Circuit Party Diversity
Written by Steve Weinstein
03/11/2012
In the Publisher’s Letter of the latest issue of noiZe, Stephen Ceplenski confronts an attitude among some young (twenty something) gay men, that the Circuit is over, that it’s old fashioned, that it doesn’t have as much attraction for people of his generation. One thing I’ve always noticed is that, for every misperception one way, there’s an equal misperception the other way. So it is here. Older men complain that there’s no place for them at big parties. They say they feel out place, ignored, or worse, dissed.
Having had the good fortune to be able to attend one of the best Circuit-style parties in the country last weekend in Miami Beach, I can testify that neither opinion is correct. Dancing under a makeshift dance floor overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on a perfect day (a pleasantly overcast sky — nothing worse than the sun beating down on you while you’re on the beach dancing — and wonderfully not-hot) were thousands of men and women. If anything brought home to me why the gay flag is a rainbow, it was this party.
There were plenty of young hotties, to be sure. And more than enough musclemen to ogle. But there were also plenty of older guys, as well as all ethnicities. Call it the Goldilocks effect: not too young, not too old. What’s more, everyone was having a great time. Not only did I not see anyone giving attitude, but everyone was friendly, smiling, talking, meeting.
I feel profoundly sorry for people who use excuses like “they’re over” or “they’re only for young people” as an excuse to stay home. What are these people doing instead? Chances are, they’re plopped in front of the TV set, watching some mindless excuse for entertainment. Or they’re on the Internet, looking for some mindless sex.
What I saw was a community coming together to celebrate itself (along with many straight allies). The profits from the Winter Party go to the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and local Miami gay and AIDS charities. Rather than bitching and moaning, the next time you’re offered the chance to put on your dancing shoes, go out and mingle. You’ll be surprised how much fun diversity can be.
Reader Comments
Steve you are right on, these parties are to raise money for charity. So dance, dance, dance like our ancestors did over 100 years ago where young and old danced to the same music. There was no generation gap the old taught the young how to dance.
By David Sayko on 04-27-2012
Stereotyping it drives me nuts.We get a lot of jortualisns who just aren’t interested in anything other than confirming their preconceived ideas with some evidence’ even when the evidence doesn’t exist or contradicts what they want to say. Five years after the fact, there are still articles claiming that the number of egg and sperm donors dropped through the floor when the law on anonymity was changed. It didn’t the numbers actually went up. If they’d bothered to check the publicly available stats on the HFEA website they’d know this is a non-story but no, bad news is so much more entertaining.Then, and I hate to say it, there are the articles in women’s mags who want a very specific story about a grieving infertile couple given hope by a donor and how they had suffered for so long but look there was a happy ending. I know this is what they DO and it’s also the kind of story that helps recruit donors, but y’know, it’s not the whole picture.
By Joe on 07-03-2012
