johnny weir on learning that french commentators had questioned his gender and made other jibes during his performance. short and awesome enough that i typed up a transcript for you.I’m not somebody to cry over something or to feel weak about something. I felt very defiant when I saw those comments. I saw that it wasn’t these two men criticizing my skating, it wasn’t them criticizing my anything, it was them criticizing me as a person, and that was something that really frankly pissed me off. So more than anything I felt that I just had to make a comment or a statement saying that I hope more kids can grow up the same way that I did, and more kids can feel the freedom that I feel to be themselves and to express themselves. And that’s the most important thing. That’s the message I want to come out of all of this, because out of ugly, I think the most important thing to do in life is to make something beautiful.
I can’t say anything mean. I mean, I’m totally for freedom of speech, and voicing your own opinion, so I can’t like have them fired because they voiced their opinion, and just the fact that they’re on television, I mean - I’ve heard worse in bathrooms and whatnot about me. So it’s not a big issue for me that they said it, it’s just that I didn’t want other kids to have that same issue, and other people in the public eye to have the same issue. If I had the chance to sit down with them over a poutine, I think we’d all be lovely people together. I think they would get to see who I really am, because being an athlete and being a figure skater, I rarely have the opportunity to voice my opinion without it being misquoted. I’m always thought of as the sparkly flamboyant character that wore a crown of roses. I mean, that’s what people see of me and they come up with a notion of what I must be like. And aside from my circle of very close friends and people, nobody knows me. Nobody knows what makes me tick. Nobody knows what’s inside here [points to head] and here [points to heart].
I think masculinity is what you believe it to be. To me, masculinity, it’s all my perception. And I think masculinity and femininity, it’s something that’s very old-fashioned. There’s a whole new generation of people that’s not defined by their sex or their race or who they like to sleep with. I think as a person you know what your values are and what you believe in, and I think that’s the most important thing.
Oh god the whole thing is even MORE awesome.
