What do you always take with you when you travel?
On ski trips, a candle. I know it sounds weird. I end up staying with the US ski team, and training locations are never particularly glamorous. A candle is something that I’ve learned over the years makes me feel at home wherever I am. The smell and nice glow is calming. I brought a candle with me to the Olympics, and had in my room in the athletes’ village.
Have you eaten anything strange while traveling?
When I was in Beijing, we went to this night market with crazy things, and I ate a scorpion and centipede and cockroach. Just because it was something to do and an experience and semi-cultural. Although, I later found out that nobody who lives there does that! It’s just for tourists. We absolutely must talk about your friend Adam Rippon.
Is there anything you would steal from his wardrobe? He’s got quite the sense of style!
From his wardrobe, yeah, there are lots of things. He has great clothes. Since he got back from the Olympics, everything he’s wearing is Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, Gucci. I’m like, ‘who are you?’ But we’re friends so it’s not stealing, it’s sharing.
Where would you like to take Adam the next time he comes to NYC?
I would take him to Central Park. I love going out on the little rowboats, and I’ve done that with Matt, and with my mom when she came to visit. I love shopping and walking around SoHo, and I love the Whitney Museum. In the Lower East Side there are a lot of restaurants, and my favorite is Dirt Candy, which is vegetarian. I’m a vegetarian, but I eat fish sometimes.
Do you get recognized in public a lot?
I do. I think the memorable times are when someone comes up and tells me, ‘I just wanted to say thank you for being out and proud and sharing yourself through Instagram and interviews, because it helped me come out, or was the reason I came out.’ That’s very impactful, and means a lot for me, and all I ever hoped for when I came out. To help other people in the same position as I was—I don’t want anyone else to deal with what I did in the closet.
Have you and Matt ever discussed having a gayby?
We do not want a baby. We like dogs. We adopted one after Korea, and she ended up passing away, so we adopted another one.
