On July 27th I tried to skate at the Alice Noble Ice Arena in one of my favorite skating dresses, only to be approached by the manager saying that they would not allow me to skate in a skirt with kids present.
My Favorite dress
What I wore that day.
Walking up to the front door I was temperature checked and told good to go. I proceeded inside and took a chair outside the rink and proceeded to put my skates on. While tying my right skate a person approached me and said their name was Seth and that I would not be allowed to skate on the ice around kids while wearing a skirt. He also told me that other rinks had warned him of me skating in dresses.
I said my choice of attire is considered free speech and I’ve skated in Chicago and New York without issues, he said “This is Northeast Ohio.” I tried to argue my point and the error in their request, instead I was told that they are a non-profit organization. As such they can say what I’m allowed or not allowed to wear when skating and children shouldn’t be subjected to a man wearing a skirt. They then said I would be allowed to skate in a dress on their unadvertised adult freestyle sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They asked if I wanted my money back of which i said would be in their best interest. I received a refund, put my shoes on, and left.
I’ve skated in a dress at plenty of places, kids haven’t been the issue, parents of kids at times have been an issue, and it’s unfortunate that they chose fear instead of education. I mean seriously, do they think someone dressed as I was would try to harm their kids?
Back at the rink for some more practice, wore another one of my dresses that still mostly fits with my jacket and pants over top.
Made some more progress, unfortunately I didn’t mark off what I worked on and I don’t remember! But it was probably some forward and backward glides, crossovers, and 3 turns.
I asked one of the skaters who was interacting with my coach before if they took lessons from them, they said no, but did point out someone else who was skating that did. I approached them and asked if they were and they said yes. I told them I had a $10 credit and I would like to give it to them, of which they accepted.
Received an email from my coach that due to ongoing health issues, they will not be taking on any new students. I wish people would come up with either original excuses, or just tell the truth, I heard the former one far too many times.
First time back on the ice in a long time, and also a promising new coach with lessons to boot!
I arrived at the rink in my favorite dress, but with my warm-up pants and jacket over top, I hadn’t skated there before, so I was not sure how cold it would be.
I took the ice and did pretty good for how long I’ve been off, a time before when I was not off so long had me a lot more shaky!
Next came my 30 minute lesson, my feet were not too bad and I made pretty good progress overall and had good interaction with the coach. We didn’t make arrangements for more lessons, but did say we would continue. Cost was $30 for 30 minutes, and since the ATM only gives $20’s and neither one of us had change, I left it with them as a $10 credit toward my next lesson.
The rink wasn’t too bad temperature wise, I did warm up enough to take my jacket off, but left my warmup pants on.
I went to a competition to go check out the vendors and see if I could get something made, or even on the chance that I could buy something as well as some spectating.
While walking around I noticed that both locker rooms had signs that they were the girls changing room. For the boys, they had to use the men’s restroom.
Now there’s really nothing odd about that, small facility and the majority of the skaters were females, so that’s probably the best they could do with what they had.
But here’s the thing, a father shows up with his daughter and I heard him ask a female (a stranger also by the sound of it) to go with his daughter into the changing room and help her get ready. Later on I see a mother show up with her son and she follows him right into the men’s restroom.
Why does a man have to feel so afraid around other people that he can’t be with and help his own daughter?
