Timothy LeDuc, a pairs figure skater who broke a U.S. Figure Skating Championship record at the event that wrapped up Sunday in Nashville, will reportedly become the first “non-binary” person to compete in the Olympics.
LGBT activists have created a language around the movement, including “non-binary,” which the gay rights GLAAD organization defines this way:
“To be a non-binary person is – essentially – exactly what it sounds like: To identify yourself, and your gender, as existing outside of the binary definitions of man or woman, masculine or feminine.”
“Binary” means “having two parts,” an idea that LGBT activists reject because they believe in the existence of genders other than male and female.
The media promotes the narrative by using pronouns that the subject prefers, such as in Sports Illustrated’s report about LeDuc at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships:
“American pair skater Timothy LeDuc made history not once but twice this week when they became the first out nonbinary athlete to make a Winter Olympic team and broke a U.S. Figure Skating Championships record with partner Ashley Cain-Gribble.”
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – JANUARY 17: Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc perform in the Skating Spectacular following the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the Orleans Arena on January 17, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
“For me, as a person that exists and really thrives outside of the binary, it can be very complicated sometimes navigating a gendered sport,” LeDuc told Yahoo Sports. “There are going to be people that don’t understand it. You know, they look at me, they see that I have a beard or they look at maybe my physical characteristics and say, ‘You’re a boy, act like a boy. What are you doing?’
“My hope is that the narrative shifts more to queer people can be open and successful in sports. We’ve always been here, we’ve always been a part of sports. We just haven’t always been able to be open.”
The winter games are scheduled from Feb. 4 to 20 in Beijing, China.
BENGALURU, INDIA – DECEMBER 10: A Tibetan student holds a placard calling for the boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics during a protest on December 10, 2021 in Bengaluru, India. (Photo by Abhishek Chinnappa/Getty Images)
The games are taking place as criticism grows about the Communist Chinese Party’s human rights abuses, including sending minority Muslim populations into concentration camps where prisoners have reportedly been tortured, sterilized, and even killed.
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