HIV Awareness - The Evolution of Flag Dancing

Flagging and Fanning was originally a spiritual dance form in a tribal sense.
It evolved into an important healing tool and is an act of meditation for our community.
It allows us to find our inner-self and inner-piece and has changed peoples' life's forever.

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Ryan Wilcox, the Golden Boy from Denver Colorado.
From here you can see the gold on the these gold’s are from the Gay Games for skating.
I started this life journey on crutches,because of neuropathy caused from AIDS. The high impact training, re-trained my legs to go around my brain, and I could walk again and figure skate.My dream was to go to the Gay Games in 2010. I could not stand on my ice skates. I took off the tip of my cane and kept doing it and doing it. In 2007, I started training for the Gay Games in Cologne, Germany. I am a low-level skater, and I practiced with the flags. My legs got stronger and for one year I did not have one attack of neuropathy. With the help and sponsorship from my Doctor Ben Young, I was able to compete. I took a flagging workshop in Colorado from Phillip Bryan, a flagger from Dallas. The girls at the skating rink saw me flagging, and they wanted to incorporate it into the Paso Doble, the flagging matador. It took a little bit of thinking, a little bit of velcro on the shoulders and you have flags to spin. Award ceremony. First competition. Gold medal, Ryan Wilcox, USA. I did not expect to place, but here I am, accepting a medal, not only for me, but for all of my friend with HIV and the long-term survivors. t was the most exhilarating experience. I won when I did not need the crutches anymore. I could dance and skate again.
That is when I won.

_Brad Carpenter

I was flagging in the Gay Pride parade in 2000, dancing down 5th Avenue, with people screaming. I’m 40 years old. I am healthy and strong. I felt so alive and full of hope, and in my heart I experienced Gay Pride for all of my friends in the 1980’s I had to bury. But I was a survivor and I am carrying the torch into the new millennium for them. A part of them was in me, with me, and we all experienced it through me.

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