Joe Osmundson lyrilly ploys circu metaphors to scribe how new anti-virals are re-wirg the gay dance circu post-AIDS New York....
Contents:
- THE UNSUNG HISTORY OF CIRCU PARTI, WHERE GAY MEN SEEK SEX AND FREEDOM
- GAY CIRCU PARTI DURG COVID SPARKED A “CIVIL WAR.” CAN ANYONE W?
- GAY UNSELOR'S FIRG BY INDIANAPOLIS CATHOLIC SCHOOL PERMTED BY FERAL APPEALS URT
- FIRG OF GAY CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ULD TT LATT SUPREME COURT LG
- GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
- A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN
- HOW GAY RIGHTS ACTIVISTS REMA THE FERAL ERNMENT
- HOW THE GAY PARTY SCENE SHORT-CIRCUED AND BEME A MONEYMAKG BONANZA
- CIRCU PARTI AND PATTERNS OF DG E A SUBSET OF GAY MEN
- WHAT THE BILL DUBBED ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BY CRICS ACTUALLY SAYS
THE UNSUNG HISTORY OF CIRCU PARTI, WHERE GAY MEN SEEK SEX AND FREEDOM
A gay man who attends circu parti on a regular basis. It is ually a very expensive enavor, sce tickets to the parti are generally around $100 per event, and circu parti ually take place on three to five nsecutive nights the the same cy. The term often has a negative nnotatn." name="Dcriptn" property="og:scriptn * gay term circuit *
A equent circu party (gay rave/dance events wh wi range of scen) goer, normally ed to scribe a gay man but nowadays n be ed for anyone who go to circu parti often. The circu—a loose global work of often weekend-long danceathons, where partygoers (almost all gay men) nvene om around the world to bond spirually, socially, sexually and milly—is one of the most unique phenomena to emerge om queer muni over the past few s. " Plenty of olr gay men, too, fd the whole ethos of circu parti — glow sticks, remixed diva anthems, lor them, "body fascism"—to be tired figure out the state of the circu 2017, THUMP spoke wh Mickey Weems, a lecturer at the Universy of Hawai'i Manoa who has extensively studied circu parti (alongsi relig, anthropologil and folklore terts).
Weems spoke to their past, prent and potential future, explag what role the circu has played shapg queer and gay culture, and what s evolutn says about the same today.
GAY CIRCU PARTI DURG COVID SPARKED A “CIVIL WAR.” CAN ANYONE W?
A equent circu party (gay rave/dance events wh wi range of scen) goer, normally ed to scribe a gay man but nowadays n be ed for anyone who go to circu parti often. Many have great physique (no matter how they get there), and n be seen at many big ternatnal circu party events. Many circu queens share certa mon scen wh regular ravers such as g substance at parti . They are generally to circu style EDM wh a variety of elements such as ep hoe, techno, trance, vol and etc. Dependg the party them, typil circu queen outfs morrn days are cled to be tight or short shorts, largely shiftg om jeans 90s. Men are normally topls. Bandanas and handheld foldg fans are wily ed." name="Dcriptn" property="og:scriptn * gay term circuit *
And New York, thoands of men began gatherg at Downtown loft spac that began croppg started pourg , wh plac like Flamgo and Twelve Wt, two of the most proment gay male dance spac, full of sweaty men dancg all the same time, Fire Island beme the place for people who uld afford . The term "circu" me om beg the "need to know circu"—not only diss, but "--the-know" plac the gay muny that even clud, 1980, the Sat opened the East Village.
One thg the 2002 documentary When Boys Fly [which followed a group of young gay men attendg the Miami Whe Party] got right was showg someone fallg out [passg out om dg e] was sndalo. People like Michelangelo Signorile, who wrote about his experience at the Palm Sprgs Whe Party Life Outsi, a book about gay culture at the time, were posg that the parti were crics like Signorile, Larry Kramer and Gabriel Rotello, parti were seen as havens for irrponsible behavr, sex and dgs.
Most of the kds of studi look at the areas of gay culture—like the bathhoe scene, club scene, the app scene—bee they're supposed hot spots for HIV fectn and rampant dg the qutn is: do the people dog the studi unrstand our muny at all? This generatnal divi between gay Boomers and lennials has to fluence how they perceive circu parti—or even if there's still a need for, as you said, the circu reached a nadir earlier this century, has that cle been nstant, or have they ma a eback? Any number of a seri of events that n be held around world generally terg to butch lookg young gay men and fag hags that nsists of dancg mdlsly until dawn to dis mic after jtg K, ex and/or methamphetame Ted: Hey.
GAY UNSELOR'S FIRG BY INDIANAPOLIS CATHOLIC SCHOOL PERMTED BY FERAL APPEALS URT
A large, gay dance party, somethg like a gay versn of a rave, but wh a gay-oriented mic selectn (ually pop, progrsive hoe, and tribal). Events are well-promoted, publicized, advertised and anized, are often attend by thoands, n be big chary fundraisers, and are ually expensive to attend. Sce each circu party occurs on a specific weekend and a specific cy once a year, and there are many parti on "the circu", travel and planng are required. Travellg om party to party be part of a circu boy's liftyle of travel, workg and partyg. Some exampl of circu parti: Whe Party Palm sprgs (April), Black Party New York (March), the Black and Blue Ball Montreal (October), the Blue Ball Philalphia (January). The are often all-night and multi-day events, and party dgs such as ecstasy, GHB, ketame and crystal are equently taken by partygoers." name="Dcriptn" property="og:scriptn * gay term circuit *
Sutherland and Malone, you see, a closed circu (amplifiers) wh the larger circu of New York’s gay nightlife (high putatnal memory, low long-term storage). One aspect, though, feels dated: the gay men Malone and Sutherland’s world lamented their sexualy bee meant they uldn’t get married and live happy liv the suburbs.
FIRG OF GAY CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ULD TT LATT SUPREME COURT LG
* gay term circuit *
But sce the 1990s, when gays started to more serly tegrate to the stutns of Amerin life, we learned a tough lson that assiatnists of all sorts have been learng for generatns. Capal is everywhere, social and fancial, and while the circu might be about pism, and queers of all rac and class might want to pe the world’s homophobia (and var –isms), only certa faggots n afford a rpe om the vlence of their liv by dancg om midnight until the sun up.
Deaths and ODs on gay cis are borrle mon news, and while the jok about the hot tub gonorrhea wre themselv, their regulary illtrat the potential nsequenc of the circu: is entirely possible to dance onelf to ath, or at least to misery. But gays are still gay, and the world is still mostly a strajacket, and sometim jt feels so goddamn good to n om all that to a blotted-out world that nsists of nothg but pleasure. Like a lot of homosexuals, we might be addicted to the way we have to make our bodi look, for example, orr to image we’re worthy of attentn; the notn that sex and a night out are one and the same, and that sex wh a beloved the afternoon n’t match the same high; that sex is for the night, and work is for the light of day.
Homophobia short-circued the liv of gay men the ’70s, makg them believe that the only pleasure was love, that the suburbs would make them happy, but that they’d never see their own whe picket fenc.
GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Gay rights movement, civil rights movement that advot equal rights for LGBTQ persons—that is, for lbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenr persons, and queer persons—and lls for an end to discrimatn agast LGBTQ persons employment, cred, hog, public acmodatns, and other areas of life. * gay term circuit *
For the uniated, circu parti are large dance events predomantly thrown by and for gay men, typilly associated wh mcled and shirtls bodi, poundg mic, dgs, and sex. But, as many scholars and activists have untered, the events hold an important place gay history by providg a unique space for joy, muny, sexual liberatn, and even fundraisg for like HIV/AIDS or LGBTQ youth homelsns.
A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN
The gay world is often reprented as some sort of monolhic whole that has the same culture. That is a lie. It is actually broken down to a handful of substrata to which each gay belongs. Here they are. * gay term circuit *
) But the nflict between gay men who ntue to socialize large groups and those who judge them reached a fever pch this past December, when social media posts showed bars and parti Miami and Fort Lrdale full of unmasked patrons. Then, earlier this month, many reacted horror as word of circu-style parti Puerto Vallarta, Mexi, and neighborg regns trickled onto social media, showg hundreds of gay men dancg together, as though COVID would be kept out by the bouncers.
HOW GAY RIGHTS ACTIVISTS REMA THE FERAL ERNMENT
Revelers party durg the Circu Ftival's Water Park Day Vilassar Mar, Spa, Augt 2016. Josep Lago/AFP via Getty ImagWhen ronavis rtrictns threatened the Whe Party, an annual circu party held Palm Sprgs, California, the anizer, Jefey Sanger, cid to move the ftivi to Jalis, Mexi. Gay partygoers om around the world scend on the small astal state for the New Year’s Eve bash. Stars om Ru Pl’s Drag race ma appearanc, and even some doctors and nurs, h off their first COVID-19 vacce dos, got on the actn. The social media backlash was swift. Mexi, at that time, had one of the hight mortaly rat – measured as aths to s – the world. Others poted out that the flux of tourists uld stra existg hospal rourc. Above all, the partygoers seemed to embody the arrogance, privilege and excs of people who prrized a good time over a global health emergency. While other gay events have also been occurrg durg the panmic, this one particular party seemed to strike a nerve wh the gay muny. For five years, my lleagu and I have been attendg the circu parti to terview atten. We’ve sought to better unrstand the posive ways the parti fluence gay culture, along wh some of the problems they n prent. To me, Sanker’s nt bash – held the thro of the ronavis panmic – epomized a growg divi gay culture. On one si, there are those who ntue to ph the polil boundari and, so dog, embrace the legacy of muny-buildg that emerged om the post-Stonewall era of LGBTQ activism; on the other, a group which seems to reject any notns of solidary nor exprs any sire to know more about the history and polil implitns of their actns. Early parti center on solidary The circu party emerged the late 1980s and me out of the unrground gay club scene tablished by Black and Lato men livg Chigo and Detro. The name “circu” was affixed to a particular branch of electronic dance mic party due to the style of hoe mic, dubbed “circu hoe,” that played almost exclively at the gathergs. Early circu hoe enthiasts subscribed to the valu of P.L.U.M. – Peace, Love, Uny and Movement – though the “M” would later be replaced wh an “R” for “Rpect.” The circu soon me to simply refer to the work of unrground nightclubs where gay men uld dance together. The spac also fostered solidary among gay people, helpg them feel ls stigmatized and normalizg some of the issu they faced, whether was HIV/AIDS or rejectn by fay and peers. As one 45-year-old gay male man told me, the early parti were “small, timate affairs. We were all lookg for a way to nnect wh each other, and we didn’t have many optns, so the circu beme a space for to belong and a place where we uld be ee.” The circu be expensive and exclive For LGBTQ people, this qut for belongg hasn’t gone away. A 2013 Pew survey reported that LGBTQ people still felt high rat of discrimatn excln om tradnal stutns such as the fay, church and the workplace. A 2019 survey of LGBTQ Southerners found that participants felt an attachment to LGBTQ cultural spac like gay bars and neighborhoods. For all the progrs that has been ma, the enclav rema some of the only spac society where gayns is the norm. Broar civil rights gas have cid wh technologil advancements, wh the ter and social media dramatilly changg human teractn and llective anizg. A whirlwd of dizzyg social change driven by lik, views and shar has led to greater feelgs of what soclogists ll “anomie” – a French word ed to scribe feelgs of disnnectedns and a lack of muny. Circu parti are not immune to this change. No longer do dividuals attend the circu to make a polil statement; stead, the culture of the circu seems to be foced almost exclively on celebratg and seekg hyper-mascule and heteronormative standards of bety. For partygoers, this often means buildg a mcular ame, havg risky sex and g dgs. They’ll also engage what’s been scribed by other amics as “body fascism” – the excln and policg of how partygoers are supposed to look. This cut, mascule ial is also reflected ads for the events. Thoands of gay men gather at the Palm Sprgs Conventn Center for the 2004 Whe Party. J. E Flor/Corbis via Getty Imag Today, circu parti have bee large-sle ternatnal productns stg hundreds of thoands of dollars, leadg to an crease ticket and travel sts. This has ma the events more exclive and also ls racially diverse, sce men of lor tend to have ls disposable e to attend the events and n also be the target of racial slurs and send-class treatment. “This is no longer a polil event,” one 50-year-old male party promoter told me. “This is a mic ftival, and we have to make as much money as possible.” When subcultur get -opted by pal One of the greatt strengths of the gay rights movement has been s abily to be activism wh fun. However, as my rearch shows, unls there’s an tent to prrize polil agendas, group solidary n easily be erod. Sanker has noted that as his events have bee more profable, they’ve faced ls opposn om public officials and nservative groups. But this profabily has meant scbbg ntroversial polil msag om the events to make them as palatable to as many ctomers as possible. Somethg, clearly, has been lost. Soclogists are keen to note how cultur – along wh subcultur – often emerge as a way to alleviate feelgs of isolatn and sufferg. However, cultural events often bee -opted by prof motiv. When this happens, they bee ls about rg for one another, buildg a sense of muny or celebratg the posive aspects of humany. Instead, wh pure profabily and pism ont and center at the Whe Party, ’s no wonr that the health of the atten – along wh that of the lols – was shgged off. [Insight, your box each day. You n get wh The Conversatn’s email newsletter.]This article is republished om The Conversatn, a nonprof news se dited to sharg ias om amic experts. It was wrten by: Christopher T. Conner, Universy of Missouri-Columbia. Read more:How the New York media vered the Stonewall rtsHow much cred should rporatns get for the advancement of LGBTQ rights? Christopher T. Conner do not work for, nsult, own shar or receive fundg om any pany or anizatn that would benef om this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliatns beyond their amic appotment. * gay term circuit *
) Social media acunts dited to exposg gay partiers have been sproutg up daily, the most notor of which, @GaysOverCOVID, recently surpassed 100, 000 followers and was clud a Good Morng Ameri segment on “COVID vigilant. Asked to expla his motivatns, the anonymo curator of @GaysOverCOVID told the journalists Alex Hawgood and Taylor Lorenz, “I jt want people to stay home and if we n save one life then I feel good.
One group, anized unr the hashtag #GaysOverKarens, even offered a $500 bounty for any rmatn on the inty of the owner of @GaysOverCOVID, claimg the acunt is makg the muny “as divisive as ever.
Predomantly whe, wealthy gay men travelg to Mexi—one of the untri most burned by COVID—to party durg the height of the panmic is llo disregard at bt and lonialism at worst.
HOW THE GAY PARTY SCENE SHORT-CIRCUED AND BEME A MONEYMAKG BONANZA
This study examed the characteristics of gay men attendg circu parti and their dg e. In particular, the role of methylenedmethamphetame (MDMA, "ecstasy") was nsired relatn to other dg e and sexual behavr. A one-page survey was distributed to 173 men attendg a circu … * gay term circuit *
On the other, we have the Good Gays, who have nothg better to do but s their apartments all day and attack plete strangers onle unr the ln that this will make an impact. WASHINGTON – A feral appeals urt has led that a Catholic high school Indianapolis was ee to fire a gay guidance unselor bee she performed at least some relig duti, the latt legal setback for LGBTQ+ rights when they nflict wh Fzgerald had worked for 14 years as a guidance unselor at Ronlli High School when school officials disvered she was married to another woman. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circu Richmond is an early tt of how that major Supreme Court cisn ptg ee speech agast anti-discrimatn laws will play out beyond the hypothetil suatn that se, which volved a platiff who had never actually ma weddg webs or been asked to do so by a gay person.
“The Court rejected the dissent’s assertn that s cisn opened the door to discrimatn employment, ” ACLU attorney Josh Block wrote a reply to Becket’s the exampl raised the Supreme Court did not clu a relig anizatn or a gay employee, and Gorsuch repeatedly voked a 2000 cisn allowg the Boy Suts to expel a gay volunteer on “exprsive associatn” grounds. “We all said that thoands of relig anizatns all across the untry ask their employe to uphold their tradnal view of marriage word and ed, and if you terpret the statute that way, ’s gog to unleash lots of lawsus agast them, ” Goodrich the Supreme Court has specifilly said preventg racial discrimatn is a pellg ernment tert that jtifi rtrictg First Amendment eedoms, he noted that the Supreme Court has rejected such a fdg on discrimatn agast gay or transgenr people.
The ma difference, however between a regular rave and a “circu party” is the fact that the latter is rather closely associated wh the LGBTQ muny, wh gay men beg the most mon attendants of the event. E., for lbians, gays [homosexual mal], bisexuals, transgenr persons, and queer persons); seeks to elimate sodomy laws; and lls for an end to discrimatn agast LGBTQ persons employment, cred, hog, public acmodatns, and other areas of life.
CIRCU PARTI AND PATTERNS OF DG E A SUBSET OF GAY MEN
(Although the term gay is monly ed reference to homosexual mal, is also ed more generally to refer to homosexual mal together wh some or all other orientatns wh the LGBTQ muny.
) Gay rights prr to the 20th century Relig admonns agast sexual relatns between dividuals of the same sex (particularly men) long stigmatized such behavur, but most legal s Europe were silent on the subject of homosexualy and bisexualy.
WHAT THE BILL DUBBED ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BY CRICS ACTUALLY SAYS
” Homosexual and bisexual men and women were given voice 1897 wh the foundg of the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee (Wissenschaftlich-humanär Komee; WhK) Berl. Dpe Paragraph 175 and the failure of the WhK to w s repeal, homosexual and bisexual men and women experienced a certa amount of eedom Germany, particularly durg the Weimar perd, between the end of World War I and the Nazi seizure of power. In the Uned Stat this greater visibily brought some backlash, particularly om the ernment and the police: the ernment often fired gay civil servants, the ary attempted to purge s ranks of gay soldiers (a policy enacted durg World War II), and police vice squads equently raid gay bars and arrted their patrons.
In the Uned Stat the first major male anizatn, found 1950–51 by Harry Hay Los Angel, was the Mattache Society (s name reputedly rived om a medieval French society of masked players, the Société Mattache, to reprent the public “maskg” of homosexualy), while the Dghters of Bilis (named after the Sapphic love poems of Pierre Louÿs, Chansons Bilis), found 1955 by Phyllis Lyon and Del Mart San Francis, was a leadg group for women.
In Bra 1957 a missn chaired by Sir John Wolfenn issued a groundbreakg report (see Wolfenn Report) remendg that private homosexual liaisons between nsentg adults be removed om the doma of crimal law; a later the remendatn was implemented by Parliament the Sexual Offenc Act. The gay rights movement was begng to w victori for legal reform, particularly wtern Europe, but perhaps the sgle fg event of gay activism occurred the Uned Stat. In the 1970s and ’80s, gay polil anizatns proliferated, particularly the Uned Stat and Europe, and spread to other parts of the globe, though their relative size, strength, and succs—and toleratn by thori—varied signifintly.