Whe Party Palm Sprgs - Gay Dert Gui Palm Sprgs

Contents:

• THE UNSUNG HISTORY OF CIRCU PARTI, WHERE GAY MEN SEEK SEX AND FREEDOM
• OP-ED: THE WHE PARTY AND GAY CULTURE NEED MORE COLOR
• OPN | WHE GAY CULTURE’S TOXICY REMBL RACISM
• GAY CULTURE HAS GROWN TOXIC WH UNCHECKED PRIVILEGE. IT'S TIME FOR TO RET

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

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?

OP-ED: THE WHE PARTY AND GAY CULTURE NEED MORE COLOR

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.

OPN | WHE GAY CULTURE’S TOXICY REMBL RACISM

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.

GAY CULTURE HAS GROWN TOXIC WH UNCHECKED PRIVILEGE. IT'S TIME FOR TO RET

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.

Somethg you yell out when, at a hoe party populated predomately by whe, overprivleged suburbani, a fat naked guy do himself ke and jumps to the pool om the roof of the boathoe, a jocky guy jugs a beer, smash on his forehead and lets loose a roid-rage scream, & somebody throws on Simple Plan or Blk or some gay sh like that and the whe neo-hippie topls girls start dog that swayg, soulls, arythmic whe hippie mope-dancg thg - and not particularly that orr. A wild weekend of back-to-back circu parti and poolsi dancg, Whe Party Palm Sprgs is one of the most popular gay circu events  the Uned Stat!

In the sectns below, I’ll tell you all about what gay travelers should expect at Whe Party, the most popular plac to stay, the party’s host hotel, what to wear, and even some travel tips. If you don’t have time to orr somethg onle advance, there are plenty of shops Palm Sprgs that sell gay party-themed clothg and accsori.

GayMart, Bear Wear, and other adorable shops Palm Sprgs sell harns, whe shorts, and tank tops. Thoands upon thoands of gay men will flock to Palm Sprgs, Calif., this weekend for endls rog, pulsatg mic, and shirtls hunks everywhere. Produced annually by promoter Jefey Sanker, the Whe Party is billed as the world's largt gay dance ftival and was scribed by The Huffgton Post as "synonymo wh mastream gay culture.

There are plenty of very attractive, dark, black and Asian gays wh magnificent bodi Southern California, so "mastream gay culture" as fed by the Whe Party don't prent self as clive of anyone who nnot be mistaken for Csian the right kd of segregatn and whe privilege is more typil of gay ruals than straight supporters of LGBT rights may thk, pecially given the gay muny's lip service to tolerance and equaly. The hypocril abily of gays to practice ethnic cln their own tablishments mak difficult to take serly the recent backlash agast Indiana's "relig eedom" paper, I should be a loud supporter of efforts like #BoyttIndiana.

I fear relign ed as a pretext to ny gays other stat om enjoyg eedoms I enjoy as a rint of Wt Hollywood -- perhaps Ameri's most queer-iendly municipaly. That is, the vendors monstrate nsistent applitn of their beliefs to all ctomers, not jt scerely sglg out gays as a special class of "sners" marked for discrimatn.