at him until the plate Umpire ejected him from the game and escorted him off the field. The game continued without further incident.
Brent Bowers was initially fined $500 and suspended for two games over his tirade. However, Umpires across the Golden Baseball League threw their support behind Van Raaphorst and protested, threatening a work stoppage and refusing to officiate games over what they saw as a slap on the wrist. The league toughened its penalty to a $5000 fine and suspension for the rest of the season, and Bowers ultimately resigned.
This incident, while certainly not reflecting well on Brent Bowers, is an example that sports is one of the holdouts in acceptance of gays within their ranks. While some athletes such as Steve Nash of the NBA's Phoenix Suns, and recently retired MLB baseball player Ken Griffey Jr. have said they would have no problem playing against or being teammates with openly gay players; athletes willing to make such public statements of support are still few and far between. It's sad that in the year 2010 anyone would find an outburst such as Brent Bowers tirade against Billy Van Raaphorst in any way acceptable; but some people didn't have that much of a problem with it. Some people have stated if Bowers had hurled a racial slur at Van Raaphorst his punishment would have been initially harsher, as would have been the reaction to it within the sporting press. Even the author of one of the articles I used as a reference indicated he initially was uncomfortable with comparisons between the struggle for equality of gays and lesbians and the struggle for equality of racial minorities.
My other examples both involve the same person; figure skater Johnny Weir. As a longtime fan of Mr. Weir, it is frustrating for me to constantly see that the first thing he is often asked is about his sexuality. Weir is not publicly 'out' in the sense he is not particularly open in discussing as he puts it 'who I sleep with'; however at the same time he has never denied anything either. It's sad that this intelligent, good-looking, articulate, loving, caring and talented young man has so many articles and interviews about him focus first and foremost on his sexuality. It's unfortunate these writers and interviewers are missing so many other interesting aspects of this outstanding young man's life and personality; such as the fact he taught himself the Russian language, he also speaks French, or that he helps support his family and helped put his younger brother through school, when they focus so much on his sexuality. Unfortunately this is unlikely to change any time soon.
I could go on forever regarding how I personally, from a fan's perspective, feel Weir has been treated by figure skating establishment over the years, but that's not my objective here. My objective is to get across how much hate and how many slurs he has had to deal with over the years.
When he returned from the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, Weir was deluged with hate mail and e-mail using lovely descriptive words such as pussy, disgrace, faggot, princess, queeny, retarded, stupid, queer and as he put it 'many other lovely things, so try to be more original at least'. That people found it appropriate to send anyone this sort of garbage, let alone a twenty-one year old young man whose worst crime was being a free spirit and not winning an Olympic medal, is beyond my comprehension. And for some people, it only went downhill from there.
Whatever else a person may think of Weir, or think they know about him, he does not deserve the venom that has been thrown at him from some quarters. No one does. It is beyond my comprehension that anyone finds it in any way acceptable. One of the reasons I brought Matthew Shepard into this Blog when it was really meant to be about Billy Van Raaphorst and Johnny Weir is because that young man's horrifying death is a tragic example of what can happen when hate is carried to an extreme.
A few months ago I was discussing some Johnny Weir videos on YouTube with some other users. Most of the comments were positive, or at least related to Johnny's skating as opposed to his sexuality. However, at some point a user made the comment Weir should be killed because he is gay. Naturally the comment was not well received and was flagged and reported by a number of people, myself included. Somehow Matthew Shepard's name was brought up, and I stated I cried every time 'I thought about that poor young man'. Some poor excuse for a human being then posted these exact words 'Shepard got what he deserved and so will Weir'; and another poor excuse for a human being posted 'Shepard got what he deserved' without mentioning Weir. All of the offending comments were deleted relatively quickly by the users, whether at YouTube's suggestion or of their own volition I can't say. However, they were not flippant remarks or idle threats, they were genuinely disgusting remarks.
Soon after these incidents some of us started to get harassed via messages posted at our YouTube channels. I was told more than once that both I and Johnny Weir were 'queers' and other wonderful little remarks like 'Stupid faggot, burn in hell!' By the way geniuses, I'm a woman and I'm not gay, but even if I were, so the hell what?! A few of my friends asked me why did I not get rid of the messages and block the assholes. I stated I had reported and blocked them, but was leaving the messages up as an reminder of how stupid people really can be. And like I always say, If you don't like something, don't watch it! Why devote so much time and effort to commenting on or attacking something you profess to not like or respect? Leave the rest of us alone and let us try to enjoy it!
Johnny Weir has a reality show called 'Be Good Johnny Weir' on the Sundance Channel. The first episode of the show was actually a documentary movie titled 'Pop Star On Ice' which initially premiered in New York and was subsequently shown at several film festivals across the United States. There is one scene where Johnny and his friend Paris Childers are watching some commentary about Weir by a skating analyst and Childers remarks he can't believe the comments are being made about a guy in his early twenties (Weir was either twenty-one or twenty-two at the time.) by the commentator. He then asks Johnny "How old is this guy anyway?"
I wanted to give some context of what Johnny Weir has had to endure over the years to those who may not know him as well as I and some of his fans do; however I can't possibly cover it all here. Therefore I am going to skip ahead to the Vancouver Winter Olympics in February, 2010. Johnny Weir finished sixth at the Olympics, and a lot of people do not think he deserved that placing. Many of us, and not just Johnny's fans, believe he should have finished higher; however, again, that's not what this Blog is about. A few days after the men's figure skating had concluded, broadcasters Claude Mailhot and Alain Goldberg of RDS, a French-language sports channel in Quebec, mused on air if Weir was unfavorably judged during one of his 'typically flamboyant routines because he wore a semi-see-through pink and black outfit'.
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"This may not be politically correct, but do you think he lost points due to his costume and his body language?" Mailhot said.
Goldberg responded that Weir's mannerisms might hurt other men competing in the sport. "They'll think all the boys who skate will end up like him," he said. "It sets a bad example."
The pair joked that Weir should take a gender test like female South African runner Caster Semenya was forced to undergo after stirring up speculation that she was really a man. Mailhot suggested Weir should compete against women.
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There is video of this conversation during Episode 109, which is the 2010 Season Finale of 'Be Good Johnny Weir'. The above remarks ignited a storm of controversary, and though Johnny initially found out about them when Dorothy Hamill came to interview him for 'Access Hollywood' while he was shooting photographs for 'Vanity Fair' magazine; the remarks soon were all over the place. Dorothy can also be seen in Episode 109 of 'BGJW', and in the show and the actual interview shown on 'Access Hollywood' she is visibly upset and close to tears. Weir had already addressed some mocking comments made by Australian broadcasters Eddie McGuire and Mick Molloy regarding his sexuality in an interview with an Australian television station when he first found out about the remarks made by Mailhot and Goldberg.
Weir's initial reaction is summed up in his remarks to Hamill, "Every little boy should be so lucky as to turn into me," Weir told Hamill. "And that's all I have to say about that." And that was all he had to say about it for a while; however he continued to be asked about it, and finally, several days later, and more than six days after the men's figure skating competition had concluded, Weir conducted a press conference to address the comments made about him.
More than one hundred journalists from around the world attended Johnny Weir's press conference. He sat on the stage with only his agent Tara Modlin by his side and addressed the comments and took questions from the journalists without the aid of notes or any other assistance. With pride and dignity he calmly responded and dealt with slurs and comments no one should have to deal with. A few weeks later while introducing Weir at an Equality California fundraiser, EqCa Executive Director Geoffrey Kors stated that Weir's response to the Quebec broadcasters comments had been 'magical'. Again, footage from the EqCa event, the press conference, and of the Quebec broadcasters may be seen in Episode 109 of 'Be Good Johnny Weir'. There is also a shortened version of the press conference, and two sources for watching the entire press conference available. Both sources may be found in my Blog 'Johnny Weir, A Man Amongst Men'. The video of the EqCa appearance is found on the same Blog, as is an interview with Weir conducted on the red carpet of the recent GLAAD Manhattan event.
The entire press conference was twenty-seven minutes long and because of its length I won't address everything said here; however I do highly recommend following the link to my Blog and watching the entire press conference, or at least the two and a half minute long shortened version. While some people would have been visible angry, and certainly Weir must have been upset; he didn't ask for the broadcasters to be fired, or for any action to be taken against them. He simply hoped for them to have learned something from what they said and the reaction to it. I can't imagine anyone reacting as well, and with such class and dignity as Johnny Weir did to these comments. Despite the fact he doesn't know these men personally, what they said about him had to have hurt. How could it not?
One of the best things that came out of this ugly mess was this beautiful quote from Johnny Weir (said at the press conference):
'Out of ugly, I think the most important thing to do in life is to make something beautiful."
--Johnny Weir
Though I could go on endlessly (haven't I already?) regarding what Johnny Weir has had to deal with over the years, and even what he's had to deal with since Vancouver; I only have one more thing to mention. Johnny Weir and Olympic Gold Medalist Evan Lysacek have traded a few barbs over the years, especially the last three years or so. They are close in age, and basically came up through the ranks of both junior and senior levels of figure skating at the same time. Johnny Weir has leveled a few digs at Lysacek, and Lysacek has leveled a few digs at Weir. Neither of them has done it in a vacuum, and with a few exceptions one has often been responding to something the other said.
However, having said that, a few days ago on August 7, 2010 Evan Lysacek crossed the line. He said four little words that will forever taint anything he could possibly say afterward for a lot of fans. In response to a stupid question from a fan on Twitter, who was at the time going by @TahitianFantasy, but who later changed her name to @BahamaEscape and now to @MidnightInFiji (A Springfield), asked Lysacek this question:
'Hey Evan, is Johnny Weir really a guy? hard to tell from the photos I've seen LOL ;)'
To which Evan Lysacek replied: 'verdict is still out'.
At first glance it doesn't seem like much. However, look again, and think again. The question from @TahitianFantasy is clearly asking Evan Lysacek whether Weir is really a guy; and on top of that is done in a joking manner. This Tweet sat on Lysacek's feed for five hours, until he came along and decided to answer it. Of all the questions he could have picked out to answer, he picked out this one. Lysacek knows about the hurtful comments made about Weir's gender in Vancouver; not to mention the additional comments made about his sexuality, and he could easily have avoided answering this question altogether, however he chose not to ignore it and deliberately picked it out to respond to. Because of the comments in Vancouver, and the history between Weir and Lysacek, this can not possibly be written off as a flippant or joking remark. Questioning Weir's gender was not funny for Mailhot and Goldberg, and it isn't funny for Evan Lysacek either.
For around twelve hours fans of both Lysacek (who currently has 57,911 Twitter followers) and Weir (who currently has 64,538 Twitter followers) sent Lysacek questions about his Tweet and asked for explanations and hopefully an apology. Finally they received an answer, but it was't the one we expected. Lysacek first tried to claim the Tweet was sent from a 'fake account'; a Twitter member who has/had an account EvanIysacek (using a capital I instead of a L). The EvanIysacek account is a parody, and since the owner quickly responded and distanced himself from the remark this explanation did not wash for Lysacek. At this point he began to claim he was hacked. This also did not go over well with a lot of fans, and it was actually pretty stupid when all the facts are looked at. Evan sent the Tweets claiming he was hacked from his 'official' Twitter page, and this was all while the offending Tweet was sitting ON his 'official' Twitter page right underneath his explanations. 'Twittergate' as some fans have come to call it has been documented brilliantly in the Blog Olympic Gold Medalist Shows His True Colors with screen caps and timelines. If you read this, and I hope you do; you will probably understand why this was such a big deal and you will also see a mountain of evidence that makes it next to impossible to believe Lysacek's Tweet came from anyplace other than his 'official' account, or that he was hacked.
Some fans are completely convinced Evan Lysacek was genuinely hacked, and others do not see why this was all such a big deal. It was a big deal because Evan Lysacek answered a stupid, insulting question with a stupid insulting remark knowing what Weir has had to deal with in the past; and then tried to blame it on someone else. When blaming it on someone else did not work, he then tried to claim he was hacked. What's even worse is that the person who sent the question in the first place did not understand why it was such a big deal. At first she ignored it, and when people started calling 'her' on it and not just Lysacek she tried to push it off by saying she didn't like Weir. She thought it was okay to ask an insulting question about him because she 'doesn't support him'. In addition she has no idea what the difference between gay, gender, sex, trans-gender and so forth is. She even went as far as to tell me she 'didn't know Weir was gay' when she asked the question. And that makes it all okay? Is she seriously telling me she was questioning the gender of a man who she thought was straight? As if it was okay to question Weir's gender regardless of whether he is gay or straight.
Two or three days after the Tweet Lysacek sent an 'apology' out on his Twitter. However, even his apology was lame. Nowhere in his apology did he say 'I apologize...' or 'My apologies...', and he also did not apologize to his own fans, many of whom were deeply hurt by the whole mess. And no Evan, you're right, you can NOT apologize enough!
What was Johnny Weir doing while all this was going on? Nothing. Once again he responded with class and dignity and said nothing. He went on about his daily life; working, training, interviewing and made no comment whatsoever because he does have class and dignity. And good for him! His wonderful parents Patti and John Weir raised both their children properly, and trust me, it shows! As my friend 'Binky' said:
‘So he can look at your appalling little tweet, crinkle his nose at its foul aroma, and then step gracefully aside and sail right on past it up there on the high road, choosing not to dignify it with even the slightest bit of his attention.
And if somebody has the bad manners to ask him about it, he can simply smile, shake his head slightly, and respond, with grace and class (look ‘em up…) and a look of genuine pity on his beautiful face…’
One last thing; I promised my readers at Fanfiction.net an explanation for why I made a point of mentioning the 'hockey players' in Chapter Twenty-Three of my story 'A Force of Nature: Part II'. Episode 109 of 'Be Good Johnny Weir' covers the time between the U.S. Nationals Figure Skating Championships in January 2010 and the Vancouver Olympics in February 2010. It also covers some of the happenings in the first few weeks after the Olympics. Anyway, near the beginning of the episode Johnny is training at his rink and he is getting ready to leave. He tells us he has to 'go brave the hockey players'. He then tells us that 'last week they called me Johnny Queer', and goes on to say they made blow-job gestures at him. You see him nervously walking out of the rink carrying his skate bag and you can't help wondering if he's worried about another encounter with the dumb jock hockey players. Until we saw that scene a lot of Johnny's fans hadn't made as much of a personal connection with what he has had to deal with on a daily basis for a number of years now; the slurs, the comments, the gestures, etc. One of my friends said, "I never thought about him having to deal with it in his personal life."
He does have to deal with it in his personal life, and it's sad. It's sad for him, it's sad for Billy Van Raaphorst, and it's sad for the millions of other people out there like them. A lot of people out there should be ashamed of themselves, because all these people deserve better.
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gender test THIS
One huge misconception about men’s figure skating is that the presence of out queer men in the sport means the sport isn’t homophobic. Quite the contrary – the competitors, the commentators, the officials, and the fans of the sport are often quite blatantly homophobic (not to mention transphobic and misogynist). Three-time US Champion and world bronze medalist Johnny Weir has frequently been the target of this homophobia, perhaps most memorably when two French-Canadian radio hosts called for him to take a gender test because his gender presentation blows their narrow, hateful minds.
Sadly, it’s not just commentators who are this ignorant and awful. One of Weir’s competitors, 2010 Olympic gold medalist Evan Lysacek, just jumped on the “gender test” bandwagon. A fan asked him on Twitter:
The question itself was offensive enough, but Lysacek didn’t have to reply. He did, however, and this was his reply:
Uh, the verdict is never out on anyone’s gender. One’s gender identity is what they say it is, period, full stop, end of story. Any argument to the contrary is pure bigoted bullshit. Weir has vocally and repeatedly identified himself as male. That Lysacek would publicly mock and question Weir’s gender identity is disgusting and unforgivable. And it’s not coincidental that this is about Weir, who receives a disturbing amount of gender-policing because he is queer, unashamed, and does not conform to “approved” heteronormatively masculine standards. This comment is a hurtful not just to Weir, but to every fan of his who is a member of the LBGTQI community or an ally. Hell, this comment is hurtful to everyone.
Let’s be clear – this wasn’t a mistake, a misstep, or a slip of the tongue. Lysacek went through his @replies on Twitter, deliberately selected this question, and then replied to it on his public Twitter, where it remained for close to 12 hours, despite the numerous fans tweeting him to tell him how offensive and horrible it was for him to say something like that. Here is a screencap that demonstrates that his reply remained on his Twitter while he continued to tweet about other subjects:
You can see the tweet in question, plus numerous other tweets. You can see that it is from his verified account. (You can also see that I had no idea how to screencap on my computer, which is slightly embarrassing.) There is no question that this tweet was legitimately from Lysacek.
If Lysacek had simply apologized, people might have been willing to forgive him. Instead, he tried to deflect the attention from himself in the most cynical, absurd way. He started to call attention a fake Evan Lysacek Twitter (the username of that fake Twitter was evanIysacek with a capital “I” instead of an “l,” which look identical on Twitter) and claimed he would never say any of the things on that fake Twitter.
Lysacek’s rep, Yuki Saegusa (@YukiSNYC on Twitter), retweeted the first message. EDITED TO ADD that Saegusa has now deleted her Tweet. It’s capped in someone’s Google reader here:
It’s seems like Lysacek and his PR team are trying to imply that it was actually the fake Evan Lyacek Twitter that said the “verdict was still out” on Weir’s gender ID. At the very least, it appears that Lysacek and Saegusa are trying to get the word out that there is a fake Evan Lysacek Twitter so the issue becomes more confusing and people question whether or not Lysacek even said such a thing. Instead of just owning up to Lysacek’s homophobic remark and apologizing, Lysacek and his PR team are trying to obfuscate, or at the very least ignore, the issue. This kind of PR move is disingenuous and ridiculous.
Not only that, but this PR move was a giant failure for several reasons. First, while Lysacek was complaining about someone Tweeting horrible things from a fake Evan Lysacek Twitter, he had yet to remove his offensive Tweet about Weir from his Twitter. See these screencaps:
This screencap highlights that the Tweet in question actually came from Evan’s official and real Twitter – you see that the Twitter in question is EvanLysacek with a capital L. There is also my cap again:
EDITED TO ADD that someone was kind enough to mark up my cap so the proof that it’s Lysacek’s official Twitter is more clear:
Again, this demonstrates that the Tweet about Weir did actually come from Lysacek’s real, verified account, not a fake one. Shortly after this cap was taken, Lysacek deleted the Tweet about Weir. However, if Lysacek wanted this pathetic PR ploy to work, he probably should have deleted the offensive Tweet BEFORE he started claiming it was a fake Twitter who was saying such offensive things.
EDITED TO ADD that there are more screencaps and proof. Here is another screencap of Evan’s Twitter, taken by someone else at a slightly later time than I capped mine:
And here is a cap of a Google Reader page that also shows that Lysacek’s offical account made the Tweet about Weir’s gender ID:
Second, though there was a fake Evan Lysacek Twitter with that username, which has since been renamed to @notevanidiots, the fake Twitter never said anything about Weir’s gender. In fact, whoever runs the fake Evan Lysacek Twitter has been repeatedly distancing themselves from Lysacek’s hurtful comment, at one point Tweeting:
I am extremely disappointed in my actual person. No one should ever make a comment like that. I, fake Evan, promise to be better than that.
Damn. I like fake Evan Lysacek better than the real one.
To recap, Lysacek made an offensive, bigoted comment that mocked and questioned Weir’s gender ID. He left it up for hours and hours, while Tweeting about other things like who he was going to eat with. Instead of apologizing, he tried to deflect blame to a fake Twitter, then deleted the Tweet and now seems to be pretending it never happened. Everyone who watched this go down in real time knows that it happened and has screencaps to prove it, and if Lysacek continues to deflect blame or tries to pretend he was hacked, it will demonstrate that not only is he a bigot, but he also must think that his fans are total idiots who don’t know how Twitter works.
EDITED TO ADD that Evan has, in fact, started claiming he was hacked. He has deleted a number of his Tweets, including ones that had nothing to do with this entire controversy, and Saegusa deleted her Tweet about the fake Evan Lysacek account. If you’ve been following this, you will probably find it quite hard to believe that he was hacked. I think the screencaps speak for themselves. Here’s Lysacek crying hack:
EDITED TO ADD Lysacek has now deleted every Tweet of his since April that is not a retweet. I’m not sure if he’s gearing up to claim that everything he has tweeted since April was actually the work of a hacker or what.
EDITED AGAIN TO ADD that @fsonline on Twitter is reporting that Twitter “verified” that Evan was hacked, but there is absolutely no evidence indicating that this is true. Moreover, Evan has still not denounced any of the things his supposed “hacker” said, made any kind of statement, or attempted to explain this mess at all. If anyone has any official confirmation from Twitter that he was hacked, feel free to post it, but I haven’t found any yet.
ONE LAST EDIT It’s been brought to my attention that there is some suspicious stuff happening on Lysacek’s official Facebook page. For example, when he Tweeted about the fake Evan Lysacek Twitter and tried to shift the blame for his Tweet about Weir, a similar message was also posted to his Facebook page. This is my screencap of it:
You can see that the comment about the fake Evan Lysacek Twitter remains on his Facebook page, more than 24 hours after Lysacek deleted the Tweets from his verified, official Twitter account that shifted blame onto the fake account and started saying he was hacked. You can also see that Lysacek’s Facebook account has been updated to say that his Twitter was hacked.
Lysacek’s insistence that he was hacked makes no sense in light of this information. If the offensive Tweet about Weir and the Tweets about the fake Evan Lysacek Twitter were truly the work of someone who hacked Lysacek’s Twitter, then the same information about the fake Twitter account never would have been posted on Lysacek’s official Facebook page. The information that was supposedly disseminated onto Lysacek’s official Twitter feed by a hacker was also disseminated onto Lysacek’s Facebook and HAS NOT BEEN REMOVED, even though Lysacek’s PR team has updated his Facebook to say his Twitter was hacked. The only possible explanation is that Lysacek and his PR people made both the Tweets about the fake Evan Lysacek Twitter and the Facebook update about the fake Evan Lysacek Twitter. This makes their claim that Lysacek’s Twitter was hacked and that a hacker was Tweeting about Weir and fake accounts even more ridiculous and unbelievable.
THE EDITS KEEP COMING Lysacek has just “apologized.” Caps here:
Nothing in this apology acknowledges that Lysacek himself was the one that made the comment – in fact, the vague “Am taking measures to make sure this never happens again” seems to suggest that rather than taking responsibility for what he said, he’s trying to deflect the blame onto a hack AGAIN. Not to mention that if he couldn’t “apologize enough,” he probably would have started doing so right away, instead of trying to blame a fake Twitter and then calling hack.
There has still yet to be any independent verification or confirmation from Twitter that Lysacek was hacked. But instead of owning up to his commen, he continues to try to weasel out of responsibility, even while nominally apologizing for it. I see their PR strategy still relies on assuming Lysacek’s fans do not know how the Internet works.
This kind of behavior is unacceptable from anyone, but for a public figure to do it in a public forum is especially awful. It breaks my heart to think about the young queer, genderqueer, gender variant, transgender, and questioning figure skaters and fans of figure skating who had to see Lysacek mock someone’s gender ID and know that this how an Olympic gold medalist of their sport behaves.
As a figure skating fan, I’m disturbed and horrified that the current men’s Olympic gold medalist and ambassador of the sport is such an unapologetic bigot. I’m also disturbed and horrified that unless people start talking about this, telling their friends, and contacting his sponsors, Lysacek will most likely escape from this unscathed. The best thing to do is to refuse to be silent or forget about this – blog about it, link your friends to it, link it to other blogs, and contact his sponsors and let them know that they’re supporting a homophobe and you’re not okay with it. You can contact his sponsors here:
Notes: These screencaps have been culled from a variety of sources in different timezones. None of them have had the information, the timestamps, or the words changed. The full-desktop screencap is from my computer, which is on CST. If I used one of your screencaps and you would like credit for it, just comment and let me know. If you know of more companies that sponsor or support Lysacek and have contact info for them, let me know and I’ll edit that info into the post.
I will be deleting any comment that implies that Weir somehow deserves this kind of gender-policing. No one deserves this kind of gender-policing, regardless of who they are or what your feelings on them are.
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Notes: These screencaps have been culled from a variety of sources in different timezones. None of them have had the information, the timestamps, or the words changed. The full-desktop screencap is from my computer, which is on CST. If I used one of your screencaps and you would like credit for it, just comment and let me know. If you know of more companies that sponsor or support Lysacek and have contact info for them, let me know and I’ll edit that info into the post.
I will be deleting any comment that implies that Weir somehow deserves this kind of gender-policing. No one deserves this kind of gender-policing, regardless of who they are or what your feelings on them are.
The original version of this post was focused on the homophobia of Lysacek’s comment and marginalized the transphobia that his insulting remark was dependent on. I sincerely apologize for marginalizing the transphobic nature of his comment and I have edited the post to reflect that. There is more discussion of this in the comments, if you’re interested. I welcome discussion of this and any suggestions for additional edits to my post.
However, this blog is intended primarily to create a timeline of events and to provide screencaps.
I have had a rough couple of days. Many of my online friends understand why, however not all of them do. Since a nasty incident in another forum a couple nights ago I have experienced two days of some of the nastiest tweets and name calling I have come across in sixteen years of accessing the Internet.
A few hours after the problems a couple evenings ago I found out that one of the troublemakers in the other forum was telling many other people I had sent someone a racist private message. I didn't take it all seriously at first, because I certainly knew I had done no such thing. I assumed either the person who had supposedly received the message lied, or the person claiming they had been told about it had lied. The next day I had numerous Tweets in my Twitter feed calling me all manner of names, about the nicest of which was 'racist douchebag'. I did what some people naturally want to do in this sort of situation, I considered answering every Tweet; however I changed my mind. I did the intelligent thing, I screen shot captured every single Tweet, I saved the links, I blocked everyone involved, and then I reported them to Twitter.
Late last night I did something that, at the time, may not have seemed like such a hot idea. However, it worked out in a sense, because the person the racist message was supposedly sent to provided me with a screen shot copy of this message. I was shocked by two things; 1) the content of the message, and 2) that someone would try to claim I actually sent it to someone. Not only did I not send this message, but I have no clue who did.
This is the message this person claims to have received from me:
Now, at first glance this message looks pretty bad for me. However, take a second look at it. There is obvious incorrect spelling; there are obvious grammatical mistakes, problems with capitalization, and it also looks patched together. The differences in tone, grammar and language between several of the sentences also indicate it was written by more than one person; and the grayish background behind the letters is an indication it was either Photoshopped or cut and pasted by some other manner.
When I deal with Twitter, and sometimes with text messages I will use shorthand and abbreviations, and I don't always capitalize every place I should. However, anyone who knows me also knows I am a stickler for spelling, punctuation, grammar and correct capitalization. I have been known to delete and repost posts and even Tweets because of spelling or grammatical mistakes. I have been known to repost entire chapters of fiction stories I write because I later find one tiny grammatical mistake, or one incorrectly spelled word or the wrong form of a word I missed while doing spell check.
In addition to the spelling and punctuation, I have no corresponding outgoing message from my personal mailbox. Of course one could attempt to explain I simply deleted it, however I did not. I could not, because I never sent it in the first place. I do not know if this person faked this message themselves, or someone else faked it and allowed them to believe I had sent it. However, I can guarantee it did NOT come from me.
On a personal level I abhor the sort of language and name calling you see in the above message. I find it personally insulting and sickening that someone would:
1) send this message in the first place;
and
2) claim it came from someone else, in this case me.
In addition, the person who sent this obviously knows nothing about me personally. Not only do I not agree with what is said, my family is part Mexican. So, basically whomever sent this message, I mean faked this message; is accusing me of not only being a racist, but by extension of insulting my own family, not to mention all the friends and acquaintances I have who are also Mexican or of Hispanic or Latino descent. Therefore the person who sent this faked message is not only insulting and attacking me, but by extension my family, and many of my friends and acquaintances.
No one, I repeat, no one, had the guts to say anything to my face about this phantom racist message; they simply went around telling people I had done it, and didn't bother to even ask me about it, or to confront me about it in any way. That is completely and truly pathetic and trashy.
Earlier today I was out running errands and feeling just a little depressed about everything that has been going on lately online. It seems like some people want to ruin things for everyone else for whatever reason. It doesn't seem as if simply blocking or not communicating with those you don't agree with is enough for some people; they also have to attack them, try to get them banned, send fake messages about them, get people who don't know them involved, and try to destroy any fun anyone is having with anything by stirring up trouble.
While out on my errands earlier I sent the following Tweets via my cell phone:
When I sent these Tweets I had not yet seen the copy of the racist message I supposedly sent. Now that I have, the above Tweets seem somewhat prophetic.
