HBO's 'Last Call' tracks '90s killer targetg gay men

Contents:

• BE GAY DO CRIME
• THE SHORT BUT FASCATG HISTORY OF “BE GAY, DO CRIM”
• WHERE DID THE PHRASE 'BE GAY, DO CRIME' ORIGATE? HERE'S A HISTORY OF THE INIC MEME, JT IN TIME FOR PRI MONTH
• BE GAY [DO CRIME] TAK DRAG BEYOND THE 21-AND-OVER CROWD

BE GAY DO CRIME

In a sea of nned cktails, Gay Water wants to stand out. In other words, where Bud Light has buckled unr prsure as bigotry grows agast the LGBTQ+ muny, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hodson wants his new boozy brand to be the anthis of that.

“The key issue that Bud Light tapped to was the fact that they didn’t unrstand their re dience and know enough about them,” Hodson, a gay man, told CNN about the ntroversy that began when the Anhser-Bch beer brand sent fluencer Dylan Mulvaney a n of beer.

Gay Water, however, is out and proud. The nned cktail is named after a lloquialism given to the popular mixed drk (vodka and soda) orred at bars by the gay muny. “Puttg a product wh the word gay the tle is reprentatn self,” which he hop reclaims the word om the negativy ’s sometim associated wh.

THE SHORT BUT FASCATG HISTORY OF “BE GAY, DO CRIM”

He thought of creatg Gay Water about a year ago while on a vatn wh his iend that had got a job wh the beverage dtry. The two chatted about the limed amount of gay people wh , and wh Hodson burnt out om his tradnal day job tech, started the nned cktail. Hodson built up a strong social media followg on TikTok and Instagram durg Covid-19 and is g some of the money om that (as well as om iends and fay) to help fund Gay Water.

WHERE DID THE PHRASE 'BE GAY, DO CRIME' ORIGATE? HERE'S A HISTORY OF THE INIC MEME, JT IN TIME FOR PRI MONTH

“Gay is an umbrella term and the ia behd the brand is to be as clive as possible, which means we want alli, we want straight people to be part of this muny we’re buildg.”. For now, Gay Water is sold largely onle (wh a few retailers) and four sugar-ee flavors — watermelon, lime, peach and grapeu — at lnch. Gay Water might not have the ep pockets pared to s petors, like Whe Claw, but “even at small sle, pani of many siz are havg succs makg spir-based seltzers and premixed cktails,” Bryan Roth, an analyst for Feel Goods Company and edor of the alhol beverage newsletter, Sightl+, told CNN.

“There’s lots of space the spir-based seltzer tegory which Gay Water n play, pecially if the brand n offer a cultural or emotnal nnectn that will feel more excg than the prospect of another peapple-flavored vodka seltzer om natnal or ternatnal rporatns,” Roth said.

BE GAY [DO CRIME] TAK DRAG BEYOND THE 21-AND-OVER CROWD

Of urse, other drks e the word “gay,” too, cludg Gay Beer and So Gay Rosé, Hodson noted, which are also tryg to reach the queer muny and offer them an alternative the straight-domated space. The four-part te crime seri, now streamg, foc on four victims, gay men the 1990s, who were murred, dismembered, their remas found garbage bags along a New Jersey highway. Adapted om an Edgar-wng 2021 book also lled “Last Call” by director Anthony Caronna and producer Howard Gertler, what ultimately emerg is an unsttg portra of the vlence done not jt to a gay quartet but to gays, lbians, trans people general.

That mak the climatic urt trial a tense tt se of basic gay civil rights. “What we wanted to do was set the table so people unrstood that 2005, ” Caronna said, “gay marriage wasn’t a thg. For gays, 2005 was still a time where somebody uld get off for somethg heo.

There was still a lot of homema homophobia wh the jtice system. “Last Call” begs 1970s Florida where former bety queen Ana Bryant ws natnal attentn and enthiastic support by attackg homosexuals as unf parents. “Last Call” ends wh current Florida ernor Ron DeSantis echog Bryant wh attacks on trans children, gays and lbians.