This episode is for the LGBTQ family. And honestly, for anyone who has ever felt like they had to hide part of themselves to fit in.

This week we're talking about Amber Glenn, three time U.S. national champion, Olympic gold medalist, and one of the most refreshing human beings in figure skating right now. And we are going to get into it.

We talk about her journey to coming out as bisexual and pansexual in a sport with a traditionally conservative image, what that cost her, and what it gave her. How being fully herself transformed not just her life but her skating. The role Timothy LeDuc played in creating a safe space for her before she could create one for others. How she has spent years quietly and not so quietly pushing back against the gender norms that figure skating has enforced forever and why that matters way beyond the ice.

We talk about what it means to be an older woman in a sport that tends to celebrate youth, and how she got to the Olympics at 26 and made it count anyway. Her outspokenness at the Milan Olympics, because she had something to say and she said it, and I have a lot of feelings about that. The scoring bias against women in figure skating and why she keeps doing her thing anyway.

And the backbends. We absolutely talk about the backbends.

Amber Glenn is a queer icon and she has earned every single word of that title. This one hit deep for me personally and I hope it does for you too.

Trigger warning: this episode touches on mental health struggles, eating disorders, and depression.