- 9 minutes ago
Marlo Paras and Jocelyn Glatzer’s short film explores the legacy of the Gay Games as an all-inclusive answer to the Olympics—and celebrates the queer ice dancers striving to redefine their sport.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Skating is probably the best feeling ever.
00:20It is like a mix of flying and effortlessness and all of the best experiences that you want
00:29as a human, but you can't because we have gravity.
00:34I would say my favorite thing about skating is the sense of freedom that you can't find anywhere else.
00:45Push this way?
00:46Yeah, hold on. Go away and now go forward.
00:49Here.
00:51Out of hand.
00:52And then.
00:53I'm right here right now, right? No, I'm here.
00:55Yeah, I just need more space than on the waist.
00:57Cross, cross, cross. Keep going.
00:58Last year, Christian asked me to help him choreograph a piece for him and his former competitive skating partner.
01:05Let me see yours again.
01:07And because my skating partner, Kenzie, lives back in Wisconsin, I was going to have to do kind of like satellite choreography
01:14and send home videos to her for her to learn.
01:17That's a lot for mama's hips.
01:19The first rendition of the piece was Kenzie and myself at Rock Center.
01:25Everybody loves the things you do from the way you talk to the way you move.
01:35I've always enjoyed the theatrics of ice dance, but there is something very fulfilling.
01:42Being able to genuinely kind of show those emotions towards someone that's not far out of the realm of reality.
01:49Some of our friends were watching us skate together and they said, you guys should just be skating this piece.
01:56I remember just being like, oh, ha, ha, ha, yeah, you're really funny.
02:00Yeah, that's really cool.
02:01Not doing it.
02:03I've been out for almost 15 years, but I had never really had a male skating partner before.
02:16There was parts of me that felt uneasy with it.
02:20People were watching and I was having this gay moment.
02:27And that's something that I don't think I expected to be at my age and still like constantly thinking about that.
02:40My mom has never been accepting of my sexuality.
02:42When I first told my mom that I was going to be performing with Joel was our final breaking point.
02:49Her first comments were, isn't that a family show?
02:53And I said, yeah, I don't know what that has to do with it.
02:57She's like, well, what if a kid asked their parent, why are two guys skating together?
03:02And I said, well, I hope that it opens up a dialogue for parents to have with their kids.
03:07I think it's a really important conversation to ask those kinds of questions, which were questions that I was not allowed to ask when I was a kid.
03:15And she said, I don't think that that's really appropriate.
03:19And I hung up on her because I didn't know how to respond to that.
03:25I haven't spoken to her in over a year.
03:29Obviously, I want my mom in my life, but it's a really hard pill to swallow.
03:37When I first saw Joel and Christian skating together, I was so excited.
03:47I immediately told them they needed to bring their piece to the upcoming Gay Games in Paris.
03:53And we're like, what are the Gay Games? Tell us more about this.
03:56Since 1982, the Gay Games have given lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender athletes a chance to come together to compete, celebrate, and inspire others.
04:10The winning, having to beat someone else, to be on top, is a destructive attitude.
04:17And I think that's true of sports in the United States.
04:20Beating someone is not the important thing.
04:23Self-fulfillment.
04:25Self-fulfillment.
04:26Come on.
04:56Welcome to Paris!
05:03This city loves you! This city is for you!
05:07Enjoy Paris! This city is beautiful for the gay girls!
05:11Thank you so much!
05:14You have one minute left for your warm-up. In just a few moments, we will start the Gold Ladies 1 free skating event.
05:31And can I say something? You are in Kabul in life or not?
05:36No. His boyfriend's over there somewhere.
05:40Oh my God! You're so good to see you!
05:45Oh my God. I need it. I just need it.
05:49Welcome to your first skating.
05:53When I started skating over 30 years ago, I was obsessed with the idea of skating with another woman.
06:00But no opportunities like this existed then.
06:10I'm here with Laura Moore, an out lesbian ice skater who is trying to get ice skating into Gay Games 4.
06:17Before we talk about ice skating, we have a clip of Laura in action on the ice.
06:23I had dreams of being a figure skater and I was a lesbian and I was married to a man and living in the suburbs.
06:29I ditched the husband, I bought a pair of skates and I came out.
06:36I've had some interesting reactions. Figure skating is a very gay sport.
06:40Probably, oh I don't want to quote numbers, but a very large percentage of skaters are gay.
06:46But it's a very homophobic sport and I have not had very good reactions from my coach, from competition officials to my being out.
06:56When Laura Moore first mentioned that she would like to try and create a LGBTQ skating event, I don't think any of us really believed that she could pull it off.
07:07Because first of all, you need judges. Who's going to judge that? You need sponsorships. Who's going to do that?
07:14She had a vision.
07:15This is the first time that two men can skate together or two women can skate together.
07:21Now she had to get the rink in Brooklyn. This is Coney Island.
07:26All these gay people going to Brooklyn. Oh God, you know, how many bulletproof vests do we need? We thought of all this.
07:34And then signs started going up all the way. Gay figure skating in Brooklyn. Ape Star rink.
07:41We're here at the Ape Star rink arena to cover the men's competition and also pairs competition.
07:56What you have to remember about that time is that it was still illegal for us to get married and our ranks had been decimated by the AIDS crisis.
08:09We're blown away. Everything's just exceeded our wildest dreams and hopes.
08:16The Gay Games saved my life. The Gay Games gave me me.
08:28I'm finishing up with a kiss. The crowd loves it. Coney Island has never seen anything like this, folks.
08:36I think they put us in the morning because we're older and they think we need a nap in the afternoon.
08:56Well, they're not far from wrong. Almost my whole career has been focused on ice skating.
09:03Director of a skating school, director of a summer camp, director of a preschool camp.
09:09My name is Wade Corbett. I'm the producer and director of the skating exhibition that you're going to see tonight.
09:15It's been an amazing career. And I'm very proud that I introduced ice skating to a lot of minority children.
09:24Because when I first got into the rink, I didn't see anybody that looked like me.
09:29Good afternoon, skaters. You are now wiping on the ice for a five-minute warm-up.
09:44I've been to every Gay Games since 94. It's just wonderful.
09:52But bigger skating still has so far to go. A few elite skaters have come out.
10:06But the sport is still homophobic. From the highest levels on down.
10:13In elite skating like the Olympics, there is a rule, and I quote,
10:18A pair must be one man and one lady.
10:22And it's very sexual. Very sexual. And the audience gets off on that.
10:28It's almost like they're married, like they're lovers.
10:32This makes a lot of money for the ISU, the International Figure Skating Union,
10:38which oversees figure skating leading up to the Olympics.
10:42What you have to understand is that the ISU is heavily influenced by Russia,
10:49where officially homosexuals do not exist.
10:54Clearly there are many other countries in the ISU that have problems with homophobia,
11:01including the United States.
11:05Skating is grounded in a don't ask, don't tell culture.
11:11So unfortunately, LGBTQ skaters can become very alienated within our sport.
11:20And this is why I say thank God for the Gay Games.
11:26There you go.
11:39Okay.
11:40Flowers are nice.
11:41They're coming out.
11:42Why would I have a straight tie?
11:44Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
11:50Easy, easy.
11:52I was 33. You were 13.
11:5418.
11:55I was lucky to have Laura and Wade as role models when I was a teenager.
11:59I was 38 and you were 18.
12:01I was 18 going on.
12:03Laura was the first lesbian woman that I ever met.
12:06She had a short haircut. She was very butch, you know, like, uh-uh-uh.
12:10I don't know.
12:11This is Mark's first Gay Games.
12:13He wanted to do Gay Games years ago.
12:15I was told not to do it.
12:17But a former coach insisted that he didn't do it.
12:21That's right.
12:22The reason why she didn't want me to do the Gay Games is because I was just starting my skating career.
12:27And the judges really didn't like the fact that us gay athletes were trying to break the rules.
12:34It was a stigma against you.
12:36Right.
12:37The judges wouldn't judge you correctly.
12:39She thought he had enough talent that he might make it in the world of skating.
12:45And so don't come out, don't do the gay stuff, don't do all that.
12:49And how many of us of beautiful colored skin were outspoken like that?
12:55It was normal for the, okay, we know, but to be different on top of being out and on top of being different.
13:02I kept quiet, which allowed me to make a good career for myself in the skating world.
13:08I competed for a while.
13:10And after that, I did ice shows like Disney on Ice.
13:13Just tie them to the just right.
13:15I can't tie them too tight either.
13:17And now I'm a skating coach.
13:19I want to keep it clean.
13:20It's your first one.
13:21Just have fun.
13:22Just have fun.
13:23My first Olympics.
13:24I know.
13:25That's what I'm saying.
13:26I am for the first time feeling welcomed as a gay athlete.
13:30Competing in Masters Elite Men 2 from America, Mark Stanford.
13:36Come on!
13:37Stand for...
13:38Come on!
13:40Come on, come on!
13:43Come on!
13:44Come on!
13:46When I first started skating, I knew I was gay.
14:16Everybody keeps saying gay, gay, gay, gay, I'm a human being, I'm an athlete.
14:25I chose a sport that I'm really, really in love with, but to represent myself as not
14:32who I am, it's been hard for me.
14:37And I've always just wanted to be who I am, and I'm HIV.
14:56Don't tell anybody that you're gay, don't tell anybody that you're sick.
15:08It kills us on the inside.
15:15It was a beautiful skate.
15:16It was a beautiful skate.
15:18Now, I can actually say to people, I am a gay games Olympic champion.
15:23One of the things that was so special about the games is that the game is going to be
15:51one of the things that was so special about the games is that the camaraderie is so different
15:55than what we normally get in skating.
15:59Sports in general have a competitive tone where you kind of have to shove other people
16:05out of the way.
16:08It's so fun and cool to watch everybody support each other and just have a great time doing
16:13something they love.
16:15And the charm of this game is so special.
16:16The game is better.
16:17They love you, it's better.
16:18The game is better than the game is better than the game is better than the game.
16:20Competing in free dance, then, from the United States, please welcome Christian
16:42The moment I'm told you.
17:12What we wanted to do with this piece is we wanted to show a side of
17:42a gay interaction where it is about the subtleties of a relationship.
18:01Ultimately, people want to be loved and they want to feel like somebody else cares about them.
18:12It doesn't have to be glittery and flamboyant.
18:19It can just be like a tender interaction between two people.
18:23We realized we were sad of getting old that made us restless.
18:30Oh, I'm so mad at getting old that makes me reckless.
18:36It was just like a movie.
18:40It was just like a song when we were young.
18:44It's just like a movie.
18:45Yeah.
18:45The way we're young.
18:47Weak.
18:49Oh my god.
18:51That's sweet.
18:52It's a beautiful thing I've ever seen.
18:53Wow.
18:55Let's all go cry together.
18:57It's my most passionate boy.
18:59It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
19:02Wow.
19:03Okay, let's all go cry together.
19:27Bless Job and Christian.
19:31It filled me to see that.
19:34I was just...
19:36I can't believe what I just saw.
19:39This is why we need the gay games.
19:44It gives us a sense of the untapped potential of figure skating.
19:50Why limit the magic of skating?
19:53Welcome to the Figure Skating Gala Performance for the Camp Games.
20:23I have a quest for the Camp Technologies.
20:26Wow!
20:28There you go.
20:29Just chill.
20:30Oh, my God.
20:38Oh, yes.
20:39I can't believe what was the end of the line.
20:42I'll see you on your screen.
20:43Oh, no!
20:44Even...
20:45...I was okay to get along the line right.
20:47Quite a day, I've finished several months.
20:50I'm not sure what is.
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