Pool Boys: The Summer Gay Scene at the Raven Pool New Hope - Philalphia Magaze

Contents:

• POOL BOYS: THE SUMMER GAY SCENE AT THE RAVEN POOL NEW HOPE
• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• ‘COULDN’T BELIEVE I WAS SEEG ’: HOME MOVI OFFER RARE GLIMPSE OF GAY LIFE ST. LOUIS 1945
• THE GAY VERSN OF SI'S SWIMSU ISSUE

POOL BOYS: THE SUMMER GAY SCENE AT THE RAVEN POOL NEW HOPE

Every year, gay men fan out farther and wir for summer fun. Wele to the Pool at the you don’t know the Pool, ’s probably bee you’re not gay, boozy or particularly randy, or preferably all three.

But ’s been a summertime staple for gay men om Philly, New York, New Jersey and parts of what is monly lled “Pennsyltucky” for s — New Hope’s crown jewel when to summer gay tourism. When a gay man texts “I’m gog to the pool, ” ’s no mystery which one — ’s not his pool, or a pool, but the Pool.

But if you’re gay and not sippg mojos at the Chelsea Atlantic Cy or whiffg poppers Rehoboth, you’re at the Pool — part of a bed gay bar/motel operatn — baskg s glisteng bawds. 3, which is everyone else — a loose llectn of sociable gays summoned to the water as if by gravatnal pull, neon pool noodl potg skyward. It’s like circle time at gay summer, gays are assiatg at a faster pace than ever before.

JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

When a gay uple mov to the hoe next door, the neighborhood … boys will be boys, and this will never change: At certa tim, the tribe wants to vort s own playpen. Which brgs back to the Pool, which is ground zero for heat-stricken gay men Philalphia and surroundg unti who lack accs to a beach hoe. It has always applied to gay men.

The abbreviated story of how the Bucks County burg beme a sort of gay-and-gltered Plymouth Rock go somethg like this: First me the nvas artists the 1930s and ’40s; soon after, retail shops pched their tents to piggyback off the scene’s growg (and marketable) diversy.

Meanwhile, a flourishg theater scene emerged, fed by Bucks County Playhoe darlgs like Angela Lansbury, Grace Kelly and Liza Mnelli (as ins, gay, gayer and gayt). “From there, people began buyg summer hom, and wh that me the muny om New York and Philly, who found their way to New Hope, ” says Daniel Brooks, founr of the gay-tourism anizatn New Hope Celebrat.

‘COULDN’T BELIEVE I WAS SEEG ’: HOME MOVI OFFER RARE GLIMPSE OF GAY LIFE ST. LOUIS 1945

” By the 1980s, thanks to the so-lled “Goln Triangle” of gay nightclubs — the Raven, the Cartwheel and the Prelu — New Hope had tablished self as a “Gayborhood” well before the term was ed for 13th and Loct. ” Beyond providg juicy burgers (a scene that fi crly — gay men eatg rbs? “It’s a summer rual, ” says Philly gay-event producer Josh Schonewolf, who go every season.

THE GAY VERSN OF SI'S SWIMSU ISSUE

Here, I meet 58-year-old Dan Schaffer, who’s bt explaed as a gay Rolox wh a pulse — the go-to guy if you want to know someone, or jt want the latt dish on who’s dog what (and to whom). Prerved, spots like the Pool are an endangered speci; gay mecs like New Hope and Key Wt are cle (or, perhaps more accurately, “gog straight”). And if my afternoon here is any ditn, fledglg gays like myself aren’t turng up the numbers need to sta this place two s om now, when all the geriatrics check to the John C.

What happens when lennials are left to choose between Grdr and a by-then-forlorn symbol of once-upon-a-time gay culture? The Pool may be a summer “rual” for young gays, but ’s a route for everyone else. It is important to note that the same-sex soc-sexual behavr observed the study is distct om homosexual behavr bee s motivatn and purpose are social, said Jean-Baptiste Le, who studi primate behavr at the Universy of Lethbridge Canada and was not volved the new rearch.

To be classified as te homosexual behavr, the form, motivatn and functn would all have to be sexual nature, he said.