in a gay pride parade for the first time, the Los Angeles Pride Parade; he also served as its grand marshal. Weir announced his withdrawal from the 2011–2012 season in June 2011, explaining that he was unable to adequately train for competition because of his "many obligations", but expressed his intention to compete in Sochi. In January 2012, Weir married his partner Victor Voronov, a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and whose family was from Russia, in a civil ceremony in New York City, five months after the state legalized same-sex marriages. In 2013, Weir began writing a weekly column in the Falls-Church News Press, a newspaper published in the Washington, D.C. area. In the fall of 2011, Weir began to quietly train for a possible return to competitive skating. In January 2012, he announced his return, in the hopes of competing at the Sochi Olympics; he insisted that it was not a publicity stunt, and expressed his intent to retire after the Olympics. Part of the reason for his return was his popularity in Russia. He went back to working with his previous coach, Galina Zmievskaya, and retained the same off-ice trainers, designers, and costume seamstresses as before. He used music from "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga, someone he admired, for his short program; she provided him with versions of the song without lyrics. Her choreographers worked with him, but most of the choreography was developed by Weir and Zmievskaya. Weir competed at small competitions and qualifying events in order to be eligible to compete at the 2013 U.S. Nationals. He competed at the 2012 Finlandia Trophy, attempting a quadruple jump in both his short program and free skate for the first time, and coming in fourth place overall. In his short program, he stumbled on his opening quadruple toe jump, which was downgraded, but successfully completed his triple Axel and triple lutz-double toe combination, and earned level-four scores for his flying camel spin. He was in fourth place after the short program, earning 69.03 points. He later told reporters that he was nervous, that his legs felt stiff, and that the competition was the hardest thing he had done in his career. He also had boot problems to overcome, but felt that he had done well. He came in sixth place in the free skate, earning 132.39 points; he earned 201.42 points overall. Weir's two Grand Prix