Amber Glenn says she’d decline White House invite: ‘It’s our right’ to choose

U.S. Olympic figure skater Amber Glenn had a savvy answer to a theoretical question of whether she would accept an invitation to visit the White House.

“I’m electing not to either, so I do not blame them whatsoever,” Glenn told US Magazine in reference to the gold-medal U.S. women’s hockey team declining an invite. “It is our right to be able to choose what we do and don’t endorse, and I think it is a decision that each individual has the right to make.”

Glenn made her remarks at the GLAAD Media Awards on Thursday.

In her remarks, Glenn did not mention the name of the current president or any specific policy, but framed it as a matter of choice. Glenn, one of the 50 out LGBTQ athletes in the Winter Olympics and the only out women’s figure skater, helped the U.S. win the team skating gold though she finished a disappointing fifth in women’s singles after falling in her short program.

While there is a long tradition of Olympians visiting the White House, TMZ said it was told by U.S. Figure Skating that there was no formal invite yet.

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Glenn became something of a lightning rod in Milan because she talked about her disagreements with some LGBTQ policies in the United States. In addressing the blowback, Glenn told US: “There’s been so much more love, and the amount of support and encouragement that I’ve received outweighs the hate immensely. I know how much more important it is to have this visibility to young athletes than it is to these people that are being crabby and are hateful of empathy and kindness. What they have to say doesn’t matter.”

Glenn’s decision to not go is not a big deal since athletes declining White House invites is a long tradition, regardless of which party is in power. An article from 2015 listed 18 such instances and there have been many more since.

The first reference I have found to an athlete just saying no is from 1984, when then-Boston Celtics star Larry Bird refused to meet President Reagan for unspecified reasons, quipping, “If the president wants to see me, he knows where to find me.”

By not getting very specific in her reasons for refusal should there be an invitation, Glenn made this a non-story, even if it’s clear she does not endorse the administration. It’s hard for anyone to quibble with someone saying, “It is our right to be able to choose what we do and don’t endorse.” It’s a very American thing to say.

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