My favorite thing ever written about Adam Ripon described him as our first nationally recognized and respected faggot.

And it's true. When Adam was competing in the Winter Olympics in Pyongcheng, South Korea, the entire world

fell in love with him, in a way that I'd never seen for someone so overtly and unabashedly

gay.

We celebrated him, we had cheered him on, and not despite of a sexuality, but in part because

of it, in addition to all of his other accomplishments.

Now, as a gay person, that was incredible to see.

And since that moment in February of 2018 when he was competing, I have been emailing with his publicist,

and I'm very happy to say that I finally convinced him to sit down for an interview.

You'll hear us talk about his figure skating career, about the backstory behind his much talk to a

dispute with Mike Pence, and how he finally got over as he would say his intense dieting.

At one point he was living on three slices of bread a day. And then, since he's now retired,

we talk about what's next.

From Luminary Media, I'm Jeffrey Masters,

and this is LGBTQ and A.

Thanks for being here. I'm so excited. Thanks for being here.

I'm so excited. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, me too. Let's do it. I want to start with the Olympics and I promise we'll move off it fast.

Okay. I want to know, you were in Pyeongchang in the Winter Olympics. Was there one specific moment when you realized that America was starting to fall in love and maybe even obsess over you?

I think, you know, it's so funny, I was talking with my boyfriend the other day.

And before the Olympics, we were talking about how I would call him at, like, a specific time, like, every day.

Like, it was very organized because my life before was super organized.

...