gay night in the nabe - ripple

Bucknips wrote: Damn! That was quick. I would be willing to help in some capacity!

I work fast! I have an email addy for one owner. was thinking ... monday nights? it's apparently VERY slow for them, so they could use some juice, and if we take advantage once or twice a month they'll be there for us. I think there may be some concerns and I'd love to discuss with a few of you. I've PM'd KWAC and PR for assists in safety strategies. if they can't help, I'll go harass Hakeem or Tish.

oh, and I'll discuss this with some of the local gay biz owners I know and also quiz some of the biz owners in the nabe that I don't know. this is a very interesting project ....

sweet tea wrote: i have to admit i do worry a bit about the "target me!" nature of such an event.

but.

an "understanding night"? at a bar? gives me college flashbacks.

SERIOUSLY. on both counts. I don't want to endanger local queers: that'd be a NOTawesome outcome of gay night somewhere.

and the understanding thing makes me think the barkeep went to a seven sisters college. beh. it sounds devilish.

omg. white castle commercial on TV. I has hungry now ...

brooklynleather wrote: I mean it isn't a protest, it is a bar night...I think everyone I know who currently lives in PH is queer or gay identified. There is a huge population of LGBTQI folks there. It makes me miss the neighborhood even more though.

yeah. I mean, I think if everyone reading this tells all their LGBT* pals about it we should have a decent attendance. I think some folks are worried about

a) being clearly out and
b) being easy, late night, slightly tipsy targets.

and I think the bartender was trying to warn me that I might want to consider that. I will talk to the majority owner when next I see him and clarify everything, figure out if he thinks it'll be safe/do-able, and then I'll post back, begging for help again. once I talk to him I'll find out what we need: just word of mouth adverts or full blown flyers? a dj or no dj? etc. if I can make this happen ASAP, I will, so thanks to all who are offering to help. and those who can't help help, just tell your friends once I have a confirmed night.

apollonia666 wrote: Yeah, I'm kind of torn between "Yay! A gay night really close to home!" and worries about being picked on outside the bar too.

HATE the idea of calling it "understanding night." That just seems way too closety and icky to me.

One bar/restaurant back in the town where I used to live in Kansas had a gay night for several years that they billed as "family night" -- both a nod to the old term that a fellow queer person is "family" and a tweak on the way the term "family values" was at the time being heavily used by anti-gay whack jobs. Maybe something like that? It's still a little closety but seems a little less Kumbaya than "understanding night."

I actually considered that but ... how would gays not reading this thread figure it out? cause family night, to me, sounds terrifying without the "oh, haha!" understanding aspect. it means there'll be kids and cheerios all over the floor and people ignoring their brats while they suck down another beer (gosh, I'm bitchy this morning). so ... on one hand I totally agree that giving it a name that isn't "GAY" makes sense, especially if it's obvi, but at the same time, I'm concerned that'd cause real confusion and end up getting a bunch of yuck there. plus. while I was sitting there one of the conversations at the bar was about how unacceptable interracial dating is because it means that the whites are stealing the best of the black community. I ... was a little surprised?

bear in mind that the bartender was a black person and also trying to explain how interracial anything isn't bad. I think the whole "understanding night" might have partially stemmed from that conversation?

daver wrote: [quote=alafairnadia]I actually considered that but ... how would gays not reading this thread figure it out? cause family night, to me, sounds terrifying without the "oh, haha!" understanding aspect. it means there'll be kids and cheerios all over the floor and people ignoring their brats while they suck down another beer (gosh, I'm bitchy this morning). so ... on one hand I totally agree that giving it a name that isn't "GAY" makes sense, especially if it's obvi, but at the same time, I'm concerned that'd cause real confusion and end up getting a bunch of yuck there.

Um, hmm. Gay = Happy, right? So how about "Happy Family Night?" Plus you get the whole cool Ramones reference oin there.



please stop making me do this (I blame ALL of you and ... the television):

in an effort to be a wonderfully positive person, I'm rolling with "queers (and queer friendly pals) in the nabes hang and chill and get to know each other. hang the fuck out!" does that sound good? I'm not into the idea, any longer, of being FUCK YOU stupid parade even though I kinda want to go and throw eggs at the fuckers. but er. *cough* I digress.

stop, afn, stop. (don't let the anger get to that place. which means you should stop listening to punk rock ....)