PHOTOGRAPHY BY GAYLETTER
MIXTAPE: PRIDE
10 tracks for your always-reliable shit show of a Pride weekend
Well, boys, it’s the end of June. That means the beaches are open, it’s hot as fuck, and Pride season has spread its many-hued angel wings across the city. Our Pride March started back in 1970 in response to the Stonewall Riots a year earlier, and now occurs every last Sunday in June to commemorate the lasting impact of those monumental demonstrations on Christopher Street. We all know Pride has transformed into an entirely different beast since then, and gets a lot of heat from gays and straights alike for being the hugely gaudy, sometimes tasteless clusterfuck that it is. But it’s due time to get over that, isn’t it? Honestly, what other parade marches down 5th Avenue with S&M-clad muscle boys, a bevy of drag queens, and an ideology of total acceptance, no matter who you are? They were even about to let the Catholic League’s tyrannical Bill Donohue have a float proclaiming the greatness of straight people (LOL) until he pulled out a few months ago.
To keep it brief, it’s a testament to the gay rights movement that the march only grows larger and larger every year, spawning countless iterations across the globe. This year is already shaping up to be one of the best yet: it’s the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, there is literally no end to the amount of amazing parties to go to (including ours at the Wythe Hotel), and the grand marshals for the march this Sunday are exceptionally fabulous (Laverne Cox, Rea Carey, and Jonathan Groff). So to celebrate our ability to publicly revel in our homo nature in suffocating summer heat, we’ve compiled a mix especially for this always-reliable shit show. It’s the perfect playlist for all the pregaming moments to the delirious, beautiful, naughty nights to come. So take those clothes off, smear yourself in rainbow memorabilia, and get out there. ’Tis the season.
Listen if you like: gay bars, sloppy makeouts, body shots, Adore Delano, equality.
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