The Unsung History of Circu Parti, Where Gay Men Seek Sex and Freedom

Contents:

• HOW TO MAKE THE CIRC MORE GAY (AND WHY WE HAVEN’T ALREADY)–A VIO EXPLORATN
• CIRC BOY: ACROBATIC GAY PARENTG DOCUMENTARY
• THE UNSUNG HISTORY OF CIRCU PARTI, WHERE GAY MEN SEEK SEX AND FREEDOM
• WHAT TOOK TO CREATE THE WORLD’S FIRST GAY ART MM
• LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE
• ILLUSTRATORS GIVE A GAY CIRCUS BALL; MASKED ARTISTS AS CLOWNS AND FREAKS FROLIC A TENT AT THE OLD BREVOORT. CONFETTI BATTLE FOUGHT MRS. LOUISE CLOSSER HALE APPEARS AS A "BEARD LADY" AND MRS. A. KIMBALL AS A BIRD CAGE.
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

HOW TO MAKE THE CIRC MORE GAY (AND WHY WE HAVEN’T ALREADY)–A VIO EXPLORATN

Seattle Gay Scene. SEATTLE GAY SCENE is Seattle’s Leadg LGBT muny webse, and most vised lendar the regn.

We also proudly serve as media sponsors for a number of amazg lol anizatns, cludg: Gay Cy Health Project, Lifelong AIDS Alliance, SIFF, Three Dollar Bill Cema, Qulture Qreative & Hard Tim Prs, NARK Magaze and Ban Strip to help brg some of the most excg live events and entertament the cy. Wh his swgg trapeze and aerial straps acts he has worked barets, big tented shows and large outdoor ftivals around the world cludg Germany, Mexi, Atralia, Canada, and the UK, and he jt released a 20-mute vio that cheerfully lv to the topic of how to make circ more artist Eric McGillWhy do he advote for more reprentatn and normalizatn of gay inti circ acts and shows?

”McGill further explas the impet for his vio project, “I have been workg on a special vio documentary talkg about gay reprentatn the circ. “We talk about the creative procs behd buildg romance to an act, and the challeng one fac when tryg to reprent gay romance on stage a way that is both palatable and not too subtle to be read.

CIRC BOY: ACROBATIC GAY PARENTG DOCUMENTARY

The story follows Thomas, a gay man Canada who's raisg a teenage boy named Ethan wh his hband Michael. They're beg a gay uple is a plete non-issue to him.

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. Undoubtedly, many younger gay men prefer smaller venu that "bask the bety and openns of queer culture. " 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. A gay circu party (Photo via)THUMP: Can you give me a psule history of the circu?

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

When the Gay Activist Alliance was formed—the first gay rights group, born only six months after Stonewall—they had danc an old firehoe SoHo. 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. Then you started seeg the rise of the ter, which pecially affected the gay datg scene. A handful of proment gay punds saw the parti as a waste of our energy and rourc.

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?

WHAT TOOK TO CREATE THE WORLD’S FIRST GAY ART MM

Bee what they're "studyg" is jt what go on regular gay that "regular gay life" has e to mean somethg very different 2017. There's no qutn that for gay men, thgs have gotten better. 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?

LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE

And if so, what's the motivatn for younger gay men to attend a circu party? H ave the parti themselv evolved to meet the challenge of a changed landspe for gay/queer culture a post-liberatn world? " We create a gay space on the dance floor of mastream parti.

EDC enurag ongog cricism is that the parti reprent only one small segment of gay men.

Although there's a looseng up about attus toward gay people, the societi are still very tradnal. The "Queer Threads" exhibn, which ran early 2014, examed the diversy of gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, and queer experienc.

ILLUSTRATORS GIVE A GAY CIRCUS BALL; MASKED ARTISTS AS CLOWNS AND FREAKS FROLIC A TENT AT THE OLD BREVOORT. CONFETTI BATTLE FOUGHT MRS. LOUISE CLOSSER HALE APPEARS AS A "BEARD LADY" AND MRS. A. KIMBALL AS A BIRD CAGE.

Stanley Stellar / Llie-Lohman Mm of Gay and Lbian Art. From the stage of the Founrs’ Day celebratn of the Llie + Lohman Mm of Gay and Lbian Art, the octogenarian art llector addrsed the r crowd there to celebrate the upg expansn of the mm he tablished– a major tone that will double size the world’s first and only mm dited to gay art.

But before discsg the future, Llie wanted to talk about the origs of his llectn of homoerotic work.

THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

The rt, ed, was history: thoands of years of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr history, ignored and relegated to circumscribed footnot, if that. Or as the print of the mm’s board of directors, art historian Jonathan David Katz, puts , Llie “enpsulat the cultural tennci” of more than half a century of gay historic activism. As did for many men of the time, Europe troduced Llie to a more open visn of gay life.

Growg up a small town durg the Deprsn, Llie’s exposure to gayns as an inty was limed to what he uld glean om the encyclopedia. Aware of his own sexual sir om an early age, he left for Los Angel as soon as he uld, where he easily fell wh s sub rosa gay muny.

But was Europe that ma him realize there was such a thg as “gay history” – and that much of that history was only prerved art.