Gay Olympic medallist Adam Rippon has a message for all the haters.
Rippon picked up a bronze medals at the Winter Olympics this week in the team figure skating event.
The out Olympian had attracted a wave of abuse after criticising Mike Pence, who is heading the US delegation to the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
But Rippon, who had spoken out against Pence’s anti-LGBT record, has a message for haters after getting his Olympic medal.
(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Taking to Twitter, he channelled RuPaul’s Drag Race in his response.
He said: “To all those who tweet at me saying that they ‘hope I fail’, I have failed many times many times in my life.
“But more importantly, I’ve learned from every setback, proudly own up to my mistakes, grown from disappointments, and now I’m a glamazon b**ch ready for the runway.”
If that’s not enough to earn him a guest spot on Drag Race All Stars 4, we don’t know what is.
Rippon has also said he would boycott a White House medal ceremony if Trump and Pence are there, hinting that he’d meet with LGBT activists instead.
He said: “No. I have no desire to go to the White House. But I would like to do something to help my community.”
“I have kind of spoken out a lot and I’d I like to do something positive and not just stay at home.”
Earlier on he picked a fight with Pence over his views.
When Rippon challenged the Vice President’s concerning stances on LGBT equality, Pence put out a statement suggesting that the athlete had misled the public.
Adam Rippon of the United States (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Pence later branded his record “fake news” and a “nonstory”.
He said: “Headed to the Olympics to cheer on #TeamUSA. One reporter trying to distort 18 yr old nonstory to sow seeds of division. We won’t let that happen! #FAKENEWS. Our athletes are the best in the world and we are for ALL of them! #TEAMUSA”.
Asked if he would meet with Pence, Rippon said: “You mean Mike Pence, the same Mike Pence that funded gay conversion therapy? I’m not buying it.
“I don’t think he has a real concept of reality.
“To stand by some of the things that Donald Trump has said and for Mike Pence to say he’s a devout Christian man is completely contradictory.
“If he’s okay with what’s being said about people and Americans and foreigners and about different countries that are being called ‘shitholes,’ I think he should really go to church.”
Actress Whoopi Goldberg later compared the US Vice President to a Nazi.
Speaking on The View, Goldberg said: “A past controversy of his has come back to bite [Pence] on the face… should [Rippon] sit down to talk with this gentleman who doesn’t even sort of recognize him as a person?”
Reading Pence’s record, she added: “He says keeping gays from marrying was an enforcement of God’s idea. In 2006 he said gay couples signal societal collapse, and in 2007 he opposed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ folks. He didn’t believe the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was good, and he rejected the Obama administration directive on transgender bathrooms.
“I think it would be like asking a Jewish person to sit down and understand where the Nazi is coming from.
“I think that would be a difficult thing.”
