Olympian Johnny Weir addresses the cheap shots: “I believe masculinity is what you believe it to be”

Johnny Weir is my hero.

He held a press conference to address the homophobic remarks made by French-language broadcasters Claude Mailhot and Alain Goldberg who had said Johnny hurts figure skating’s image and that he should be made to take a gender test.

“I’m not somebody to cry over something or to be weak about something,” Johnny said. “I felt very defiant when I saw these comments. It wasn’t these two men criticizing my skating, it was them criticizing me as a person, and that was something that really, frankly, pissed me off…I hope more kids can grow up the same way 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.”

I wonder if Johnny will ever know how many kids out there he has helped by speaking out and by being himself.