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

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

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

Cast & crewUser reviewsTrivia20012h 10mJohn, a gay Illois small town p mov to Los Angel, hopg to f to a place more welg of his sexualy. Read allJohn, a gay Illois small town p mov to Los Angel, hopg to f to a place more welg of his sexualy. He soon disvers the "circu, " where he meets an secure htler, who draws John to dg abe and illic, a gay Illois small town p mov to Los Angel, hopg to f to a place more welg of his sexualy.

He soon disvers the "circu, " where he meets an secure htler, who draws John to dg abe and illic productn, box office & pany More like thisReview Sophistited circu partyA small town gay man move to big cy for his si dream. But y, if you want to see gay film, you n fd this tertg.

7/1013 RatgsDirected by Dirk Shafer Uned Stat, 2001Drama, LGBTQ+130SynopsisAfter movg om a small town Illois to Wt Hollywood, California, John experienc a downward spiral to the sex and dg-fueled world of the gay circu party scene. SynopsisAfter movg om a small town Illois to Wt Hollywood, California, John experienc a downward spiral to the sex and dg-fueled world of the gay circu party scene.

A., where he is quickly sced to the gay life of workouts and dk-to-dawn parti. SynopsisJohn, a gay Illois small town p mov to Los Angel, hopg to f to a place more welg of his sexualy. RomanceJohn, a gay Illois small town p mov to Los Angel, hopg to f to a place more welg of his sexualy.

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? 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?

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? 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.

Drama | Gay & Lbian. Everythg that one uld hate about gay life Ameri stars this movie. Jonathan Webster, a llege-ted gay man livg & workg as a police officer a small Illois town, realiz that he has no future there, and so mov to Los Angel.

He is slowly sced by the lored lights and glter to the vacuo world of the circu party, where young, betiful gay men waste their liv flailg a stupor of dgs, alhol, promiscuo & unsafe sex, and sleazy electronic techno-pop dis mic. This movie ankly nonts many issu that gay men won't or n't addrs: the gay cult of youth worship, body fascism and negative body image, rampant dg & alhol abe, the ternalized anti-gay bigotry and the ntant rrosn of self-teem that fuels the whole ugly ms, and the bs people who have a vted tert makg sure that none of chang. Wh all the ter-office beatdowns and lonely nights at home, ’s terrible beg an openly gay police officer ral Ameri.

It only mak sense then that John (Jonathan Wa Drahos) would make his way to Wt Hollywood, where a bump of K be his doctratn to the film’s lasciv gay culture. While the film nobly purports to expose the good and the bad of the gay circu scene, good tentns are lost amid soap opera actg methods, gratuo shots of plump ass and silhouett of dicks, and ridiculo mil montag (not the on si the clubs, jt the on si bedrooms set to “Whe Rabb” and tercut wh imag of gay bacchanalia). Character trajectori are ridiculoly off-kilter: the buff, straight-edged p is too-easily hypnotized by gay culture; the Lato htler is a grotque riture of superficialy; and the HIV+ sex performer who tragilly ters to mands of his size queen dience.

Sure, Circu has thenticy to spare (part of the film was shot at the Whe Party and director Dirk Shafer unrstands the eedom provid by the gay ghetto), yet the film serv up punishment like a hokey Afterschool Special. Filmmaker Dirk Shafer erratilly appli his predilectn for doc to "Circu, '' an all-enpassg drama about the pulsg, dg-addled gay subculture of circu parti.

Filmmaker Dirk Shafer erratilly appli his predilectn for doc to “Circu, ” an all-enpassg drama about the pulsg, dg-addled gay subculture of circu parti.