Golden Skate Salutes Gay Pride Month

[gsk8]

On June 28, 1969, the gay rights movement was born in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Brave men and women at the Stonewall Inn caught up in a police raid early that morning inspired a community to resist the anti-homosexual establishment and fight for change.

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[blue dog]

=)

[CassAgain]

Good on you, Golden Skate.

[100yen]

Thanks so much Golden Skate!! Really interesting read!

[emma]

Thanks, GS - great to see this.

And asked with utter support and appreciation, are there out lesbian skaters that might be honored too?

[jcoates]

Thanks so much for this. You made my day.

[demarinis5]

Great article. Thank you!

[MrScroogeMcDuck]

Nice piece.

[MrScroogeMcDuck]

“In my heart, I think that I opened some doors for people,” Galindo said.

I think you did, Rudy.

I think that figure skating now values the more flamboyant skaters under the new system. It is better suited to those who have artistic strengths.”

But I can't say that I agree with this. The "new" system is a technical skater's dream. Also, while I think the system probably does help protect flamboyant (to use Galindo's word) skaters in the sense that it protects skaters (flamboyant and otherwise) who execute difficult elements well from being totally destroyed by the judge, there is still plenty of room for funny business, both in PCS and in TES.

[dorispulaski]

For those of you who don't remember Doug Mattis, here is a vintage Mattis program

The open Professional Championship Artistic program 1994
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRxjDXpeQzM

I hadn't seen this before, and any skate fan should get a kick out of it.

And while no one could forget his 1996 LP at San Jose, perhaps you've never seen Rudy Galindo's AIDS exhibition in honor of his brother

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWKRhoFu4N4

and the 2008 FD by Charlotte Maxwell & Nick Traxler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41ZtBdlQ0W0

[Tinymavy15]

Rudy, "flamboyant" does not equal artistic.

[demarinis5]

Thanks for the links Doris. OMG Doug's performance was so entertaining, loved it. His imitation of Tonya H. was just hilarious and spot on.

[blue dog]

I can see Nick skating with Emily Samuelson.

[Dee4707]

Thanks Paula for such an interesting article.

“I was just asked to be part of the 2012 U.S. Championships in San Jose,” he said excitedly. “I don’t know if they want me to tell anybody what I will be doing yet, but I am very excited.”

I can't wait.

[EWalker]

I have been told that there are out lesbians in figure skating, but I wasn't able to get anybody to speak on the record. I would have loved to have that point of view, but alas it wasn't meant to be. Hope you all enjoyed the article.