I’ve been celebrating Pride (or Shame, if you’re into postmodernism) all month. I started with a cruise to Bermuda, strapped on a giant golden penis at Minneapolis’ oldest gay bar, The Gay 90′s, and topped it off by visiting my pro-domme friends at a fetish party where I spanked a fifty-year-old poet. If any of that sounds like your bag, then listen up while I preach the eight most radical queer events you absolutely cannot miss this weekend. If you made an icky face, you can peace out and go join the breeders at the corporate-run, white-washed, marriage celebration called the NYC Pride Parade.
FRIDAY, JUNE 27th
A Decade of Resistance: International Trans Day of Action
Pier 45, Hudson River Park, 2-5 PM
Free
In case you haven’t noticed, trans is the new gay. It’s so not radical to be gay anymore. Thanks, Will & Grace! The same-sex marriage movement was really great for rich white gays, not so great for the forty percent of homeless youth who are trans or queer identified. It’s time to help out our community’s most vulnerable. Plus, there will probably be smelly queers without shirts. This is a rally for Trans and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) People of Color (POC) and their allies.
The Foxy Merkins at BAMcinemaFest
BAM Cinematek, 9:30 pm
$15
Making waves around the queer film festival circuit, Madeleine Olnek’s The Foxy Merkins, written and starring comedians Lisa Haas and Jackie Monahan is one of the most anticipated LGBT films of 2014. An all-female riff on hustler films like My Own Private Idaho and Midnight Cowboy, Olnek’s irreverent absurdist comedy solidifies her as the auteur of a new cinematic genre, which I’ve dubbed, “Neurotica.”
EveryBooty at BAM, hosted by Spank, Hey Queen!, Earl Dax, and Big Art Group
BAM Fisher, 8 pm – 2 am
$20 in advance, $25 at the door
Earl Dax of PussyFaggot fame brings together the best of the city’s downtown performance and art world for a night of debauchery. With emcee Murray Hill, readings curated and by Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, performances by Erin Markey and Needles Jones, go-go dancing by Regina Rocke and Untitled Queen, this party is basically a preview of every Village Voice cover for the next five years. These people know their shit. This will be worth every penny.
Drakkar Noir, hosted by Lauren Flax and Gavin Russom
Bossa Nova Civic Club, 10 pm to late
$10
Flax and Russom’s monthly night at Bossa Nova Civic Club just happens to fall during Pride this month. If you haven’t been to Bossa Nova yet, you haven’t lived, dahling. Yes, there are still a few dusty corners of this shape-shifting city where a well drink costs what shitty alcohol should cost, you can dance all night every night, and the beautiful young people actually talk to each other instead of gazing into the mirrors of their iPhones only to find an empty soul staring back at them.
Saturday, June 28th
22nd Annual NYC Dyke March
Bryant Park, 5 pm
Free
“The Dyke March is a protest march–not a parade, we don’t ask for a permit because we have the right to protest.” No permits, no shirts, no Citibank float. ‘Nuff said.
KUNST
Verboten, 10 pm to late
$20
Legendary nightlife impresaria Susanne Bartsch brings her outlandish party for “creatures” to Williamsburg’s hottest new club, Verboten. SNL’s Stefan could not have named it better. Dress to impress. (Freaks and queers, that is.)
EVERYONE, hosted by JD Samson
Ace Hotel, 10 pm to late
Free with RSVP
JD Samson (of Le Tigre and Men) hosts this international pride party, bringing together your favorite neighborhood DJs like Lauren Flax and Amber Valentine (Misster at The Woods). This might be a bit corporate, as it is co-hosted by the Ace Hotel, but the free factor cannot be ignored.
Sunday, June 29th
A Club Called Rhonda
Gansevoort Hotel, Plunge Bar & Lounge, 10 pm to late
Free
This party from LA calls itself a “Pansexual Party Palace.” LA likes to flex its muscles, and the beats of Detroit techno legend Kevin Saunderson and Berliner/New Yorker Deniz Kurtel might be just the thing to show us what we’re missing. The perfect place to come down from all those drugs you did on Saturday. Or you know, just keep on rolling with your homies. Oh, and it’s on a roof.
Judith Dry is a comedian and singer with a dirty rapper alter ego named Ladyfingaz.