How do you feel about the gay scene?

[Anonymous]

There seems to be alot in the gay world that I am not sure how I should feel about. The things like pride parades, the clubs, Fire Island, ect. All those sorts of things, I feel like I should try to be a part of then because they do have a place in gay culture, but I don't know how I should feel about them.

Honestly everyone how do you feel about these types of things?

[TheEdend]

In order to avoid going into a rant, I'll just say that there is no such thing as a gay scene. And by that I mean that there is no such thing as one or two couple of things that every single gay person must or does enjoy.

The things you mentioned are more of the club scene than anything else. Well, all excetp some pride parades...but that's a bit different really. Either way, if you don't really like going to clubs all the time (I go here and there) or at all, then feel free to not attend. There are TONS of other activities that you can do while being surrounded by LGBT people.

In my town alone, there are group for running, kayaking, art groups, choir, volunteering events, support groups, GSAs, chamber of commerce for LGBT businesses, etc. It just so happens that the club scene is over represented in the media. Doesn't mean that we all have to do the same thing

I personally enjoy a lot of things, but I'm more of a homebody and not made too much for the club scene. I don't dislike it per se, but just not something that I enjoy tremendously, but it does have its place.

[Lexington]

I used to always say one thing about the gay scene.

1. The gay scene isn't one "thing".

It has many facets. It's the casual bar downtown. It's the leather bar down the street. It's the bathhouse a couple miles away. It's the youth center, it's the volunteer center, it's the gay volleyball league, it's the gay biking club, it's the gay swimming club, etc etc.

But now I have another thing to add to the list.

2. The boundary lines are blurring.

Good example. Every year, Denver has a huge music festival of local musicians, all of which play along a stretch of a few blocks of a busy street. And this year, for the first time, they added the Compound as one of then venues. It's pretty blatantly a gay club - it's attached to a leather shop and porn store. And I saw a few perforners there over the course of the weekend.

* A few "laptop DJs".
* An experimental noise trio.
* A quirky new wave-type band.
* A 19-year-old girl on keyboards and vocals (and her younger drummer).
* And, um, this thing.



One might argue that maybe the DJs skewed a bit towards the gay set, but there didn't seem to be mainly gays in the audience for them. And the others just seemed like other musical participants.

The point being - this big musical event included a gay venue. Not as a "here's where we'll put the gay acts" place, but as just another venue. And people of all stripes went in there to watch. Some of my straight friends joined me there to see one of the acts, and one friend said he'd been there before.

It seems, more and more, "gay things" aren't just for gays anymore.

Lex

[Jim1454]

Take what you like and leave the rest. It's that simple.

Not all straight people have kids, join the PTA, coach soccer and drive minivans.

So not all gay people need to do the things that you're thinking about. I've yet to go to a pride parade. I just don't like parades - period. Too many people, too hot, too long. But I'm still gay. Trust me.