First please understand. I was a hardcore Johnny Stan. I have his book, I sent him flowers, I defended him through a lot, his fuck ups and all.

And yes, figure skating is actually quite a homophobic sport in a lot of respects. Likely amplified as a push back to the 'FS is gay!' stereotype.

But do not make Johnny a martyr against the Homophobia of the sport.

Johnny was not 'kept down' or anything by judges as a punishment for his sexuality. Even though I, in my youth, had claimed that on some occasions, I later understood it was wrong.

Let's not kid ourselves. The USFSA HATED Johnny. But it was arguably more his Russophilia and general penchant to be more of the rebel.

Even Johnny says it in his book. Russian coach, Russian training gear. He did not want to play the safe image the USFSA loved. (Hence why they LOVE Evan Lysacek. They didn't even love Jeremy Abbott as much.)

Johnny also had a flaking problem. He would get sick before competitions he felt nervous about, which leads me to my next point. Johnny was good but he was inconsistent af.

Johnny was generally well liked outside the USFSA. There was even talks of him skating for Russia instead at some point, so non American judges had no reason to shafts him.

Stephane is just as ~Flamboyant~ as Johnny. And Stephane WAS in fact one of the best, and was for a time, the epitome of ~artistry~ in men's skating. He got better than Johhny and he was consistent.

His Olympic scandal was bad, yeah. Those assholes were the worst and Johnny bore the brunt of it because they made a comment about getting a gender test.

But he was not singled out. They made several gay jokes through out and what even stuck out to me at the time was the brokeback comment they made towards Contesti.

Don't get me wrong, he did get it worse from homophobes. But it wasn't an unbearable looming shadow that hindered his career.

Most of the time, it was only how english commentators knew only one adjective for him: flamboyant. Which was code for gay, obvs.

Yes, fight back against homophobia in the sport. Celebrate lgbt skaters! But do not martyr Johnny and put him on a pedestal.