Being lesbian or gay was once an excuse to drink a la the tragic figures in queer jazz composer Billy Strayhorn’s classic tune “Lush Life.” Boozing was a handy escape from membership in a persecuted club.
Today there are reasons to toast being queer, since signs of an evolved human race are growing. Hetero heartthrob Brad Pitt proudly donates $100,000 to defeat California’s upcoming anti-gay-marriage initiative. Presidential candidate John McCain – a freakin’ Republican! – schmoozes with proudly out Ellen on her talk show. An officially out Clay Aiken poses with his newborn baby on the cover of People – and the nation’s collective yawn hits a 10 on the BFD Scale.
Small steps, yes, but that’s how social progress goes. Which brings us back to our favorite subject: cocktails. In good times and bad, we follow the advice of pop icon Peggy Lee, who famously declared, “If that’s all there is, my friends / Let’s break out the booze / And have a ball.”
“Live, Love, Be” – the title of the 2008 edition of Tarrant County Gay Pride Week (which is really an entire month) – kicks off in Funkytown this weekend. Most of the festivities are divided between two gay watering-hole institutions: Best Friends and the Stampede. You don’t have to be a drinker to join the party – hell, these days you don’t even have to be gay – but it can’t hurt if you’re both.
The festivities begin tomorrow night (Thursday) at Best Friends, where a multi-media historical review of Cowtown’s gay past will take place, with guest speakers and performers. On Friday, Emperor Steve Back and Empress Bubbles LaRue – titleholders of the Imperial Court de Fort Worth/Arlington, the local chapter of the similarly named international gay fundraising organization – will host a revue at the Stampede. Sunday brings the main event: the Gay Pride Parade, which will start rolling up South Jennings Avenue at 2 p.m. For more info on what the TCGPWA has in store for October, go to www.tcgpwa.info.
