The Rise of Electronic Gay Dance Mic

Contents:

• THE UNSUNG HISTORY OF CIRCU PARTI, WHERE GAY MEN SEEK SEX AND FREEDOM
• DANCE PRI: THE GAY ORIGS OF DANCE MIC
• THE RISE OF ELECTRONIC GAY DANCE MIC
• SPECIAL FEATURE: THE GAY DNA OF HOUSE MUSIC

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

Across Europe and North Ameri, numero clubs are known for tersectg LGBT nightlife wh the rave was London’s origal gay-only nightclub and is home to long-nng gay night G-A-Y.

Also known as the “Gay-rage”, this fluential distheque attracted a voted patronage of primarily black gay men.

DANCE PRI: THE GAY ORIGS OF DANCE MIC

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.

THE RISE OF ELECTRONIC GAY DANCE MIC

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.

SPECIAL FEATURE: THE GAY DNA OF HOUSE MUSIC

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.