A Dancing With the Stars winner got candid about her sexuality publicly for the first time, coming out on social media.
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Rio 2016 Olympic gymnastics champion and Dancing With the Stars season 23 winner Laurie Hernandez recently took to Instagram to declare “I am queer.”
“I believe they may have saved my little mind, because at some point, I was the only one in the world who knew such a secret about myself: that I was queer. I am queer,” she wrote to close out Pride month on June 28.
The 26-year-old credited queer characters in fiction for helping her “eventually able to understand myself, and eventually be brave enough to tell others about it.” While she had acknowledged Pride in the past, this time felt different. “So, in honor of every cryptic pride post I’ve made over the past few years, here is a very real one,” she wrote. “One that begs you to remember love is a universal language we dare to be well-versed in.”
‘Dancing With the Stars’ Champ Laurie Hernandez Details Her Love Story…
The Dancing With the Stars champ followed up the big coming-out post with another Instagram post detailing her star-crossed love story.
Hernandez recalled meeting her girlfriend, American trampoline gymnast Charlotte Drury, while both were training for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. After a knee injury cut short her own Olympic bid, Hernandez travelled to Tokyo as an NBC commentator, while Drury competed as the U.S. team’s first alternate.
“No one had any idea that two sapphic Olympians were at the Tokyo 2021 Games,” Hernandez explained, “simply ready to get back home to each other.”
“We are soft and patient,” she added. “Our workouts mostly involve belly laughs and carrying our chairs to the park. And dancing. And bouncing on the occasional trampoline.”
Hernandez ended her post with a message for those who haven’t come out yet.
“And to those who aren’t out yet, there is no rush. No pressure. You are always included in the celebration.”
“Happy Pride to us. To say I’m proud is an understatement,” she concluded.