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Additionally, says Jackson, "It is what Tonya Harding dealt with. If you are not a perfect lady, it hurts figure skating's image. If you are not perfectly manly, it hurts figure skating's image.

Jackson, who is gay, accuses the U.S. figure skating establishment of purposefully encouraging skaters to stay in the closet. They do so because they believe public opinion is against “out” gays in sports.

Although Jackson estimates that 30 to 40 percent of the top male American skaters are gay, he notes there hasn't been an openly gay American skater since Rudy Galindo came out in 1996.

In a public statement, U.S. Figure Skating officials have denied Jackson's accusations. "We are not commenting on the book because it so baseless," said Lindsay DeWall, spokesperson for the organization. "I don't think [sexual orientation] is any of our business. A skater is free to be whoever they want to be publicly and privately."

In this brave new media world where reality TV shows like American Idol draws higher ratings than the Olympics, perhaps young Johnny is on to something. While tabloids cluck, drool and raise arched eyebrows at the prospect of new, young, fresh meat to out, young hipsters like Weir simply work their promo and blithely go their own way.

Think about it. Despite missing out on a medal, Weir will return to the States as one of the Olympics' most popular and well-publicized athletes. He may not get mainstream endorsement deals, but he isn't likely vanish any time soon either. He'll probably land a reality TV deal.

Besides, he is only 21.

At such a tender young age, one might think the world could just give the kid a break. If he is gay, can't he come out in his own time? How many people out there actually knew for sure their own exact sexual orientation at 21 years of age? Young gays who aspire for greatness in sports and the arts are often so caught up in the technique, competition and execution of their talent, they may not yet be focusing on their sexual orientation.

Intolerance toward openly gay athletes still exists. Yet one can sense in the case of Johnny Weir, be he straight or gay, that intolerance is no longer monolithic--opinions now vary and attitudes are changing. Which is more than one can say of 10 years ago.

The media circus surrounding Johnny Weir is not unlike one that surrounded world-famous Oscar Wilde a hundred years ago. Wilde's situation was brilliantly satirized in Gilbert & Sullivan's comic opera Patience. The opera parodies a conservative society's attempts to deal with all the flamboyant excesses of a wildly popular dandified aesthete. Gay or straight, in many ways Johnny Weir functions as sports Oscar Wilde…or perhaps Liberace, or Elton John.

To paraphrase Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports again--“they [are] colorful, fun, entertaining. We need more characters like them.”

With the gay stigma removed, it's liberating to observe how sexual orientation can be treated in an even-handed, level-headed and lighthearted way by all.

And that's worth a gold medal.

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