Gay abandon required in frozen closet of male ice skating

The perception that male ice skaters are gay — and the hostility behind it — is the sport’s dirty little secret, writes Abigail Jones

Deep in the iron belt of the northern US state of Minnesota, where boys are raised to be manly men and hockey is holy, Brandon Larcom grew up figure skating. From the moment he first stepped onto the ice at the age of 3, he had dreamed of becoming the next Wayne Gretzky, but a skull deficiency kept him out of contact sports.

“I’m the only male figure skater up there, and my dad’s the town sheriff, and my brother pitches for the high school baseball team. It sounds like a movie,” says Larcom, now 30, talking on the phone from the Toyota Sports Center rink in Los Angeles, where he coaches figure skating and hockey. “Growing up straight in a dominantly homophobic and homosexual sport was hard for me and for them,” he adds. “I remember my family defending my sexuality before I even understood what sexuality meant.”