Billie McBride-O'Neel started skating as a teenager. “I was one of the millions of inspired children who saw Dorothy Hamill win the Olympics. I cut my hair, bought the shampoo, got the skates, and the rest is history," she said. She still skates today, pictured at the Lloyd Center Ice Rink in Portland, Ore., on May 16, 2025.
Emily Hamilton / OPB
Transgender people have been in the news more often recently, so it can be easy to forget that trans people have always existed.
But being visibly trans comes at a risk. If you can “pass,” many trans people choose to stay in the closet.
Billie McBride-O’Neel spent four decades hiding.
“I had to hide as a trans person in the 80s because trans people weren’t accepted in the community,” she said. “Then I had to hide because of the AIDS crisis.”
Once she married and transitioned medically, it was easy to blend in.
“Nobody ever misgendered me. I never had any problems in restrooms, employment, anything at all. So I hid. It was easy,” she said.
But she didn’t stay hidden.
The 62-year-old Astoria resident is now a trans advocate and the 2024 Miss Trans Oregon title holder. And her journey started with figure skating.
“I was one of the millions of inspired children who saw Dorothy Hamill win the Olympics. I cut my hair, bought the shampoo, got the skates, and the rest is history,” she said.
Transition in Arkansas
She was born in Coos Bay. Her family later moved to northern Michigan. It was there she caught the ice skating fever as the rink became her solace from a chaotic home life.
In the early 1980s, she deferred her college acceptance and joined the Ice Follies, a touring skating show.
“I wasn’t the best skater. Just smile, lick your teeth,” said McBride-O’Neel, who said she learned a lot about production and shows.
After retiring from the Ice Follies, she medically transitioned — quietly — in a place not known for a trans-friendly atmosphere: Arkansas. “I transitioned when I was 20-22,” said McBride-O’Neel.
She fully transitioned in 1985 and then joined Diamond Edge Figure Skating Club in Little Rock, Arkansas. It was there McBride-O’Neel “helped generations of children enjoy the ice,” she said.
The kids she taught never knew she was trans. She built a respected reputation as a coach, produced dozens of skating shows, started a successful business with her husband — and for decades, that was great.
She even got to skate with the person who started it all for her. “The saying in skating is if you skate long enough, you get to skate with your heroes. And I got to skate with Dorothy, and she’s a friend now, which is amazing to me. My childhood hero is my friend,” said McBride-O’Neel.
She could’ve stayed quiet and in the closet in her comfortable life. But one moment changed everything.
“When I saw a mother at committee testifying, begging for the life of her child because she told the committee members that her child would end their life if their medication were not available, and she shook and she was sobbing,” said McBride-O’Neel.
“I watched the committee as they voted, not one person on that five member panel voted for this mother. It was unanimous against this crying, sobbing mother, and that’s what got me off my sofa.”
‘I’m a moral upstanding woman’
So McBride-O’Neel started speaking at schools and testifying at the legislature. She realized her decades in the closet, teaching kids on ice, was actually an asset to her advocacy.
“I was a respectable southern woman. And the thing is, what I did not know is that I was building a reputation that I can now use.”
She doesn’t regret coming out, even though it threatened her comfortable life. “I threw it all away in an instant, stepped out of my fortress and said, ‘Here I am. Guess what? I’m a moral upstanding woman who happens to have a trans history,’” she said.
Her coming out spread in the tight-knit figure skating community. SKATING magazine ran a story about her called Hiding in Plain Sight, and the hate comments poured in. But so did other comments.
“One by one people started defending me. One of them said, ‘Ms. Billie helped me have a happy childhood,’” said McBride-O’Neel.
“One after another, these kids I’d taught came on and defended me,” she said.
FILE - Billie McBride-O'Neel, shown here in an undated provided photo, was crowned Miss Trans Oregon in 2024.
Courtesy Billie McBride
Her advocacy led to a foray into the pageant world last year — becoming Miss Trans Oregon. The title gave her an opportunity to combine her decades of experience in performing with her newfound activism for trans youth.
Her goal is to show that you can have a happy, healthy, successful life as a trans person.
“My hope comes from knowing I made it through,” she said. McBride-O’Neel wants trans youth to know that they can, too.
“I go into schools to speak to the queer kids who already know who they are and who need that support,” she said. “That’s my joy: knowing I can help kids the way I helped them on the ice, in life.”
These days, she’s no longer coaching skating; Astoria doesn’t have an ice rink.
But she keeps her skills sharp by roller-skating and making the trip inland to the ice every few weeks, because joy is important for everyone — and perhaps especially trans people — right now.
