Op-ed: The Whe Party and Gay Culture Need More Color

Contents:

• OP-ED: THE WHE PARTY AND GAY CULTURE NEED MORE COLOR
• THE UNSUNG HISTORY OF CIRCU PARTI, WHERE GAY MEN SEEK SEX AND FREEDOM
• GROWG UP GAY
• MY ATLANTIS GAY CISE TRIP – WHAT IT WAS LIKE
• NO, IT’S NOT OK TO BE A GAY WHE MANASSUMPTNS BY LGBTQ PEOPLE AND ALLI NOTWHSTANDGJAM FN·FOLLOWPUBLISHED PRISM & PEN·8 M READ·JAN 2, 2021--70SHAREPHOTO BY OLEH PHOENIX LICENSED OM ADOBE STOCKIT A’T EASY BEG A GAY WHE MAN, WHATEVER YOU MIGHT HAVE HEARD TO THE NTRARYPLEASE DON’T STOP READG, BEE I’M NOT EVEN TRYING TO DISMISS OTHER EXPERIENC. IF YOU’RE TRANS, BISEXUAL, A PERSON OF LOR, OR JT A OL CIS/STRAIGHT WHE PERSON WHO EMPATHIZ WH FELLOW HUMANS, I’VE GOT YOUR BACK.I RE ABOUT YOUR STGGL, AND YOU MATTER TO ME.NOBODY R ABOUT GAY ANYMORE. IT’S SO NOT A BIG AL.BUT OVER THE LAST FEW DAYS, I’VE BEEN THKG A LOT ABOUT THE STATE OF QUEER EQUALY, SOMETHG I’VE FOUGHT HARD FOR ALL MY LIFE AS A STREET ACTIVIST AND ADVOTE. I MARCHED WH QUEER NATN AS A YOUNG MAN, GOT GAY BASHED GREENWICH VILLAGE, AND STOOD UP FOR RADIL QUEER EQUALY, CLUDG THE SMASHG OF GENR NORMS.I’VE WNSED A LOT OF PROGRS SCE I BEME AN ACTIVIST 1990. I’M OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE STATE OF THE STGGLE, BUT I’M ALSO A REALIST. A LOT OF QUEER FOLKS THE US ARE SUFFERG, AND THAT CLUS GAY MEN, WHO OFTEN FACE STIGMATIZATN, ISOLATN, AND UNJT DISCRIMATN.I THK THAT’S OBV, BUT THEN I WALK MY OWN SHO.LAST WEEK I ME FACE TO FACE WH TREMENDO PHBACK TO THE REALY OF THE GAY MALE EXPERIENCE. DOZENS OF STRAIGHT/CIS PEOPLE SISTED TO ME THAT BEG GAY IS NO BIG AL, THAT GAY WHE MEN DON’T FACE OPPRSN. A RPECTED TRANSGENR LUMNIST RECENTLY SEEMED TO IMPLY AS MUCH SUALLY AN ARTICLE ON MEDIUM WHILE RIGHTFULLY CRICIZG A NSERVATIVE GAY WRER WHO HAS NEVER BEEN PART OF THE STGGLE FOR QUEER EQUALY.(KATELYN BURNS HAS ASKED ME TO CLARIFY, AND I QUOTE HER HERE: “YOU’VE VERY BADLY MISCHARACTERIZED MY ARTICLE. NOWHERE DID I IMPLY THAT GAY WHE MEN DON’T EXPERIENCE OPPRSN OR THAT ’S NOT A BIG AL. WHAT I DID SAY IS THAT WHE CIS GAY MEN AND LBIANS HAVE AN EASIER TIME EXISTG CIS STRAIGHT SPAC THAN TRANS PEOPLE, AND THAT WHE CIS GAY MEN N STILL OPPRS WOMEN AND TRANS PEOPLE THROUGH PATRIARCHY.”)LIBERAL, PROGRSIVE TWTER NI…

OP-ED: THE WHE PARTY AND GAY CULTURE NEED MORE COLOR

A wild weekend of back-to-back circu parti and poolsi dancg, Whe Party Palm Sprgs is one of the most popular gay circu events  the Uned Stat!

THE UNSUNG HISTORY OF CIRCU PARTI, WHERE GAY MEN SEEK SEX AND FREEDOM

In the sectns below, I’ll tell you all about what gay travelers should expect at Whe Party, the most popular plac to stay, the party’s host hotel, what to wear, and even some travel tips.

GROWG UP GAY

If you don’t have time to orr somethg onle advance, there are plenty of shops Palm Sprgs that sell gay party-themed clothg and accsori.

GayMart, Bear Wear, and other adorable shops Palm Sprgs sell harns, whe shorts, and tank tops.

John Taylor will be givg updat on all the Whe Party activi gog on om 4 to 6 Sunday durg the KGAY Sunday T-Dance.

MY ATLANTIS GAY CISE TRIP – WHAT IT WAS LIKE

Thoands of gay men om across the Uned Stat, Canada, and pots around the world will scent on the California sert cy for one of the biggt, most popular gay mic ftival of the year. Wh three s of experience, the anizers have veloped a perfect weekend le-up of seven high-impact events terg to sun-seekg gay men who love listeng to mic, drsg up elaborate stum, socializg wh new and old iends, and dancg all day and late to the night. He spent three s producg gay events around the world, cludg Whe Party Palm Sprgs, New Year’s Eve celebratns Los Angel, Miami, R Janiero, One Mighty Party at Gay Day’s Orlando, and Whe Party Puerto Vallarta.

NO, IT’S NOT OK TO BE A GAY WHE MANASSUMPTNS BY LGBTQ PEOPLE AND ALLI NOTWHSTANDGJAM FN·FOLLOWPUBLISHED PRISM & PEN·8 M READ·JAN 2, 2021--70SHAREPHOTO BY OLEH PHOENIX LICENSED OM ADOBE STOCKIT A’T EASY BEG A GAY WHE MAN, WHATEVER YOU MIGHT HAVE HEARD TO THE NTRARYPLEASE DON’T STOP READG, BEE I’M NOT EVEN TRYING TO DISMISS OTHER EXPERIENC. IF YOU’RE TRANS, BISEXUAL, A PERSON OF LOR, OR JT A OL CIS/STRAIGHT WHE PERSON WHO EMPATHIZ WH FELLOW HUMANS, I’VE GOT YOUR BACK.I RE ABOUT YOUR STGGL, AND YOU MATTER TO ME.NOBODY R ABOUT GAY ANYMORE. IT’S SO NOT A BIG AL.BUT OVER THE LAST FEW DAYS, I’VE BEEN THKG A LOT ABOUT THE STATE OF QUEER EQUALY, SOMETHG I’VE FOUGHT HARD FOR ALL MY LIFE AS A STREET ACTIVIST AND ADVOTE. I MARCHED WH QUEER NATN AS A YOUNG MAN, GOT GAY BASHED GREENWICH VILLAGE, AND STOOD UP FOR RADIL QUEER EQUALY, CLUDG THE SMASHG OF GENR NORMS.I’VE WNSED A LOT OF PROGRS SCE I BEME AN ACTIVIST 1990. I’M OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE STATE OF THE STGGLE, BUT I’M ALSO A REALIST. A LOT OF QUEER FOLKS THE US ARE SUFFERG, AND THAT CLUS GAY MEN, WHO OFTEN FACE STIGMATIZATN, ISOLATN, AND UNJT DISCRIMATN.I THK THAT’S OBV, BUT THEN I WALK MY OWN SHO.LAST WEEK I ME FACE TO FACE WH TREMENDO PHBACK TO THE REALY OF THE GAY MALE EXPERIENCE. DOZENS OF STRAIGHT/CIS PEOPLE SISTED TO ME THAT BEG GAY IS NO BIG AL, THAT GAY WHE MEN DON’T FACE OPPRSN. A RPECTED TRANSGENR LUMNIST RECENTLY SEEMED TO IMPLY AS MUCH SUALLY AN ARTICLE ON MEDIUM WHILE RIGHTFULLY CRICIZG A NSERVATIVE GAY WRER WHO HAS NEVER BEEN PART OF THE STGGLE FOR QUEER EQUALY.(KATELYN BURNS HAS ASKED ME TO CLARIFY, AND I QUOTE HER HERE: “YOU’VE VERY BADLY MISCHARACTERIZED MY ARTICLE. NOWHERE DID I IMPLY THAT GAY WHE MEN DON’T EXPERIENCE OPPRSN OR THAT ’S NOT A BIG AL. WHAT I DID SAY IS THAT WHE CIS GAY MEN AND LBIANS HAVE AN EASIER TIME EXISTG CIS STRAIGHT SPAC THAN TRANS PEOPLE, AND THAT WHE CIS GAY MEN N STILL OPPRS WOMEN AND TRANS PEOPLE THROUGH PATRIARCHY.”)LIBERAL, PROGRSIVE TWTER NI…

He also played an important role transformg the muny of Palm Sprgs to a btlg gay statn, known for s cln, muny buildg, and nce. See the full gallery of HomoCulture imag om Whe Party Palm Sprgs on the HomoCulture Facebook page. Thoands upon thoands of gay men will flock to Palm Sprgs, Calif., this weekend for endls rog, pulsatg mic, and shirtls hunks everywhere.

Produced annually by promoter Jefey Sanker, the Whe Party is billed as the world's largt gay dance ftival and was scribed by The Huffgton Post as "synonymo wh mastream gay culture. There are plenty of very attractive, dark, black and Asian gays wh magnificent bodi Southern California, so "mastream gay culture" as fed by the Whe Party don't prent self as clive of anyone who nnot be mistaken for Csian the right kd of segregatn and whe privilege is more typil of gay ruals than straight supporters of LGBT rights may thk, pecially given the gay muny's lip service to tolerance and equaly. The hypocril abily of gays to practice ethnic cln their own tablishments mak difficult to take serly the recent backlash agast Indiana's "relig eedom" paper, I should be a loud supporter of efforts like #BoyttIndiana.

I fear relign ed as a pretext to ny gays other stat om enjoyg eedoms I enjoy as a rint of Wt Hollywood -- perhaps Ameri's most queer-iendly municipaly. That is, the vendors monstrate nsistent applitn of their beliefs to all ctomers, not jt scerely sglg out gays as a special class of "sners" marked for discrimatn. Yet to #BoyttIndiana would be hypocril light of the rampant racial hostili wh the gay muny self.

Ethnic mori who move LGBT circl too often experience gay paeans to diversy as empty words. In practice, racial exclivy that privileg whens is the gay muny's standard operatg procre and s dirty ltle secret. If straight alli knew of the wispread racism amongst gays, they'd likely stop takg gay cri for equaly of all backgrounds experience areas of advantage and disadvantage, but I've been surprised to personally experience such a large number of prejudicial enunters wh gay Csians.

I often scroll through the gay gossip webse WeHo Confintial to see the un-morated e of n-bombs on the se's ment sectns. But I'm also not naive to the awarens that my looks and body type sulate me om the worst of gay racism and th om beg eply wound by bigoted slights.

I worry for the mental health of gays of lor who are not perceived as tradnally good-lookg and lack the accs afford to those nsired sufficiently youthful, handsome, classilly built, or wealthy. " LGBT mori are multiple-mori by fn, and they unrstand Cho's metaphor more than prejudice they endure has been recently highlighted by the mise of two segregated gay stutns: the recently nceled HBO show Lookg and recently closed Los Angel dis Catch One. For the race warrrs among Lookg's crics, there were not enough blacks st major rol, not enough darker-skned Latos of lor, and -- preposteroly for a show claimg to pict ntemporary gay San Francis -- no Asians wh major was so prepostero?

"Everyone is whe, " one of the show's characters lamented of a party the fal episo, ditg the wrers were self-referentially aware of the unbearable whens of the gay liv they picted.