A safe space: How figure skating became a comfort zone for the LGBTQ+ community amid ...

By DAVE SKRETTA, AP Sports Writer The moment Amber Glenn stepped onto the ice at figure skating’s world championships, fans began to wave American flags, from the lowest rows inside TD Garden to the highest rafters, where the jerseys of Boston’s sporting greats hang in honor. It seemed a fitting backdrop to her program: Glenn is the three-time reigning U.S. champion, one of the current faces of figure skating, and as the daughter of a police officer and a proud native Texan, patriotism flows through her as thick as oil. Yet the stars-and-stripes weren’t the only flags flying high that night. Scattered throughout the sellout crowd at the last worlds before the Milan Cortina Olympics were the...