Is it a Post Gay World After All?
Posted on 23 July 2010 by Abidoon
My endless ruminations about last night’s Beer Summit visit to a favorite Greenwich Village haunt, Marie’s Crisis. Is gay culture disappearing? Does it matter? Am I just a nostalgic old queen? Sorry, Grateful by Stephen Sondheim from Company www.youtube.com Hard Candy Christmas by Carol Hall from The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas www.youtube.com
Happy belated birthday!
I wish I had been there in the golden years. One of the reasons why NYC is one of my favourite cities is the history of the gay movement. I lived close to NY (Princeton) for 5 years, and I remember showing the village to a friend of mine who is a gay activist from South America. And we talked about the late 60s and the 70s (what I knew from books), the piers, the bars. We stopped by Stonewall, but, sadly, it was not what it once had been.
Sending greetings from Berin.
Gay clubs are not only meeting places but havens where gay people can go to escape the many forms of discrimination that we face every day; a place to be safe from our straight oppressors and joyfully express our differences from them. Straights simply have no business there. We haven’t been assimilated. We’ve been appropriated. They’ve invaded our clubs, pillaged our culture and adopted our sense of style, while continuing to debate whether or not we even deserve equal rights. It’s sickening.
happy birthday and hope you feel better…pop
Krew
I’m straight and into punk music. But there’s a large number of punk scene’s and bands that are focused on sub culture and gay culture. Look up Limp Wrist. Their lyrics are pretty great…
“… if you want brevity…” LMAO – at 13 minutes into the story you tell us this?
Interesting commentary on the distinction between gay and homosexual, and what happens to a culture as it becomes assimilated. I’ve heard the assimilation story many times from other perspectives (mostly Jewish), but this put it in a different light.
I’m sure there’s much to be said on the subject than fits in 17 minutes.
Oh, and restaurant consultants screw up every place through “suggested music,” decor, etc.
Phil himself shows some New York us vs. them mentality when he said (albeit jokingly) that the straights should leave Marie’s Crisis to gay people.
Segregation, in any capacity, is a bad thing. That’s why I don’t like the idea of gay cruises and gay hotels, etc. As long as gay people want to find comfort by enclosing themselves in a safe, gay “bubble,” then acceptance (and the ultimate goal: indifference) will never happen. In my opinion anyway.
Oh damn… you and I need to have a few drinks on stickam one night and chat it up!
As the future unfolds we will most likely find more of what was exclusively part of the gay subculture becoming more mainstream. That won’t make the world decidedly better or worse, just different, just like what happened to the bar of decades ago…
@OneoftheImmortals
Look up the IPA pronounciation, you will see it is a long ‘oo’.
Happy Birthday, Phil. Nice vlog.
caxiaba, your both wrong. The “o” is silent. Just ask any Portuguese Sommelier.
RoulinBrooks, I never found the Us v Them in New York but when I was in San Francisco, decades ago, I couldn’t get over how segregated the gays were from Straights. It shocked me. New York is not San Francisco; but I digress . . .
Yay for rambling on!
You are truly a gentleman and a scholar. Awesome Vtube. It does appear that either you are or that you have celebrated a birthday. Happy Birthday to you and I hope that your life is filled with awesome happiness throughout this next year for you. Namaste!
You are truly a gentleman and a scholar. Awesome Vtube. It does appear that either you are or that you have celebrated a birthday. Happy Birthday to you and I hope that your life is filled with awesome happiness throughout this next year for you. Namaste!
Happy Birthday!
I can appreciate and understand your nostalgic feelings for Marie’s Crisis. And, for the most part, people often don’t like change. Still, I personally think that the waning of gay culture is a good thing. I’ve never liked the “us vs. them” mentality that’s arguably part of gay culture. To me, being gay is like being left-handed. It is what it is, but it by no means should define a person. Pick a random gay person off the street and there’s a good chance I have zero in common with them.
I think it is quite true when you add a few heterosexuals to a mix of homosexuals “with a history”, the “song” is changed indeed…or repeated. And ALWAYS once we have been somewhere, attracted them to the area, the price of everything goes up. Drinks, Rent, Food, Land…everything. Unfortunately, for some reason, we never move in and become landlords. I have seen this all across the country.
I miss the old independent establishments and have never quite understood Youth and Macaroni Grill.
Happy birthday. Over here in the UK we are certainly not post gay. People try to sell us stuff, we’re targeted economically but that’s pretty much it.
‘Gay culture’ can be a drag if you don’t fit in, but that’s by the by. When kids can grow up and not worry about this stuff that will be great but it ain’t happened yet. So… I don’t know.
Great post. ( The history is interesting not boring. Please don’t try to be brief you are a great speaker.)
Thanks for this.
I admit it, sometimes I don’t watch all of your post, but today I enjoyed the whole thing.
Porto is not spoken with a long ‘o’ when talking about that type of wine; the language is not Spanish, it is Portuguese. The ‘o’ at the end is pronounced with a long ‘oo’, such as food.
Alcohol is great for any sort of illness. Well, except
being alcoholic.
Love your videos. You’ve got a great voice (reminds me a bit of Orson Welles). You should be on radio! 5 stars!
Glad you were born, Phil.