There's a blog hop in celebration of the 4th of July today at Queertown Abbey and I'm contributing with a short post about my first experience in the LGBTI community. There will be prizes and much more, and I'm going to link to everything you'll need to know. At the end of this post I'll ask a question related to my post.
My first experience:
My first experience in the LGBTI community happened during my senior year
in college. I went to Fairleigh Dickinson University in Florham Park, NJ, and
even thought I was within minutes of New York City, I didn't have any real
contact with anything LGBTI related in a local sense. There's always been a
running joke that younger gay men put more miles on their cars than straight men
because they tend to travel farther. And that's exactly what I did.
I remember reading about a gay-friendly town in Pennsylvania called New
Hope. I saw it mentioned in a magazine, with comments about how New Hope had
always been considered a theater town. In the 1930's and 40's The Bucks County
Playhouse in New Hope hosted many of the biggest Broadway Shows before they went
to Broadway, and famous actors, performers, artists, and authors either lived in
New Hope or went there often because it was so close to New York.
But it was the gay-friendly aspect that sparked my curiosity. So
one Thursday night I left the comfort of FDU's campus and venture out to New
Hope to see what it was all about. It was about an hour's drive, and right on
the New Jersey/Pennsylvania border. The moment I crossed the little bridge into
Pennsylvania I knew I'd found something interesting. The main section of town
was adorable, with Victorian and Edwardian homes that had been turned into
shops, and manicured to perfect. But I wasn't shopping that night. I wanted to
find out more about what it was like to be gay, so I drove to the outskirts of
town where there was a little purple building with a sign that read, "The New
Prelude."
It was a gay nightclub/restaurant, with a large parking lot and in a rather
remote section at the end of town. It was a Thursday night and there weren't
many people there, which I'd planned on purpose. I wasn't ready for a busy night
at the gay bar that first time. So I parked outside for a few minutes to see who
was going inside, and to gather up the courage myself to go inside.
I waited for about twenty minutes in the car. I watched a few people arrive
and walk through the front entrance in pairs or small groups. I wondered how
they met, or how they found each other. I was coming from a world where I knew
nothing at all about gay life or how gay people actually met. This was also
the 1990's and pre-internet age. The only connection to anything gay were old
hard copy books like The Gay Yellow Pages.
In any event, I finally climbed out of my car and headed into the bar. The
moment I stepped inside I felt as if I'd gone home. It's a strange feeling to
describe. It was the first time I'd ever actually felt that way. I didn't feel
the need to pretend anymore. I didn't feel as if I had to put up invisible walls
to protect myself. For the first time in my life I could be who I was without
having to think too hard. And that night it had nothing to do with sex. It was
all about community, emotion, feeling comfortable, and so many other emotions
that were all knew to me.
To enter the giveaway blog
visitors need to go to the blog hop page and
enter the answer. It's a rafflecopter giveaway and they will see there what they
need to do to enter. http://queertownabbey.com/the-equal-rights-blog-hop-july-4th-through-11th/
Rafflecopter code can be found
here http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/NmQ0MWI5MmQzYjg0MjU4YWVjNjA2ZDkyZmZhZGRiOjI0/
I hope I did this correctly. I'm sure most of you know more about it than I do.
3 comments:
Thanks so much for posting. I came here to read this post and it took quite a while because I read everything you wrote after this. I loved it all. Have a great weekend.
Hi Ryan,
I want to send a personal thank you for your participation in The Equal Rights Blog Hop. Thanks to you the Blog Hop was a great success.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a happy and safe summer.
All the best,
Anders
Founder/Administrations Manager
Queer Town Abbey
Thank you, too, Anders. I love these hops and I'm glad it was a success!!
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