The ever-friendly (and still child-free) Andy Towle points to a Gay City News columnist who complains that changing demographics are putting the kibbosh on Fire Island's traditional debauche:
And there are too many blasted kids! Toddlers seem to have now replaced Vuitton and King Charles spaniels as the perfect accessory, and I was horrified to see two little girls enjoying their Shirley Temples, or whatever, at the bar of the Sip & Twirl. Strollers threatened to turn Fire Island Boulevard into Columbus Avenue.So a bitter old queen whines into his glass about the kids these days. Can someone who's been to Fire Island tell me how this is different from before?
Has the Pines Seen its Day? [gcn, via towleroad]
Back in the olden days, when I went to FI, it was pretty well ghetto-ized. You had your family-friendly places (Ocean Beach, Saltaire) and you had your swingin' (straight) singles towns (Davis Park, Ocean Bay Park) and your Gay meccas (Fire Island Pines, Cherry Grove). And never the twain did meet.
It sounds like that must have broken down a bit.
To paraphrase Richard Pryor "Straight people! Stop copulating or I will have no where to cruise!"
Bitter queen?
Just because he's annoyed that previously adult places (like a bar) have been invaded by kids? A bar? You think kids should be let into bars?
I'm a dad and i am all for expanding the places where kids are welcome but I'm also an adult and I appreciate kid-free places. Not everything is about *my* kids.
Actually, JJ, the columnist was complaining about gayfolk's kids in The Pines.
And while I can totally/surprisingly still appreciate the value of child-free zones, it's gotta be within reason. The concierge in New Orleans sent us to a restaurant that turned out to be a honkytonk bar, but in the French Quarter, where else are you gonne eat lunch? The bartender in the "just because you can reproduce doesn't mean you should" t-shirt didn't mind; the thug who drove his hog into the restaurant didn't mind parking it next to the stroller, and it was dark, which helped the kid sleep.
Should new Pines parents stop going to liquid brunch on the weekends like the old days? Or should parents gay or straight move down the beach and leave the Pines sand for the public who wants to hookup without concern for the age of their audience? I don't know.
But from the rest of his column as well, I do think that that guy is a whiny old queen.
I get the sense that he's just complaining because his world is changing. Gay parents are a new thing in our community as well.