By Cyd Zeigler, Jr.
http://Outsports.com

The most entertaining event at these Olympics has been watching the press dance around the sexuality of the most “flamboyant” Olympian ever. Because they haven’t gotten the outrageous 21-year-old figure skater from Delaware to spell it out for them, media outlets give Johnny Weir the code word “flamboyant” and discuss how he “flamed out” on the ice, in an innuendo-filled term worthy of a ‘70s sitcom. 

NBC flashed a Chyron before his long program that read, “Fashion diva Johnny Weir and his outrageous style” and had Weir on Sunday night for a special episode of “Weir Eye for the Skate Guy.” Are the Fab Five abuot to become the Sexy Six? 

I have yet to meet a straight male sports “diva”—not even Terrell Owens. So why has only one reporter asked Weir, flat-out, if he’s gay?

Reporters have reasoned “it isn’t news” for years when not asking politicians, entertainers and athletes about their sexual orientation, as opposed to asking them about their personal relationships with women and cigars.

“It has nothing to do with their athletic ability,” they say. Yet these same reporters have written about Derek Jeter’s affair with Mariah Carey, Anna Kournikova’s navel and Kobe Bryant’s “legal troubles” ad nauseum. 

Most sports reporters think being gay is something shameful, and they don’t want to piss off a source. They also don’t want to have anything to do with anything remotely homosexual, especially if they might see it shvinging in a locker room. And then they’re scared of gay organizations ripping them a new one if they “out” an athlete. 

In fact, the one reporter who asked Weir the question everyone else wanted to ask was promptly ripped apart by his fellow sports columnists for daring to do more than dance around the Forbidden Subject. Gee, last time I looked, solid reporters considered it their duty to ask the questions everyone wanted the answers to—no matter if it ruffled a few feathers. 

But this isn’t all the press’ fault. With all of this tiptoeing and assuming, why doesn’t Weir just come out and say the “G” word?

For one, there are plenty of middle-aged women in Nebraska and Ohio (and Manhattan, for that matter) who will believe he’s just “an artistic boy” until he’s either caught in a rest stop with his pants down or he says those five magical words: “Yes, I’m a big ole homo.” If, after all these years, people can still think Clay Aiken and Tom Cruise are straight, then Johnny-Come-Lately Weir has a free pass with these women—until the next Olympics.

Weir also seems to be getting a big kick out of all of this pussyfooting around (as it were). He must be sitting back in his hotel room at night, seeing clips of himself on TV calling himself “princess-y” and saying he’s not a jock but a diva in sequins, and having a good laugh at the press’ expense.

Even so, he has come out. 

My guess is, if you could get him alone for three minutes, off the record, and you asked him if he’s gay, he’d probably say, “What? Are you some idiot? Have you not seen the outfits I’ve been wearing? Did you not hear that I called one of my outfits ‘Camille’ and insisted that it was spelled with two L’s? Did you not see those sunglasses I wore on that NBC interview? How much do I have to talk about Christina Aguilera?”

While the rest of us clamor for clarity, needing to hear those words that Ellen and Rosie and Sir Elton have given us, Weir must be laughing at how ridiculous we all look trying to piece together whether this kid is queer or not. Weir doesn’t play by society’s rules, and he’s certainly not going to come out by them.

Cyd Zeigler, Jr., is the co-founder of Outsports.com.