I’ve spent the last week swarmed by people, my ears abuzz from horns honking at all hours, my nose hit by a range of odors, ranging from the sweetness of icing piped out of a cake shop door to a muggy sweat emanating from alleys (imagine what it’ll be like in August) and dog pee on concrete (it is from dogs, isn’t it?). If New York City is the city that never sleeps, well, there are so many reasons why. My white noise machine from back home would be useless here.
I’m not sure if I could make it here amid all this steroidal everything. I tell myself it’s my kind of place, but it would likely wear me down. On this trip, I’ve watched seniors navigate crowded sidewalks. I worried about a blind man this morning walking along Fifth Avenue near 42nd Street. I tried to give a little more space to a woman with cerebral palsy as she stepped out of a bagel shop. They all seem to manage just fine and the throngs of people instinctively offer an occasional ebb to the flow at just the right times. Maybe this is what Barry Manilow meant by a “New York City Rhythm.”
I wonder even more about tourists from small towns and places that aren’t even towns. What do they make of all this? What do they tell their neighbors when they get back home?
I’m glad they made the trip. Their itineraries may be much different than mine. There’s not a chance I’d go to a Hard Rock in any city and certainly not in NYC. I don’t want a photo in Times Square with two Elmos and a Minnie Mouse. I’ve seen the Statue of Liberty simply because it’s hard to miss, but it’s never been a destination of mine. Still, I think anyone who spends even an hour somewhere in Manhattan will be struck by the diversity of people here. It’s one of the things I absolutely love about New York and I believe that there’s great value to incidental exposure if not full immersion. The world is here. Let people take a bit of that perspective back to Antelope Hills, Wyoming and Montrose, Mississippi. Let a little Blue mix with Red.
Most of all, let small town queers feel a sense they are not alone. While there are LGBTQ connections on Twitter and elsewhere on the internet, plenty of gay affirmations can be found In Real Life in The Big Apple. With only a tiny bit of effort, I got a potent gay booster shot during my stay. It wasn’t on account of Grindr or gay bars. I wasn’t involved in any of that. Gay things are just part of the rich fabric of this city.
To be clear, this wasn’t My Big Gay Trip to New York City. If I lived in Little Rock or Tallahassee or Missoula, I might feel an urgency to get double boosted in gayness, but spending my time in Vancouver and Seattle made any items on a gay agenda optional rather than required sightseeing. I passed by but didn’t take photos of Stonewall (there was some scaffolding obstructing the façade) and The New York City AIDS Memorial. I didn’t Google a gay-oriented show on Broadway. (I did see “Summer, 1976” with Laura Linney who will forever be Mary Ann Singleton from Tales of the City in my mind, but the play wasn’t overtly gay even if it co-starred Jessica Hecht who played Ross’s ex, Carol’s, lesbian lover, Susan, on “Friends.”) I just explored Manhattan, doing a gay thing or two, but mostly taking in familiar favorites that had more to do with food, art and exercise.
But there was always a gay presence. I didn’t snap pictures of the young queer with eye makeup and long, shimmering fingernails, lined up behind me at Chelsea Market, waiting to order pizza. Nor did I get a shot of any of the older gay couples who dressed up to make an afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art their own Instagram event, trying to out-Lagerfeld Karl Lagerfeld. There were plenty of other on-the-street gay-spotting moments, years and years more fodder for Bill Cunningham if he were still with us. Nonetheless, here are a few shots to document getting my Big Apple gay booster:
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Painting by queer Chicano artist Joey Terrill at MOMA: "Making Tortillas in New York" from his series Chicanos Invade New York. There's a delightful sense of humour in Terrill's work which made me linger. Note the Broadway poster on the wall. "Bent" starred Richard Gere and premiered in 1979. The play was about the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany.  This photo at MOMA--"Las dos Fridas" (The Two Fridas).
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| Here it is without the photobombing: gay artist Ellsworth Kelly's "Spectrum IV." I didn't realize Kelly was partnered with artist Robert Indiana from 1956-1964. |
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A very popular exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Long lines meant more people-watching.
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| This is the headquarters of TransPerfect, a company that specializes in translation services. I passed it many times since my hotel was a couple of blocks away. I don't care what the business is. For me, it was a daily affirmation that Trans Lives Matter.  Joseph Christian Leyendecker (1874-1951) was a gay commercial artist, best known for his drawings and paintings used to advertise Arrow shirts for men. His life partner, Canadian model Charles Beach, was frequently the subject of his illustrations. Leyendecker's work was the subject of a special exhibit at the New-York Historical Society Museum & Library.   |
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The Strand is a fabulous bookstore at 13th & Broadway. I always go there when I visit. This time, I noticed this prominently displayed poster for an author talk about Matt Baume's new book, "Hi Honey, I'm Homo! Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture."
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Yes, I went to the book talk! Came upon it by happenstance. I look forward to reading my signed copy of "Hi Honey, I'm Homo!" |
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Love this double-page spread from Gonçalo Viana's picture book, True Colors, which I discovered at the bookstore at New York Library's main branch, the stunning Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Two boys, a dog and, yes, that's a green cloud. |
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