The gay high holidays (a.k.a. Pride Week) are now upon us. Last Friday, some friends and I went out to the Guerrilla Queer Bar at Felt to check it out. None of us had been to one before, but based on the name and the event's reputation, we thought it would be an interesting experience. The basic premise is that the organizers choose a bar at the last minute (without telling the bar), tell a whole bunch of gay people and their friends to show up, and then the regular and new clientele mix and get to know each other. Or something like that.
So we went with a feeling of "adventure." When we arrived, however, it was anything but "guerrilla." The club prepared a special cover charge for that night and, after walking around for a while, I saw that the mens and womens bathrooms had been redesignated as "gender neutral." There was also little obvious sign that the usual non-gay crowd was there. Eventually a patron who had gone to a half dozen other similar events explained that the clubs are now given a heads-up before the events so that they can have enough staff on hand to serve the influx of a few hundred people. Suddenly it all made sense. Still, you'd think the organizers would make that clear to participants. I'm not saying that the night wasn't fun, but it was the opposite of guerrilla.
They actually do make it clear -- or at least I've known since I heard about GQB. You want everyone to be able to get in without violating fire codes, so you have to make sure the place is big enough.
Posted by: Anonymous | Tuesday, June 09, 2009 at 07:56 AM