July 2

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1870 – Liane De Pougy, Parisian courtesan and nun, born (d.1950).

On her first trip to Paris as a young woman, Natalie Barney walked the fashionable streets of the city studying women while her mother was at a studio studying portrait painting. One day she saw an exquisite woman in the Bois de Boulogne, and, making inquiry, learned that the fur-cloaked beauty was Liane de Pougy, the most famous courtesan in Paris. What she learned as well, was that Liane was a Lesbian just like herself, yet sold herself to men, and at a very high price.

Natalie Barney resolved on the spot that she would rescue Liane de Pougy from her "dreadful life" and make her her own. She even went to the courtesan's house, but was turned away by the maid who informed her that Madame never rose before eleven. Just then Natalie received the news that her father wanted her to return to America, where she was to make her debut. Undaunted, she swore that she would return someday to Paris and take Liane de Pougy, whom she had only once glimpsed, as her lover. And she did.

De Pougy's affair with Barney is recorded in her novel Idylle Saphique, published around 1901. In 1899, Barney presented herself at de Pougy's residence in a page costume and announced that she was a "page of love" sent by Sappho. Although de Pougy was one of the most famous women in France at the time, constantly sought after by wealthy and titled men, Barney's audacity charmed and seduced her. The two were said to have had deep feelings for one another for the remainder of their lives.

De Pougy was born Anne Marie Chassaigne in La Flèche, Sarthe, France, the daughter and raised in a nunnery. At the age of 16, she ran off with Armand Pourpe, a naval officer, marrying because she was pregnant. The baby was named Marco Pourpe, and his mother was, in her own opinion 'a terrible mother'. 'My son was like a living doll given to a little girl'. She would have preferred the baby to be a girl 'because of the dresses and the curly hair'. (Marco grew up to volunteer as an airman in WWI and was killed on 2 December 1914 near Villers-Brettoneux.)

When Armand Pourpe's naval career led him to a billet in Marseilles, Anne-Marie took a lover, the Marquis Charles de MacMahon. When her husband found them in bed together he shot her with a revolver, wounding her on the wrist. Deciding to leave her husband, Anne Marie sold her rosewood piano to a young man who paid 400 francs cash for the instrument. Within an hour, Anne Marie was on her way to Paris, leaving her infant son with his father, who in turn sent his son to live with the boy's grandparents, in Suez.

With the failure of her marriage, Anne Marie began dabbling in acting and prostitution and it is now known that she was a heavy user of both cocaine and opium.

She began her career as a courtesan with the Countess Valtesse de la Bigne, who taught Anne-Marie the profession and whose monumental bed was made of varnished bronze. She made minor appearances in the chorus of Folies-Bergere in Paris in St. Petersburg and cabaret clubs in Rome and the French Riviera.

After moving to Paris, from her position at the Folies she became a noted demimondaine, and a rival of "La Belle Otero". She took her last name from one of her paramours, a Comte or Vicomte de Pougy.

Upon her marriage to Prince Georges Ghika in 1920 de Pougy became Princess Ghika; this marriage ended in separation, though not divorce. Her son's death as an aviator in WWI turned her towards religion and she became a tertiary of the Order of Saint Dominic as Sister Anne-Mary. After a life as the most celebrated courtesan of la belle époque, serving both men and women, Liane de Pougy retired to a convent as Saint Mary Magdalene of Repentence. She became involved in the Asylum of Saint Agnes, devoted to the care of children with birth defects. She died at Lausanne.

1906 – The writer and painter Richard Bruce Nugent was born (d.1987). Also known as "Richard Bruce" and "Bruce Nugent", he was a Gay American writer and painter in the Harlem Renaissance. He was born in Washington, DC to a prominent African American family. Spending a large part of his life in New York City, he died in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Most significantly, Nugent was the first African American to publish a story (Smoke, Lilies, and Jade) that featured unabashedly homosexual characters and desires. This story appeared in the first and only issue of the art magazine Fire!!. He collaborated on this story with other authors. From 1926 to 1928 he lived with the writer Wallace Thurman as his partner in Harlem, New York. Their house was known as "Niggeratti Manor" and the walls were decorated by Nugent with murals representing homoerotic scenes.

He is a principal character in the 2004 film Brother to Brother. In 2002 Duke University Press released Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance: Selections from the Work of Richard Bruce Nugent which included examples of his writing and artwork.

1915 – Trent Junior Durkin (d.1935) was an American stage and film actor.

Trent Bernard Durkin was born in New York City. He began his acting career in theater as a child. Durkin first appeared in films in 1930, playing the role of Huckleberry Finn in Tom Sawyer (1930) and in Huckleberry Finn (1931), both times with Jackie Coogan playing Tom Sawyer. Under contract to RKO Radio Pictures, he was cast in a series of "B" films in comedy roles that capitalized on his gangly appearance. He co-starred in Hell's House (1932) with then newcomer Bette Davis.

RKO began grooming him for more adult roles. In his final film Chasing Yesterday (1935), he was billed as Trent Durkin.

In 1935, Durkin was returning from a hunting trip in Mexico with Jackie Coogan and three others, including Coogan's father, and writer Robert Horner. Coogan's father had to swerve to avoid colliding with a car coming straight at him, and his car left the road, rolling repeatedly until it landed in a creek bed. The accident occurred about 50 miles (80 km) from San Diego, California. Jackie Coogan was the only survivor.

At the time, Durkin was living with agent Henry Willson, and they were rumored to be lovers.

1920 – The American novelist and memoirist Donald Windham was born on this date (d.2010). He is perhaps best known for his close friendships with Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Windham moved with his partner Fred Melton, an artist, to New York City in 1939, where he collaborated with Williams on a play, You Touched Me!, based on a D.H. Lawrence story, in 1942. While Windham stayed in New York, Williams wandered between Provincetown, Mass, and other places in search of boys and a quiet retreat in which to write. During those years began a correspondence which Windham collected and finally published in 1977. Although Williams published his own rather disappointing autobiography, the Windham letters, with the novelist's excellent annotations, are the real, albeit incomplete, Tennessee Williams memoir. The letters are dazzling, unguarded, racy, funny, and, above all, revealing of every flattering and not so flattering aspect of the famous playwright over a twenty-five year period. Windham became estranged from Williams in the Seventies after Williams published his Memoirs (1975), which Williams claimed was done without his permission. However, Windham remained a friend of Capote until Capote's death.

Windham also met and befriended such diverse figures as Lincoln Kirstein, Pavel Tchelitchew and Paul Cadmus.

In 1943, after Melton had married, Windham met Sandy Montgomery Campbell, who became his lifelong partner. An actor and publisher of high quality limited editions, Campbell published many of the first editions of Windham's works, until his death in 1988.

Windham's novels include The Dog Star (1950), praised by André Gide and Thomas Mann; The Hero Continues (1960), which was likely based on Williams; Two People (1965); and Tanaquil (1972), based on the life of George Platt Lynes. Lost Friendships, a memoir of his friendship with Capote and Williams, was published in 1987. It has been regarded by some as his best book. Homosexuality is one of many themes treated in his work.

In June 2011 it was announced that Yale University will administer the Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes.

1923 – George Augustine Hyde (d.2010) was an American bishop. He founded the Society of Domestic Missionaries and co-established with John Kazantks the first Christian congregation in the United States to minister openly to and with openly homosexual parishioners. He later served as metropolitan archbishop of the Orthodox-Catholic Church of America from 1970 to 1983.

Hyde was a native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, who grew up in a Southern Baptist family in Atlanta and attended a seminary though he did not complete his seminary education. He was a high school teacher in Atlanta when he met Kazantks, an immigrant from Greece and former bishop of the Greek Orthodox Church who had been forced out of his native country after coming out.

Affected by the denial of communion to, or outright excommunication of, openly homosexual parishioners, Hyde and Kazantks set out to form their own independent congregation that would welcome openly homosexual members. Their newly formed independent parish held its first formal meeting at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta on July 1, 1946, on the occasion of Hyde's ordination to the priesthood of the parish at the hands of Bishop Kazantks.

The congregation celebrated Mass in the meeting room of the hotel, with its rental costs underwritten by the management of the Cotton Blossom Room, a gay bar located within the hotel, until late November when it moved to a large residential building in Atlanta's business district that could house a chapel and living quarters for local clergy. Informational and instructional classes continued to be held at the hotel until it was destroyed by fire on December 7.

The church grew from an initial 85 members to over 200 members by the end of 1947, partly due to word of mouth promotion through Atlanta's LGBT community. In 1950, Hyde established the Society of Domestic Missionaries which coupled its missionary work with secular jobs as domestic workers.

Kazantks, who had moved to Savannah to help develop the church in southern Georgia, returned to Greece in 1957 and died there later that year. Before leaving, Kazantks placed Hyde in touch with Archbishop Clement Sherwood of the American Holy Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Eastern Church, who ordained him a bishop of the church on May 7, 1957. In 1960, Sherwood designated Hyde as "Bishop of the Western Rite Missions" of the OCCA and charged him with furthering the consolidation of ethnic bishoprics within the church into an indigenous Orthodox tradition.

Sherwood died on April 9, 1969. The following year, Hyde was elected and enthroned as metropolitan archbishop, resulting in an exodus of ethnic bishoprics within the church who feared the new name of the "Orthodox-Catholic Church of America" would be foisted on them.

Hyde retired for health reasons in 1983 and was succeeded by Metropolitan Archbishop Alfred Louis Lankenau as primate of the church. He came out of retirement in 1995 when the OCCA began to ordain women as clergy, a move which Hyde opposed. Hyde led a schism of members from the OCCA (known as the Autocephalous Orthodox Catholic Church of America) while living at his home in Bellaire, Florida[disambiguation needed], a practice which he continued until his death on May 4, 2010. His ashes were interred in his family plot in Marietta, Georgia.

1944 – Tim Kincaid is an American film director, film writer and film producer often credited as Joe Gage or Mac Larson.

Born in Santa Barbara, California, and raised on Catalina Island, Kincaid wrote and directed an influential trilogy of gay films, collectively referred to as either “The Kansas City Trilogy” or “The Working Man Trilogy” in the late 1970s under the name Joe Gage. The films, Kansas City Trucking Co., El Paso Wrecking Corp. and L.A. Tool & Die, were praised for their consistent portrayals of male/male sex occurring between rugged, masculine men who came from blue-collar and rural backgrounds and who related as "equal partners" — avoiding the frequent stereotypes of such men as effeminate inhabitants of urban gay neighborhoods, or who were caught up in a constraining "you play the woman, I’ll be the man" mindset of dominant/submissive roles. While the sex was sometimes rough and occurred in disreputable venues such as truck-station restrooms, the characters in the Gage films often displayed bonds of male camaraderie that went beyond fleeting sexual intercourse, and that more or less entirely ignored the boundaries of "homosexual" and "heterosexual" social identity.

Some of the characters in Gage's films can be clearly understood as "gay identified", while others are just as clearly intended to represent bisexual men who normally inhabit the heterosexual world and may even be happily married. Many other characters defy easy categorization, however. "I never went out of my way to emphasize the butch or straight attributes of my guys--I always sought to portray them as representatives of the average, ordinary, for the most part, working-class citizen." The Trilogy films also were praised for their cinematography, editing, music, sound design and use of natural locations.

In addition to the trilogy, Kincaid directed (also under the name Joe Gage) several notable gay adult films in the early '80s, including Closed Set and Heatstroke. Under the pseudonym Mac Larson, Kincaid directed several-lower budgeted and grittier titles, but these films did not have the same lasting impact as those that he directed under his Joe Gage moniker.

 Sylvia speaking in front of Stonewall Bar 2002

1951 – A legendary veteran of the Stonewall Riots (June 27-29, 1969), Sylvia Rivera (d.2002) is notable for helping to spark the event that ushered in the modern-day Gay Rights Movement. Indeed, Rivera spent most of her life at the forefront of both transgender and gay activism, tirelessly advocating and demonstrating for glbtq rights and inclusive social policies. At the same time, Rivera also struggled against and drew attention to the transphobia that continues to exist within the larger gay and lesbian community.

Born Rey (Ray) Rivera Mendoza on July 2, 1951, she was raised by her grandmother, who deplored Ray's effeminate nature, and dressing up in female attire, so Rivera left home at eleven years of age. She made her way to New York City's Times Square and began working in female drag as a prostitute. Through the 1960s she survived on the streets, and in the process learned firsthand of the dangers and social injustices faced by gender-variant people (such as drag queens, butch lesbians, and transsexuals).

On June 27, 1969, Rivera was in the crowd that gathered outside the Stonewall Inn after word spread that it had been raided by police. The sight of arrested patrons being led from the bar by authorities riled the crowd, but it was Rivera who threw one of the first Molotov cocktails that actually initiated the riots and sent Stonewall into the history books.

In 1970 Rivera joined the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) and worked on its campaign to pass the New York City Gay Rights Bill. She attracted media attention when she attempted to force her way into closed-door sessions concerning the bill held at City Hall. In spite of Rivera's (and other drag queens') participation in the GAA, the organization decided to exclude transgender rights from the Gay Rights Bill so that it would be more acceptable to straight politicians. Rivera was shocked and betrayed by this decision. She also became disillusioned with the gay rights movement in general and dismayed by the backlash against drag queens that had developed by the mid-1970s.

Perhaps already sensing that transgendered people could not rely on the gay rights movement to advocate for their civil rights, in 1970 Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson had formed a group called Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.). The members of this organization aimed to fight for the civil rights of transgendered people, as well as provide them with social services support. At this time, Rivera and Johnson began operating S.T.A.R. House in the East Village, which provided housing for poor transgendered youth. S.T.A.R. House lasted for two years, but was then closed because of financial and zoning problems. Although in existence only a short time, S.T.A.R. House is historically significant because it was the first institution of its kind in New York City, and inspired the creation of future shelters for homeless street queens.

In the late 1970s Rivera left New York City and ended her deep involvement in glbtq activism. She moved to Tarrytown, New York, where she began a career with the Marriott Corporation as a food services manager. After maintaining a stable lifestyle for over a decade, Rivera was forced to leave her job because of substance abuse problems in the early 1990s.

She returned to New York City, but did not have enough money for housing. For several years Rivera lived on the Christopher Street piers, and became part of a community of homeless queer people. In 1997 she was able to move into the Transy House Collective in Park Slope, Brooklyn. This house, run by transgendered people, was based on the S.T.A.R. House model. In her new home, Rivera provided support for transgender youth.

In the late 1990s, Rivera resumed her political activism, and involved herself in advocating for both glbtq and homeless rights. In 2000, she and other transgender activists reformed S.T.A.R. (now slightly renamed as the Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries). Under Rivera's direction, the group pressured the Human Rights Campaign to be more inclusive of transgender people, and fought (unsuccessfully) for the inclusion of gender identity in New York State's non-discrimination legislation.

In her early 50s, Rivera developed liver cancer. The disease greatly affected her strength and mobility, yet she continued her social activism and political lobbying. Even when hospitalized, Rivera never stopped working for the civil rights of transgendered people. Several hours before she passed away on February 19, 2002 in the intensive care unit of St. Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village, Rivera was meeting with glbtq community leaders and pressing for change.

1953 – The State Department fires 381 gay and lesbian employees. In the early 1950s, the entire country was in the grips of the Red Scare as Wisconsin Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy was conducting his witch hunts. One of his main platforms was the Senate’s Subcommittee on the Investigation of Loyalty of State Department Employees. While McCarthy’s main targets were imaginary Communists in the State Department, gay employees were also seen as “subversives” in need of rooting out. On July 2, 1953, the State Department’s chief security officer On July 2, 1953, the State Department’s chief security officer R.W. Scott McLeod revealed that 351 homosexuals and 150 other “security risks” had been fired between 1950 and 1953. revealed that 351 homosexuals and 150 other “security risks” had been fired between 1950 and 1953.

1957 – J. Michael Bailey, born in Lubbock, Texas, is an American psychologist and professor at Northwestern University. He is best known among scientists for his work on sexual orientation, from which he concluded that homosexuality is substantially inherited. He also wrote The Man Who Would Be Queen, a study of trans-sexualism, which has elicited reactions ranging from strong criticism to a nomination for an award, later retracted, from the Lambda Literary Foundation, an organization that promotes gay literature.

He also showed that for many traits related to mating (such as interest in casual sex, and emphasis on a partner's physical attractiveness), homosexuals appear to be not so different from heterosexuals of their own sex. Recently, he has researched the gaydar phenomenon.

Another study questioned whether male bisexuality exists in the way that it is sometimes described; the study was based on results of penile plethysmograph testing. The testing found that of men who identified themselves as bisexual, 75% were only aroused genitally by homosexual imagery, and 25% were only aroused genitally by heterosexual imagery. They concluded: "Male bisexuality appears primarily to represent a style of interpreting or reporting sexual arousal rather than a distinct pattern of genital sexual arousal." Translation: Most so-called 'bi-sexual' men are really homosexual.

1959 – Gerald L’Ecuyer (born 1959) is a Canadian film and television director.

L’Ecuyer was born in Montreal. He studied at Marianopolis College in Montreal, before going to New York City, where he studied at the New School and worked for Andy Warhol’s Interview. He returned to Montreal and studied cinema at Concordia University.

He had a small role in David Lynch's television series Twin Peaks. He was a host of Imprint, a literary series on TVOntario. After years of working in Toronto and a brief second stint in New York, L'Ecuyer has returned to live in Montreal (2013) and works as an actor, director and writer.

His credits include the films The Grace of God and Gerald L'Ecuyer: A Filmmaker's Journey, and the television series It's Me … Gerald. In these last two productions, L'Ecuyer, who is gay, plays a fictionalized version of himself: a young, gay, Canadian director.

He is the older brother of John L'Ecuyer, also a noted Canadian film and television director.

1967 – Jonathan T. Capehart is an American journalist and television personality. He writes for The Washington Post's PostPartisan blog and is host of The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart on MSNBC.

Before his work with The Washington Post and MSNBC, Capehart was a researcher for NBC's The Today Show. Subsequently, he worked for the New York Daily News, serving as a member of its editorial board from 1993 to 2000. At the time of his hiring, Capehart was youngest ever member of that newspaper's editorial board. In 2000, he left the Daily News to work at Bloomberg News. Afterward, he advised and wrote speeches for Michael Bloomberg, during Bloomberg's 2001 run for the mayoralty of New York City. In 2002, he returned to the NYDN, serving as deputy editor of the editorial page until 2004. In December 2004, Capehart joined the global public relations company Hill & Knowlton as a Senior Vice President and senior counselor of public affairs.

He joined the staff of The Washington Post as a journalist and member of the editorial board in 2007. He continues in that capacity and is a contributing commentator for MSNBC. He also hosts the Cape Up podcast, in which he talks to newsmakers about race, religion, age, gender, and cultural identity in politics.

In May 2016, Capehart became engaged to his boyfriend of over five years, Nick Schmit, who was the assistant chief of protocol at the State Department. On January 7, 2017, Capehart and Schmit were married by former U.S. attorney general n May 2016, Capehart became engaged to his boyfriend of over five years, Nick Schmit, who was the assistant chief of protocol at the State Department.[20] On January 7, 2017, Capehart and Schmit were married by former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder.

1968 – Eric Fanning became the Acting United States Secretary of the Army when appointed by President Barack Obama on November 3, 2015. Fanning stepped down January 11, 2016 to concentrate on his confirmation, being succeeded in the temporary position by Patrick Murphy. The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee held Fanning's nomination hearing on January 21, 2016, after the lifting of a political hold.

He was the highest ranking openly gay member of the U.S. Department of Defense. He was a member of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund from 2004 to 2007. He favors the adoption by the U.S. military of a policy prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. He has said: "I personally like to see these things in writing and codified." He has expressed a preference for the establishment of such a policy by the Department of Defense rather than the Obama administration: "My view about government is you should always use those resources that are available to you first before you move up to the next level, so I think there are a number of things we can do inside this building for the Department of Defense". He supports allowing openly transgender persons to serve in the military as well.

The United States Senate confirmed Fanning's nomination May 17th 2016 on a unanimous voice vote. Fanning became the 22nd Secretary of the Army, the largest service branch of the U.S. military, and the first openly gay head of any service in the U.S. military. Following Senate approval, Fanning thanked his now-husband Benjamin (Ben) Masri-Cohen for his "patience at home" during the confirmation process.

With this appointment he became the highest ranking openly gay member of the Department of Defense. He was a member of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund from 2004 to 2007. He favors the adoption by the U.S. military of a policy prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. He has said: "I personally like to see these things in writing and codified." He expressed a preference for the establishment of such a policy by the Department of Defense rather than the Obama administration: "My view about government is you should always use those resources that are available to you first before you move up to the next level, so I think there are a number of things we can do inside this building for the Department of Defense". He supports allowing openly transgender persons to serve in the military as well.

In 2017, the Aerospace Industries Association selected Fanning to become its next President and CEO, succeeding former U.S. Army Lt. General David Melcher in that role.[23] He began his tenure on January 1, 2018.

Fanning and National Gallery of Art budget analyst Ben Masri-Cohen were privately married by Senator Cory Booker on December 19, 2018; days thereafter the couple held a New Year's Eve wedding celebration.

1969 – The first "Gay Pride" demonstration is held on Christopher Street in New York.

1974 – In Winnipeg, Derksen Printers refuse to print Understanding Homosexuality, an educational publication of Gays for Equality. The group then pickets the printing plant.

1975 – Born in Singapore, Daniel Kowalski is a former Australian middle- and long-distance swimmer specialising in freestyle events. He competed in the Olympic Games in 200m, 400m and 1,500m individual freestyle events and in the 200m freestyle relay. At the 1996 Summer Olympics, he was the first man in 92 years to earn medals in all of the 200m, 400m and 1500m freestyle events.

Kowalski was part of the world record-setting Australian gold medal 4 x 200m relay team at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. In the 2000 summer Olympics he won a gold medal in the 4 x 200 m freestyle relay (Kowalski was replaced in the final by Ian Thorpe but as a swimmer in the qualifying heat, he shares the gold medal).

Kowalski announced his retirement from competitive swimming in May 2002. He studied sports marketing at Bond University, graduating in 2003. He was named as an assistant swimming coach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2007, and also won the 2007 Pier to Pub 1.2km open water swim - the largest open water swim in the world - held annually in Lorne, Australia.

In May 2007 Daniel appeared as one of the celebrity performers on the Australian version of the celebrity reality singing competition It Takes Two.

In April 2010 Kowalski announced that he is gay, joining elite male Australian athletes who have announced that they are gay including retired NSW rugby league player Ian Roberts and Olympic gold-medal winning diver Matthew Mitcham. Kowalski says he was inspired to come out by Welsh rugby player Gareth Thomas, who announced in December 2009 that he was gay.

'I felt really compelled to do it because it's very tough to live a closeted existence,' he said. In a statement issued at the time Kowalski talked of years of struggling to come to terms with his sexuality and his fear of the homophobia of professional sports, citing the few gay sportsmen who have spoken out as inspirational.

 Added 2023

1984 – Ali Aziz Sethi is a Pakistani singer, songwriter, composer, and author who performs under the stage name AliAziz Sethi. His voice is warm and rich, his music is soulful and often elegiac.

But in a country where homosexuality is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, Sethi is also one of the few openly queer artists.

Born to journalists and politicians Najam Sethi and Jugnu Mohsin, Sethi rose to prominence with his debut novel, The Wish Maker (2009) which was widely praised as a success.

Sethi is particularly known for experimenting with and modernizing the ancient ghazal format of singing. He has received acclaim for "performing iconic ghazals and putting his spin on them" and has mentioned in various interviews that the ghazal is one of his favorite genres of music. He has also stated that he is drawn to "obscure and outdated forms of poetry and music" and that he is "interested in reviving lost techniques and lost cultures" in a way that redefines the traditional as experimental.

1984 – Today is the birthday of flamboyant American figure skater Johnny Weir. Born in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, he's a three-time U.S. National Champion (2004-2006), the 2008 Worlds bronze medalist, the 2008 Grand Prix Final bronze medalist and the 2001 World Junior Champion. As of April 2010, Weir is ranked 12th in the world by the International Skating Union. He does not intend to skate competitively in the 2010-11 season and plans to sit out the 2011-2012 season as well.

"I don't think turning figure skating into some kind of X-Games event will promote figure skating to the male population of especially North America, but also the world. This kind of talk has been going around for some time, about making the men more masculine and the women more feminine. But it's not figure skating if you don't have the freedom to express yourself and make something beautiful. That's my goal every time I get new music and get new costumes: to tell a story and to put on a show.

"To butch up figure skating is a ridiculous idea, because there's no putting me in some two-piece pants suit to skate in. [Laughs.] I love my glitter, I love my prettiness, I love getting my hair done before the events, I love putting on makeup because I'm going to be on TV. I know Elvis Stojko was a big proponent for butching up men's skating, but I have a hard time taking suggestions from a man who rocked purple pajamas in the Olympic Games and World championships. In my opinion, anyone who wants to change the actual people who are doing the figure skating can suck it."
- Johnny Weir, talking to Outsports.com.

At the 2010 Winter Olympics, Weir finished sixth overall, with a new personal-best combined score of 238.87.

In his memoir Welcome to My World, published January 2011, Weir officially came out as gay, citing a string of gay youth suicides as one reason for his decision: "With people killing themselves and being scared into the closet, I hope that even just one person can gain strength from my story."

Weir married Victor Voronov (b.1984), a Georgetown Law graduate of Russian Jewish descent, in a December 2011 civil ceremony on New Year's Eve in New York City. Weir said, the "wedding [will be] in the summer, but all the official stuff is done now!" Weir's representative said, "The couple has taken the new surname, Weir-Voronov, but professionally, Johnny will continue to be known as Johnny Weir." In February 2014, Weir filed for a divorce, citing domestic difficulties; the divorce was finalised in early 2015.

2009 – Same-sex sex acts are decriminalized in India, citing that the existing laws violate fundamental rights to personal liberty.The Delhi High Court rules that the existing laws violate fundamental rights to personal liberty and prohibition of discrimination. Before the overturning of this 148-year-old law, so-called homosexual acts were punished with a ten-year prison sentence.