About me
Interested in:
I’m looking for:
- Friends with Benefits
Description:
"You are you and I am I and if by chance we meet it's beautiful"
No expectations
"After having been your lover I will not stoop to become your friend."
I am a gay, poor, good looking loving senior into movies, theatre eating , making love and having sex.
Not into games, exchanging a thousand e-mails but meeting and going from there.
I have no expectations--we meet and the worst thing that happens is nothing happens but I don't think that will happen!
Am a writer--currently write reviews for a web page--have had 6 books published-- was also a professional waiter, a job I loved
I don't have a type as long as male and breathing--tall, short, thin, fat, Black White, etc. love sex and making love!
Gays.com gives you…
...tons of hot guys and interesting people to meet up with in Fort Lauderdale. If you prefer to see who's around, do some ‘window shopping’ first. If you know what you want, search by selecting the right category. Nobody stays alone here for long!
"WHEN WE RISE"--MUST SEE TV 4 NIGHTS--MEET THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE YOU
Learn about those people who made it possible for YOU to come out--to be who you are--the fight for equality is far from over but learn about those who helped you get this far--ON ABC TV--4 NIGHTS--WRITTEN BY DUSTIN LANCE BLACK AND DIRECTED BY GUS VAN SANT WHO BROUGHT US THE LANDMARK MOVIE More…"MILK".
When We Rise is an upcoming American docudrama miniseries written by Dustin Lance Black.
When We Rise chronicles the personal and political struggles, set-backs and triumphs of a diverse family of LGBTQ people who helped pioneer an offshoot of the Civil Rights Movement from its turbulent infancy in the 20th century to the once unfathomable successes of today. The period piece tells the history of the modern gay rights movement, starting with the Stonewall riots in 1969.[1]
The series will be eight hours long in seven parts with Gus Van Sant directing the first two-hour part with Dee Rees directing parts two and three, Thomas Schlamme parts four and five, and Black parts six and seven. The series is partially inspired by LGBT activist Cleve Jones's memoir When We Rise: My Life in the Movement. Van Sant and Black previously collaborated on Milk, which likewise featured Jones as a major character.
The series will premiere on ABC on February 27, 2017 at 9 p.m. Originally scheduled to air nightly until March 2,[2] the scheduling was later shifted to accommodate live coverage of the address to a joint session of Congress by President Donald Trump on February 28; the first episode remains scheduled to air on February 27, with the remaining three episodes airing from March 1 to March 3.[3]
TRAILER
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_We_Rise
Learn about those people who made it possible for YOU to come out--to be who you are--the fight for equality is far from over but learn about those who helped you get this far--ON ABC TV--4 NIGHTS--WRITTEN BY DUSTIN LANCE BLACK AND DIRECTED BY GUS VAN SANT WHO BROUGHT US THE LANDMARK MOVIE More…"MILK".
When We Rise is an upcoming American docudrama miniseries written by Dustin Lance Black.
When We Rise chronicles the personal and political struggles, set-backs and triumphs of a diverse family of LGBTQ people who helped pioneer an offshoot of the Civil Rights Movement from its turbulent infancy in the 20th century to the once unfathomable successes of today. The period piece tells the history of the modern gay rights movement, starting with the Stonewall riots in 1969.[1]
The series will be eight hours long in seven parts with Gus Van Sant directing the first two-hour part with Dee Rees directing parts two and three, Thomas Schlamme parts four and five, and Black parts six and seven. The series is partially inspired by LGBT activist Cleve Jones's memoir When We Rise: My Life in the Movement. Van Sant and Black previously collaborated on Milk, which likewise featured Jones as a major character.
The series will premiere on ABC on February 27, 2017 at 9 p.m. Originally scheduled to air nightly until March 2,[2] the scheduling was later shifted to accommodate live coverage of the address to a joint session of Congress by President Donald Trump on February 28; the first episode remains scheduled to air on February 27, with the remaining three episodes airing from March 1 to March 3.[3]
TRAILER
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_We_Rise
Like Dudz
May be it is not for me
At the age of 46, after 4 lovers of which one was 'the love of my life' I decided--made the choice--that I wanted to and was better off living alone. I am now 81 and have never regretted it. I am not a hermit and have made a family of friends who I share things with when I want to--and, yes, I More… have the freedom of having sex when, where and with whom I want.
I may be alone but I am not lonely.
By the way there is only one downside I can see of being alone---when you are old and get sick!!! :O)
Like Horny307, talk2mikky1904 · Jump to discussion
DO YOU EVER STOP WANTING SEX???
When I turned 60 I had hopes of losing some of my 24/7 sex wants/needs since I came out at 12--didn't happen. At 70 there wasn't any slow down--would constantly cruise wherever I was/went--then at 80 I thought finally--come on I am 80--take 14 meds--have a heart condition--the dick doesn't get as More…hard as it use to BUT darn it Nate just left after giving me a super BJ--he is 26--what does he want with a 80 year old man? In his words-"-it takes you longer to cum--unlike kids my age cum in a minute, get up and leave. You know how to make love and you are always teaching me something new!"
I live in an area--Fort Lauderdale--where a lot of young men are hungry for older and old men--and no they aren't hustling. The thing is I always went for men older than me--at 16 I cruised old men of 25--now at 80 the field has considerably narrowed down and I find myself being pursued and accepting those younger, too much younger, than myself. It seems the few old men want them young!!!
After 68 years you would think I would have lost that urge but no, I haven't. Granted I can't cum as often and as much as I did but will I ever give up wanting/having sex?? I would like to but....
I live in an area--Fort Lauderdale--where a lot of young men are hungry for older and old men--and no they aren't hustling. The thing is I always went for men older than me--at 16 I cruised old men of 25--now at 80 the field has considerably narrowed down and I find myself being pursued and accepting those younger, too much younger, than myself. It seems the few old men want them young!!!
After 68 years you would think I would have lost that urge but no, I haven't. Granted I can't cum as often and as much as I did but will I ever give up wanting/having sex?? I would like to but....
Like ·
19.12.2016 6:02:05
Brave-Heart ➦ Brave-Heart quote Dreamboy541962: ❝No. I'm 54 and still want it every day, some times 3 to 4 times a day.❞
54??? yOU ARE STILL A BABY!!! ;o)
➦ Brave-Heart quote Dreamboy541962: ❝No. I'm 54 and still want it every day, some times 3 to 4 times a day.❞
54??? yOU ARE STILL A BABY!!! ;o)
54??? yOU ARE STILL A BABY!!! ;o)
➦ Brave-Heart quote Dreamboy541962: ❝No. I'm 54 and still want it every day, some times 3 to 4 times a day.❞
54??? yOU ARE STILL A BABY!!! ;o)
Like DAVID879 ·
05.12.2016 16:23:18
Dreamboy541962 No. I'm 54 and still want it every day, some times 3 to 4 times a day. No. I'm 54 and still want it every day, some times 3 to 4 times a day.
Like DAVID879 ·
24.11.2016 5:37:43
Show other comments
3 of 5
ODD FOODS PART 2
It’s no secret that I will eat most any foods with the exception of Oyster Plant and I love discovering new foods or old standards prepared differently.
A really big discovery this month was the bottle of Southern Raspberry Mix I found last month. It has zero calories and fat and carbs but More…fantastic taste. I used it on salads, cooked veggies also cooked chicken with it in the Crockpot.
Then there was Fat Bastard Critical Mass Port and Chocolate steak sauce that added some zip to a steak I broiled.
Along with the above two I also found a bottle of Sweet Garlic juice that I used making some ribs.
I am hoping someday I will find any tofu that's adds to or helps any dish!
I am a fairly newcomer to Quinoa but have come to really like it and prefer it to rice in many dishes. I found a jar of Quinoa with dried mushrooms and assorted herbs and cooked the whole jar for dinner one evening plus a salad and it was a great meal.
One of the things I am always looking for are low calorie and low sodium snacks but it seems I can find those that are low in calories OR salt but not both so lately I have been eating Snyder’s of Hanover salt free mini pretzels which are doing the trick but I need something else for variety.
I love food—and eating it—in case you didn’t know!! LOL
(ODD FOODS PART 1 WAS POSTED ON JULY 11)
It’s no secret that I will eat most any foods with the exception of Oyster Plant and I love discovering new foods or old standards prepared differently.
A really big discovery this month was the bottle of Southern Raspberry Mix I found last month. It has zero calories and fat and carbs but More…fantastic taste. I used it on salads, cooked veggies also cooked chicken with it in the Crockpot.
Then there was Fat Bastard Critical Mass Port and Chocolate steak sauce that added some zip to a steak I broiled.
Along with the above two I also found a bottle of Sweet Garlic juice that I used making some ribs.
I am hoping someday I will find any tofu that's adds to or helps any dish!
I am a fairly newcomer to Quinoa but have come to really like it and prefer it to rice in many dishes. I found a jar of Quinoa with dried mushrooms and assorted herbs and cooked the whole jar for dinner one evening plus a salad and it was a great meal.
One of the things I am always looking for are low calorie and low sodium snacks but it seems I can find those that are low in calories OR salt but not both so lately I have been eating Snyder’s of Hanover salt free mini pretzels which are doing the trick but I need something else for variety.
I love food—and eating it—in case you didn’t know!! LOL
(ODD FOODS PART 1 WAS POSTED ON JULY 11)
"AQUARIUS"--A MOVIE REVIEW
"Aquarius" is a slow moving 2 hour and 22 minute movie that would have been a very interesting hour and 45 minute movie. Director, and screenplay writer, Kleber Mendonca Filho puts in too many unnecessary scenes that add nothing to the film or plot except to tell us more than we need to know More…about Clara, who is at the center of the film. There is a scene at a cemetery, another of Clara's grandbaby running around nude and still another of a couple having sex on a beach not to forget an explicit orgy scene.
The story is basically of Clara who is the last tenet who owns an apartment in a building that a developer wants to tear down and make a tower of condos. She is comfortable with her life and has no desire to sell, move, uproot the life she has. We learn about Clara's daily life whether going for a swim every morning at the beach across the street, her battle with cancer that has left her scarred, he daughter recently divorced, one son who is gay and another son who is the father of her favorite grandson, having a night out with girlfriends, a possible romantic encounter that doesn't work out, a 'escort' that does plus her work as a music journalist writing books along with relatives and friends from the past and present. At the same time there is the story of the developer and his grandson trying at first to buy her out and then taking other methods.
Along the way there are discussions about how skin color affects lives in Brazil, where the picture takes place, as society gets into business and education can make a man's grandson think he the smartest one of making decisions to move things along. There are the children who who think the mother is making a selfish decision in not selling the house and her housekeeper/friend who lost her son a year before. And folks we haven't even touched upon the lifeguard, the church group and things going on inside and out side the building and Clara's apartment.
What makes "Aquarius" special, a film to watch, is the performance by Sonia Braga who lets you know everything about the woman by the way she walks, talks, treats others, dresses, laughs, deals with problems, listens to music and shows love to family, friends and life. Braga defines the camera falling in love with a face.
Watching "Aquarius" I wished there was a fast forward button if for no other reason than to get past the cemetery scene and the three others mentioned in the first paragraph.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zln78CcFkA
BRAZILIAN FILM WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES!
"Aquarius" is a slow moving 2 hour and 22 minute movie that would have been a very interesting hour and 45 minute movie. Director, and screenplay writer, Kleber Mendonca Filho puts in too many unnecessary scenes that add nothing to the film or plot except to tell us more than we need to know More…about Clara, who is at the center of the film. There is a scene at a cemetery, another of Clara's grandbaby running around nude and still another of a couple having sex on a beach not to forget an explicit orgy scene.
The story is basically of Clara who is the last tenet who owns an apartment in a building that a developer wants to tear down and make a tower of condos. She is comfortable with her life and has no desire to sell, move, uproot the life she has. We learn about Clara's daily life whether going for a swim every morning at the beach across the street, her battle with cancer that has left her scarred, he daughter recently divorced, one son who is gay and another son who is the father of her favorite grandson, having a night out with girlfriends, a possible romantic encounter that doesn't work out, a 'escort' that does plus her work as a music journalist writing books along with relatives and friends from the past and present. At the same time there is the story of the developer and his grandson trying at first to buy her out and then taking other methods.
Along the way there are discussions about how skin color affects lives in Brazil, where the picture takes place, as society gets into business and education can make a man's grandson think he the smartest one of making decisions to move things along. There are the children who who think the mother is making a selfish decision in not selling the house and her housekeeper/friend who lost her son a year before. And folks we haven't even touched upon the lifeguard, the church group and things going on inside and out side the building and Clara's apartment.
What makes "Aquarius" special, a film to watch, is the performance by Sonia Braga who lets you know everything about the woman by the way she walks, talks, treats others, dresses, laughs, deals with problems, listens to music and shows love to family, friends and life. Braga defines the camera falling in love with a face.
Watching "Aquarius" I wished there was a fast forward button if for no other reason than to get past the cemetery scene and the three others mentioned in the first paragraph.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zln78CcFkA
BRAZILIAN FILM WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES!
JACK'S BAR-B-QUE FORT LAUDERDALE RESTAURANT REVIEW
We were going to Kelvins 3200 on Oakland Park for lunch only to get there and find it closed which wasn't surprising as my one and only experience there was pretty bad. Being in a Southern food state of mind, and having a groupon, we came here.
For $5 (Normally $10.55) I got a Beef Sandwich with More…a side of baked beans and a side of steak fries plus a diet cola while Allen, for the same price, got a Pork Sandwich with cole slaw, steak fries and diet cola.
There had been too much gravy on the sandwich making the bottom part of the bun soggy so I decided to just eat the meat which turned out to be burnt and large chunks were hard in too many places. The beans were run of the meal without any particular taste while the fries were big and hot.
Having passed this place many times I am glad I had a chance to try it but wouldn't go back again even with a groupon.
For bar-b-q I'll stick with Tom Jenkins on south Federal by Davie Boulevard.
We were going to Kelvins 3200 on Oakland Park for lunch only to get there and find it closed which wasn't surprising as my one and only experience there was pretty bad. Being in a Southern food state of mind, and having a groupon, we came here.
For $5 (Normally $10.55) I got a Beef Sandwich with More…a side of baked beans and a side of steak fries plus a diet cola while Allen, for the same price, got a Pork Sandwich with cole slaw, steak fries and diet cola.
There had been too much gravy on the sandwich making the bottom part of the bun soggy so I decided to just eat the meat which turned out to be burnt and large chunks were hard in too many places. The beans were run of the meal without any particular taste while the fries were big and hot.
Having passed this place many times I am glad I had a chance to try it but wouldn't go back again even with a groupon.
For bar-b-q I'll stick with Tom Jenkins on south Federal by Davie Boulevard.
Like jay912
HALLOWEEN--THE GAY HOLIDAY!
Halloween 2
Halloween: the Great Gay Holiday
Jesse’s Journal
by Jesse Monteagudo
"Halloween: The Great Gay Holiday"
October is an important month in our Gay, Lesbian, bisexual and transgender calendar. October is GLBT History Month, a month devoted to dis-covering and celebrating our past. On More…October 11, we observe "Coming Out Day", a day in which we "take the next step" in our ongoing, coming-out process. But while both GLBT History Month and Coming Out Day are of recent origin, this month’s most popular queer holiday predates recorded history and captures the essence of sex and gender variance to a much greater degree than do the activist holidays. Just open the pages of any queer paper during the first weeks of November and you will see what our communities were doing on October 31st. In the words of the Lesbian poet and scholar Judy Grahn, Halloween is "the great gay holiday".
I love Halloween. All through my life, October 31 has always been a special day, though now I don’t go out as much as I used to. I certainly enjoy writing about it, though, and I try to write a Halloween article every few years. Once thought to be a children’s holiday, Halloween (actually Hallowe’en, but I prefer to use the more common spelling) is now almost as popular with adults. According to Nicholas Rogers, author of Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, "Halloween at the end of the millennium has become a major party night for adults, arguably the most important after New Year’s Eve. . . . [T]he amount of money spent on Halloween has more than doubled in the last decade, making it the second retail bonanza after Christmas."
Halloween (or Hallowe’en) is a corruption of All Hallows Eve, which is observed the night before All Saints Day (All Hallows Day). Like other Christian holy days, Halloween was adapted from a pagan holy day, in this case the Celtic feast of Samhain (pronounced sow-end). According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Samhain "was the eve of the new [Celtic] year . . . and was the occasion for one of the ancient fire festivals when huge bonfires were set on hilltops to frighten away evil spirits." On Samhain, the Celts believed, the spirit world and the mortal realm come into close contact and spirits can slip out of their domain in order to visit us. Today, followers of the Craft or Wicca (witches) still observe Samhain as the greatest of their eight seasonal sabats. Rich Wandel, an openly Gay high priest of Wicca, told the authors of The Gay Almanac that "Samhain . . . is a time of connection to those who have gone before us and will return again. It is my favorite ritual, and is one we never let the students lead. We do it ourselves, because it is important, particularly in terms of the many friends that all of us in our communities have lost."
Though the Protestant reformers tried to suppress All Hallows Day observances as being both pagan and papist, Halloween emerged as a secular holiday during the 19th and 20th centuries. And while Halloween is enjoyed by everyone, "it has been the Gay community," Rogers tells us, "that has most flamboyantly exploited Halloween’s potential as a transgressive festival, as one that operates outside or on the margins of orthodox time, space, and hierarchy. Indeed, it is the Gay community that has been arguably most responsible for Halloween’s adult rejuvenation." What William Stewart, writing about Halloween in Cassell’s Queer Companion, called "the Gay festival par excellence," has been observed by our people long before there were Pride Days or Coming Out Days; Southern Decadence or Wigstock; bear busts, circuit parties, leather runs, nudist gatherings or womyn’s music festivals. Long before there was Disney, Halloween was and is the original Gay Day.
In Another Mother Tongue, her cultural history of our peoples, Judy Grahn wrote about Halloween and its significance to us. Halloween, Grahn wrote, is a special holiday for GLBT people, who in many societies served as priests, witches, shamans, healers and intermediaries between the mortal and spirit worlds. The ancient Celts tried to ward off the Samhain spirits by offering them gifts or scaring them away with jack-o-lanterns. Others dressed up in fantastic costumes to impersonate and confuse the wandering spirits: As Grahn put it, "impersonating a spirit is the only safe way to travel outdoors on Halloween. And who could better imitate spirits than the Gay people whose traditional priestly role required just such intercourse with the spirit world? . . . The qualities of impersonation," Grahn concluded, "and the dangerous business of crossing over from one world to another help explain why Halloween is the most significant Gay holiday."
According to William Stewart, "Hallowe’en has always been a time of year when the Gay communities experienced greater freedoms. . . . Even in the 1940s and 1950s when police harassment of Gay bars was at its height, Hallowe’en was the one fairy-tale evening when the drag queens could come out with impunity." In Wide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965, historian Nan Alamilla Boyd wrote about Halloween parties that were held at the Beige Room and other San Francisco bars back in the fifties, which "included not simply a drag ball and a ‘parade of queens’ but the selection of the best dressed participant." In New York City, Rogers wrote, by the mid-1970s "Gay promenades had become a constituent feature of the Greenwich Village Halloween celebrations. Beginning in 1974 as a countercultural event for the Village arts community, this annual parade, with its puppets, floats, and revelers, has become a fixture in Gotham’s calendar." Key West’s Fantasy Fest is just one of many events that evolved from the local Gay population’s’ Halloween celebrations.
Halloween's appeal to the Gay, Lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities goes beyond that holiday’s historical or spiritual connotations. I believe that it has a lot to do with our role as outsiders in society; our propensity for cross-dressing and gender-bending; our love for the unusual and the fantastic; our ability to find humor in the absurdities and misfortunes of life; our fascination with festive costumes and the world of make-believe; and our special capacity to have fun. While others might treat Halloween as mainly a kid's day, LesBiGay and Trans people observe and cherish it as a day in which we can do away with dull, ordinary, dumb reality and be our fun, exotic, erotic selves.
All of us have Halloween stories to share; some good and some bad but all of them fabulous. To me, Halloween is a time to be myself, to let loose, to wear an outrageous costume (or nothing at all), to stay out late, to get drunk (but not to drive drunk), and forget about my individual and communal problems in the company of like-minded souls. So whatever you do on this very special, and very Gay night, remember to be careful, to play safe, and to enjoy yourselves. After a few thousand years, we should be able to do it right.
Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer and Gay activist who lives in South Florida with his life partner and many friends
(The picture is of me 30 years ago today--Martin)
Halloween: the Great Gay Holiday
Jesse’s Journal
by Jesse Monteagudo
"Halloween: The Great Gay Holiday"
October is an important month in our Gay, Lesbian, bisexual and transgender calendar. October is GLBT History Month, a month devoted to dis-covering and celebrating our past. On More…October 11, we observe "Coming Out Day", a day in which we "take the next step" in our ongoing, coming-out process. But while both GLBT History Month and Coming Out Day are of recent origin, this month’s most popular queer holiday predates recorded history and captures the essence of sex and gender variance to a much greater degree than do the activist holidays. Just open the pages of any queer paper during the first weeks of November and you will see what our communities were doing on October 31st. In the words of the Lesbian poet and scholar Judy Grahn, Halloween is "the great gay holiday".
I love Halloween. All through my life, October 31 has always been a special day, though now I don’t go out as much as I used to. I certainly enjoy writing about it, though, and I try to write a Halloween article every few years. Once thought to be a children’s holiday, Halloween (actually Hallowe’en, but I prefer to use the more common spelling) is now almost as popular with adults. According to Nicholas Rogers, author of Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, "Halloween at the end of the millennium has become a major party night for adults, arguably the most important after New Year’s Eve. . . . [T]he amount of money spent on Halloween has more than doubled in the last decade, making it the second retail bonanza after Christmas."
Halloween (or Hallowe’en) is a corruption of All Hallows Eve, which is observed the night before All Saints Day (All Hallows Day). Like other Christian holy days, Halloween was adapted from a pagan holy day, in this case the Celtic feast of Samhain (pronounced sow-end). According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Samhain "was the eve of the new [Celtic] year . . . and was the occasion for one of the ancient fire festivals when huge bonfires were set on hilltops to frighten away evil spirits." On Samhain, the Celts believed, the spirit world and the mortal realm come into close contact and spirits can slip out of their domain in order to visit us. Today, followers of the Craft or Wicca (witches) still observe Samhain as the greatest of their eight seasonal sabats. Rich Wandel, an openly Gay high priest of Wicca, told the authors of The Gay Almanac that "Samhain . . . is a time of connection to those who have gone before us and will return again. It is my favorite ritual, and is one we never let the students lead. We do it ourselves, because it is important, particularly in terms of the many friends that all of us in our communities have lost."
Though the Protestant reformers tried to suppress All Hallows Day observances as being both pagan and papist, Halloween emerged as a secular holiday during the 19th and 20th centuries. And while Halloween is enjoyed by everyone, "it has been the Gay community," Rogers tells us, "that has most flamboyantly exploited Halloween’s potential as a transgressive festival, as one that operates outside or on the margins of orthodox time, space, and hierarchy. Indeed, it is the Gay community that has been arguably most responsible for Halloween’s adult rejuvenation." What William Stewart, writing about Halloween in Cassell’s Queer Companion, called "the Gay festival par excellence," has been observed by our people long before there were Pride Days or Coming Out Days; Southern Decadence or Wigstock; bear busts, circuit parties, leather runs, nudist gatherings or womyn’s music festivals. Long before there was Disney, Halloween was and is the original Gay Day.
In Another Mother Tongue, her cultural history of our peoples, Judy Grahn wrote about Halloween and its significance to us. Halloween, Grahn wrote, is a special holiday for GLBT people, who in many societies served as priests, witches, shamans, healers and intermediaries between the mortal and spirit worlds. The ancient Celts tried to ward off the Samhain spirits by offering them gifts or scaring them away with jack-o-lanterns. Others dressed up in fantastic costumes to impersonate and confuse the wandering spirits: As Grahn put it, "impersonating a spirit is the only safe way to travel outdoors on Halloween. And who could better imitate spirits than the Gay people whose traditional priestly role required just such intercourse with the spirit world? . . . The qualities of impersonation," Grahn concluded, "and the dangerous business of crossing over from one world to another help explain why Halloween is the most significant Gay holiday."
According to William Stewart, "Hallowe’en has always been a time of year when the Gay communities experienced greater freedoms. . . . Even in the 1940s and 1950s when police harassment of Gay bars was at its height, Hallowe’en was the one fairy-tale evening when the drag queens could come out with impunity." In Wide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965, historian Nan Alamilla Boyd wrote about Halloween parties that were held at the Beige Room and other San Francisco bars back in the fifties, which "included not simply a drag ball and a ‘parade of queens’ but the selection of the best dressed participant." In New York City, Rogers wrote, by the mid-1970s "Gay promenades had become a constituent feature of the Greenwich Village Halloween celebrations. Beginning in 1974 as a countercultural event for the Village arts community, this annual parade, with its puppets, floats, and revelers, has become a fixture in Gotham’s calendar." Key West’s Fantasy Fest is just one of many events that evolved from the local Gay population’s’ Halloween celebrations.
Halloween's appeal to the Gay, Lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities goes beyond that holiday’s historical or spiritual connotations. I believe that it has a lot to do with our role as outsiders in society; our propensity for cross-dressing and gender-bending; our love for the unusual and the fantastic; our ability to find humor in the absurdities and misfortunes of life; our fascination with festive costumes and the world of make-believe; and our special capacity to have fun. While others might treat Halloween as mainly a kid's day, LesBiGay and Trans people observe and cherish it as a day in which we can do away with dull, ordinary, dumb reality and be our fun, exotic, erotic selves.
All of us have Halloween stories to share; some good and some bad but all of them fabulous. To me, Halloween is a time to be myself, to let loose, to wear an outrageous costume (or nothing at all), to stay out late, to get drunk (but not to drive drunk), and forget about my individual and communal problems in the company of like-minded souls. So whatever you do on this very special, and very Gay night, remember to be careful, to play safe, and to enjoy yourselves. After a few thousand years, we should be able to do it right.
Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer and Gay activist who lives in South Florida with his life partner and many friends
(The picture is of me 30 years ago today--Martin)
Like popcaan