Gay Water, a new nned cktail, wants to be the anti-Bud Light | CNN Bs

Contents:

• FIL CASTRO TAK BLAME FOR PERSECUTN OF CUBAN GAYS
• IS THE CASTRO GETTG LS GAY?
• SF GAY HISTORY
• GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT
• WHY IS CASTRO'S CUBA SUDNLY PRO-GAY?
• NBA RUMORS: JAM HARN TRA TALKS, JOEL EMBIID, PJ TUCKER, RUDY GAY, LAKERS, WARRRS, BUCKS, MORE
• GAY
• GAY (HOMOSEXUAL) AND GAY (HAPPY)

FIL CASTRO TAK BLAME FOR PERSECUTN OF CUBAN GAYS

But when one particular look cropped up the post-Stonewall gay scene of the 1970s, was so popular—and so distct—that the guys who sported were dismissed as “clon.

)And while the nickname was ially pejorative, the clone perd marked perhaps the first time that gay men prented themselv wh a queer-signalg uniform that was a direct rponse to societal stereotyp. “The clone was a reactn to thgs you would see movi of gay men beg flty and nelly, ” says John Calendo, a wrer who lived LA and New York Cy throughout the 70s and 80s, and worked as an edor at the clone-cubatg sk mags Blueboy and In Touch for Men. He pots to the gay mstrel stereotyp the 1967 film The Producers, along wh the timid-lookg guys on the illtrated vers of gay pulp books wh nam like All the Sad Young Men.

IS THE CASTRO GETTG LS GAY?

”) “That’s the kd of imagery”—backwards stereotyp that basilly villaized queer people—“that a lot of my generatn who beme the clone people grew up wh the ccible of the 60s, ” Calendo ntu, when the civil rights and gay liberatn movements were expandg ias of equaly and eedom. Drsg like a clone, he says, was a rejectn of those olr gay ’s not so easy to ppot precisely who origated the clone ial, guys who were alive at the time ually brg up Al Parker, an adult film star turned producer and director who worked om the 70s to the early 90s.

“When I thk back on havg lived through the time, was like gay guys were pg om this stereotype that was jt culted to the culture of sissi and faggots, ” says Woodff. “The clone look was certaly about a whe gay man’s rponse and engagement wh those archetyp, ” says Ben Barry, the an of the school of fashn at the New School’s Parsons School of Dign, whose rearch foc on fashn’s relatnship to masculy, sexualy, and the body.

”)Prentg as mascule public was physilly safer for gay guys, but the clone stume pulled double duty, Barry says, tweakg tradnal masculy while also signalg to other queer folks.

SF GAY HISTORY

“There’s this munal thg happeng right now where people are more open that they’re trans and non-bary or bisexual and not jt on the spectm of beg straight, gay, male, female. The mographic nature of The Castro began to shift the wake of the Send World War, when the neighborhood had a more suburban feel, and ex-servicemembers, many of whom were gay, began to settle the area.

The tradnally gay district also began shiftg mographilly yet aga the early 21st century, when many fai started to move to the neighborhood, perceivg as safe and pleasant. A number of landmarks n be seen the regn, cludg an assortment of famo gay bars, The Castro Theater, and var parks and plazas, cludg Harvey Milk Plaza, dited to one of The Castro's more famo rints. Image ptn, Mr Castro told Carmen Lira that he had not paid enough attentn to the treatment of homosexualsFil Castro has said that he is ultimately rponsible for the persecutn suffered by homosexuals Cuba after the revolutn of former print told the Mexin newspaper La Jornada that there were moments of great jtice agast the gay muny.

In the 1960s and 70s, many homosexuals Cuba were fired, imprisoned or sent to "re-tn mps" Castro said homosexuals had tradnally been discrimated Cuba, jt as black people and women.

GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT

“It's gone om beg a gay village to beg a tourist statn for people around the world who want to e here and experience a ltle b of the gay, ” says Don Romburg, an LGBTQ historian who moved to the Castro the 1990s after llege. “To have a place San Francis, the world, where gay people n e together as a muny and feel like they tly belong and that there's no real sense of stigma, that's what ma the Castro very special for me as a young guy my 20s, ” Romburg says.

WHY IS CASTRO'S CUBA SUDNLY PRO-GAY?

Taylor Sublett, an agent who works wh a lot of gay clients, says they’re movg to Oakland for the same reason that everyone else is movg to Oakland: affordabily, proximy to San Francis and more space. When the Supreme Court led gay marriage was legal 2015, Cottle and her partner, Js Borrayo, put a rabow flag outsi Brew Coffee and Beer Hoe, the fe they n downtown Santa Rosa. The orientatn of the owners is generally not a factor; historilly, most gay bars were owned by straight people bee openly gay owners weren’t allowed to get a liquor license.

AdvertisementArticle ntu below this adWhile the Castro might look as gay as ever, the rabow explosn on the streets vers up a changg neighborhood that’s home to fewer and fewer gay Francis’s Castro District on Oct. “It’s gone om beg a gay village to beg a tourist statn for people around the world who want to e here and experience a ltle b of the gay, ” says Don Romburg, an LGBTQ historian who moved to the Castro the 1990s after Francis has long had neighborhoods where LGBTQ people ncentrated — North Beach, the Tenrlo, the Polk. AdvertisementArticle ntu below this adThe Castro and the gay liberatn movement gaed speed together, creatg a more fully realized neighborhood than any of s precsors.

NBA RUMORS: JAM HARN TRA TALKS, JOEL EMBIID, PJ TUCKER, RUDY GAY, LAKERS, WARRRS, BUCKS, MORE

“To have a place San Francis, the world, where gay people n e together as a muny and feel like they tly belong and that there’s no real sense of stigma, that’s what ma the Castro very special for me as a young guy my 20s, ” Romburg a untry where gay marriage is legal and acceptance of LGBTQ people is greater than ever, some argue that “gayborhoods” aren’t necsary anymore. Taylor Sublett, an agent who works wh a lot of gay clients, says they’re movg to Oakland for the same reason that everyone else is movg to Oakland: affordabily, proximy to San Francis and more unlike the Castro, there’s no one neighborhood Oakland where gay people are ncentratg. I thk if we all got together one place, would really show how many folks are here, ” says Alisse the Supreme Court led gay marriage was legal 2015, Cottle and her partner, Js Borrayo, put a rabow flag outsi Brew Coffee and Beer Hoe, the fe they n downtown Santa opened the rtrant at the begng of the year whout any polil agenda.

From 1965 to 1968, Cuban labour mps hoed gay men who were subjected to 14-hour workg days and dimentary livg ndns – and at this time Castro was rered as makg rogatory ments about gay men.

Compare and ntrast wh untri such as the UK – where the age of nsent was only aligned 2001 – the US, where, before 2003, anti-sodomy laws imposed prison sentenc wh hard labour, cludg life sentenc Idaho (and where the vice print-elect, Mike Pence, advot sendg gay people for a “cure”).

GAY

State-n TV soap operas reprent same-sex relatnships posively and the acclaimed Cuban film Fra y Cholate (Strawberry and Cholate, wrten by Senel Paz) foregrounds gay relatnships criqug past homophobia Cuba. Origally shown durg the Gay and Lbian Pri Month 1996, The Castro is a 90-mute documentary tells the dramatic story of how a quiet rner of San Francis beme the rnerstone of a movement-an ternatnal symbol of gay liberatn. Usg rare archival film and h ntemporary footage, the story of the Castro’s transformatn and history is told by the people who lived : young and old, straight and gay.

GAY (HOMOSEXUAL) AND GAY (HAPPY)

Nurse and early AIDS activist Bobbi Campbell ed the ont wdow of this pharmacy to post a flyer 1981 warng the muny of "Gay Cancer”—bee neher the lol nor natnal ernment would sound the alarm—showg photos of lns ed by Kaposi sara (the rare ncer was found to be a rult of HIV's toll on the immune system). Matlovich, a Vietnam veteran and recipient of the Purple Heart and Bronze Star, challenged the ban on gays the ary when he me out on the ver of the 1975 TIME Magaze unr the headle “I am a homosexual”.

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.

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.

“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. 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.