Strictly same-sex pairings have everything man-woman ones have to offer – if not more

metro.co.uk:

I started dancing when I was two years old. Well, if you can call twirling around until dizzy and falling over ‘dancing’.As I got older, I became part of an all-girls dance group and it was nothing but joy each time we danced together.

That’s why the same-sex pairings on Strictly Come Dancing mean so much to me.Strictly history was made in 2020 when boxer Nicola Adams joined the show’s first same-sex coupling with Katya Jones.

Then last year, chef John Whaite and Johannes Radebe took things up a notch as the first male-male pairing, finishing in second place.And for 2022, in another Strictly first, the glitzy dance show will see not one, but two same-sex couples take to the dancefloor – comedian Jayde Adams with longest-serving pro Karen Hauer, and radio presenter Richie Anderson with reigning champ Giovanni Pernice.When I first learnt that this series would feature two same-sex partnerships, I felt a mixture of emotions – including sheer joy that same-sex dancing is now well and truly part of mainstream media, disbelief that this is finally a reality, but also sadness that countless LGBTQ+ people never got to witness this happening before now.As a queer person myself, there is no denying that same-sex partnerships affect me deeply, and I don’t doubt that the contestants and professionals in those partnerships are aware of the weight their actions hold.