Monday, March 12, 2007
Straight Bars
I've been blogging for over 6 years so I'm sure I've discussed this before, but I'm too tired to go looking for it (the switch to Daylight Savings Time always messes me up for a couple days) so I'll just write about it now.
Straight people are fantastic. If it weren't for straight people we wouldn't have any gay people (think about that for a second). But, straight bars? I don't like 'em.
Friday night we went to a birthday party where some folks had rented out a bar in the early evening for their friend. It was a nice place, but when the end of the rental time came and the regular crowd started coming in we realized it was a straight bar. Bear in mind this is on P Street in the Dupont Circle area of DC, about the gayest place you can find here.
Afterwards we were meeting up with Kenneth, an old friend from "The Before Time" (actually, the guy who introduced me to Adrian) and he suggested we meet at this beer place around the corner that was full of very straight, very just-out-of-university-or-maybe-in-their-last-year looking people. The reason for this was obvious when Kenneth arrived and the friend with him was straight. The wait for a table promised to be long so we convinced them to go across the street to a gay bar, even though Kenneth's friend was a little nervous about it.
I guess I didn't think about it until Kenneth asked him, "do you mind going to a gay bar?," and I thought, "no one asked if we mind going to a straight bar."
I mentioned the whole straight bar theme of the evening later to Kenneth and he said, "that's an issue for you, huh?" and he got me to thinking. Yeah, I guess it is. Part of it is the idea that it's "natural" for straights to be uncomfortable in a gay bar but not the other way around. And part of it is that far too often I've found straight people in bars get a little too drunkenly loud, in an exaggerated happiness kind of way, almost like they're putting on a show, which frankly they probably are, in the hopes they can get laid. Us gay folk don't always put on the same loud show...we just grab someone's ass. Gay clubs are full of posturing and attitude and all that sort of stuff, but it tends to be kept a bit quiet, done in more subtle ways. Straight clubs, especially with a younger crowd, tend to have lots of obnoxious loud people. And I'm not into that.
Niche clubs would be different, I think...I still want to go to a goth club, and that will be mostly straight, and going to hear live music is different, too. It's just the "sit around and drink" bars, I think.
Maybe part of the issue for me is that, given my job, I pretty much have to be "straight" all day, so I have no desire to be pressured into a closet when I'm out for fun.
Of course, any place can be a gay place if we go in big enough numbers, but the reality is we're outnumbered something like 9-to-1. So we can try to take over, or at least have an obvious presence. But we can also get the snot beaten out of us if some people don't like it. And yeah, that does still happen here.
By the way, apropos of nothing, I've decided I really REALLY like gummy bears.
Straight people are fantastic. If it weren't for straight people we wouldn't have any gay people (think about that for a second). But, straight bars? I don't like 'em.
Friday night we went to a birthday party where some folks had rented out a bar in the early evening for their friend. It was a nice place, but when the end of the rental time came and the regular crowd started coming in we realized it was a straight bar. Bear in mind this is on P Street in the Dupont Circle area of DC, about the gayest place you can find here.
Afterwards we were meeting up with Kenneth, an old friend from "The Before Time" (actually, the guy who introduced me to Adrian) and he suggested we meet at this beer place around the corner that was full of very straight, very just-out-of-university-or-maybe-in-their-last-year looking people. The reason for this was obvious when Kenneth arrived and the friend with him was straight. The wait for a table promised to be long so we convinced them to go across the street to a gay bar, even though Kenneth's friend was a little nervous about it.
I guess I didn't think about it until Kenneth asked him, "do you mind going to a gay bar?," and I thought, "no one asked if we mind going to a straight bar."
I mentioned the whole straight bar theme of the evening later to Kenneth and he said, "that's an issue for you, huh?" and he got me to thinking. Yeah, I guess it is. Part of it is the idea that it's "natural" for straights to be uncomfortable in a gay bar but not the other way around. And part of it is that far too often I've found straight people in bars get a little too drunkenly loud, in an exaggerated happiness kind of way, almost like they're putting on a show, which frankly they probably are, in the hopes they can get laid. Us gay folk don't always put on the same loud show...we just grab someone's ass. Gay clubs are full of posturing and attitude and all that sort of stuff, but it tends to be kept a bit quiet, done in more subtle ways. Straight clubs, especially with a younger crowd, tend to have lots of obnoxious loud people. And I'm not into that.
Niche clubs would be different, I think...I still want to go to a goth club, and that will be mostly straight, and going to hear live music is different, too. It's just the "sit around and drink" bars, I think.
Maybe part of the issue for me is that, given my job, I pretty much have to be "straight" all day, so I have no desire to be pressured into a closet when I'm out for fun.
Of course, any place can be a gay place if we go in big enough numbers, but the reality is we're outnumbered something like 9-to-1. So we can try to take over, or at least have an obvious presence. But we can also get the snot beaten out of us if some people don't like it. And yeah, that does still happen here.
By the way, apropos of nothing, I've decided I really REALLY like gummy bears.
Labels: Bars
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I'm with you, I have ALWAYS preferred gay bars. Straight bars are often filled with drunken pigs just looking to get laid. I have actually had a beer poured on my head because I POLITELY declined to dance with a guy! Naturally, he ended up laid out on the floor after I decked him but you get the point. Gay bars you can actually talk, dance without fear of being stalked all night and the music is FAR better most of the time.
I used to go to Goth bars A LOT when I lived in FL. I loved them. They were my second favorite to gay bars. Nobody bothered you and the people there actually enjoyed having intelligent conversations with you. And of course, the music was fantastic.
I used to go to Goth bars A LOT when I lived in FL. I loved them. They were my second favorite to gay bars. Nobody bothered you and the people there actually enjoyed having intelligent conversations with you. And of course, the music was fantastic.
I was eating sour patch gummis while reading this post. So not a lie.
And, I loved going to a certain "goth" bar in Chicago when I lived there, for reasons see above.
Oh, and my gummis are low fat. I swear. And no, you can't have any.
And, I loved going to a certain "goth" bar in Chicago when I lived there, for reasons see above.
Oh, and my gummis are low fat. I swear. And no, you can't have any.
I agree about straight bars, they are just so boring.
And the same for straight people.
I went to a b-day dinner last night and I had to sit across from two straight people and in between two straight people. They were all the most boring people in the world...maybe it was because they are 23. But I think I was interesteding when I was 23.
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And the same for straight people.
I went to a b-day dinner last night and I had to sit across from two straight people and in between two straight people. They were all the most boring people in the world...maybe it was because they are 23. But I think I was interesteding when I was 23.
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