A recent blog post in Slate written by Miz Cracker, a “writer and drag queen living and werking in Harlem, New York,” wonders why gay bars have been “inundated by roving crowds of straight females, many of them apparently experiencing gay culture for the first time.”
Miz Cracker writes:
In recent months, there’s been an uptick in straight girls flooding New York City’s gay bars. The phenomenon is ruffling gay feathers, unsettling staff, entertainers, bartenders, revelers; and it’s also spurring a debate about how straight people should behave in queer spaces—and whether they should be there at all. Last year, Outward’s June Thomas gently but firmly addressed this subject in a controversial Ask a Homo segment, offering etiquette advice geared toward individual straights, male and female. Since queers (and especially lesbians) have so few spaces to themselves, Thomas asked her straight viewers to consider whether they couldn’t find another place to drink and dance — even if they happen to enjoy the vibe of certain gay establishments.
Though at a loss as far as how to resolve the situation — “I don’t see an easy solution,” she writes — she does try to highlight a point she feels is too often ignored:
There is still a yawning gap of understanding and sensitivity between the straight and LGBTQ world… But right or wrong, just or unjust — all political correctness, progressive philosophy, and gender-studies jargon aside — when a group of straight ladies steps into a queer room these days, there is a collective gritting of teeth.
Read the entire op-ed piece here.
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“Why do straight women behave so horribly in gay bars?”