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As I cheer on my sister, Amber Glenn, during her first-ever Olympics, I’m so proud of the person and athlete she is. And, of course, with that love comes a fierce desire to protect her from the ugliness and hate I’m seeing online.
Recently, Amber was interviewed by our longtime friend Ashley Cain, the cohost of the Flame Bearers and Culxtured series Making It to Milan, about Amber’s journey to the Games, equity in sports, and her advice for young athletes. I was thrilled to be a part of her episode, too, and talk about what it means to me to see someone I love so much finally get the honor and recognition she deserves.
Amber has always been exceptional. In a sport where longevity often leads to burnout, she has stayed relentlessly devoted to her dream. After more than a decade in international figure skating, three consecutive US national champion titles, and now a gold medal at her very first Olympics, she’s shown the world that she fights for her dreams and doesn’t give up.
The same goes for her beliefs and values. Amber has always been unapologetically exactly who she is. For Amber, being the first out LGBTQ+ woman on a US Olympic figure skating team means more than just a footnote in her bio. She wears the Pride flag pin not for attention or because it’s on trend, but because she’s had to fight to love herself unconditionally, and she wants the same for LGBTQ+ people across the country.
You may be wondering what my sister said to bring on such vicious hatred. When asked at a press conference about her views on Trump’s impact on the LGBTQ+ community, she responded: “It’s been a hard time for the [LGBTQ+] community overall in this administration. It isn’t the first time that we’ve had to come together as a community and try and fight for our human rights.”
She never expressed a lack of respect or a lack of appreciation for this country. She simply spoke about what millions of Americans are living right now, as shown in the more than 400 anti-LGBTQ+ bills that have been introduced in the US so far this year, according to the ACLU. That’s when the hate started pouring in. This isn’t criticism; this is an attempt to strip away someone’s humanity, all because what she’s saying is different and scary to them.
Especially now, as Amber prepares for one of the biggest moments of her career, she should not have to carry the hate she has received while also trying to land her jumps. No athlete should. We say we want people to be authentic, then we recoil when they are. We say athletes are role models, then we demand they stay silent about their own lives. We celebrate them right up until they make us uncomfortable, and then we say they are horrible people.
For me, there was never a question of whether or not I would love and support my sister unconditionally—love doesn’t have strings attached. Neither does allyship. Our parents taught us to treat all people with love and respect, even if we don’t understand where they’re coming from. You don’t have to be LGBTQ+ (or even understand what it means) to agree that people deserve to be who they are, and love who they love, without receiving hate.
Allyship is supposed to be uncomfortable. That’s kind of the point. It gives us just a taste of what the people we care about deal with day in and day out. If it makes us feel overwhelmed, we can imagine how they must feel all the time. Through the years, I’ve seen the beautiful and terrifying sides of people reflected through sports. I’ve seen how sports can bring people together across divides, and how groups and platforms like Flame Bearers champion women exactly as they are. I’ve also seen the way that people use sport as a space to promote bigotry, declaring that there’s only one way to be an athlete, a woman, an American.
When I see my sister with her teammates, beaming with pride, I think of the good in sports. Beyond any medal, seeing my sister happy is the greatest victory. Seeing all the positive comments in Flame Bearers’ feed reminds me that there are other people out there who celebrate diversity and lead with compassion. I’m going to keep looking toward the light, and doing all I can to outshine the dark.
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