Amber Glenn, the first openly LGBTQ+ athlete to compete in women’s figure skating at the Winter Olympics, won her first Olympic gold medal over the weekend.
The skater came in first alongside Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu, Ellie Kam, Daniel O’Shea, Madison Chock and Evan Bates in the figure skating team event in Milan, which consists of men’s singles, women’s singles, pair skating and ice dance. Japan won the silver medal while the team from Italy took the bronze.
After winning gold, Glenn, who is openly bisexual and pansexual, spoke about the backlash she has received for her vocal support of LGBTQ+ rights.
At a press conference, she said: “I couldn’t believe the outlandish backlash I received for just supporting people. Of course, I have people supporting me, and I’m not online right now because of it, but I’m gonna keep speaking my truth.
“I’m gonna keep representing what I believe in and what I think all Americans believe in, which is freedom and being able to love and do what you want. So, I just hope we can keep going forward and be positive.”
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Glenn will compete again in the women’s individual event on February 17.
The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics are the most queer-inclusive in the history of the games, with a record-breaking 45 publicly out athletes competing. Among them is Gus Kentworthy, a Team GB skier who recently received homophobic abuse after sharing a post condemning the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.
In a video posted to Instagram, he told his followers: “The other day I posted a photo with my thoughts on ICE and that photo has since gone everywhere – and I’ve gotten a ton of messages and most of them honestly have been supportive and encouraging.
“But a lot of the messages have been awful, people telling me to kill myself, threatening me, wishing they’ll get to see me blow my knee or break my neck during my event, calling me slurs. It’s insane.”
Kentworthy then showed his followers some of the messages, which included homophobic slurs.
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