Have you ever been to Fire Island?

I really like Cherry Grove, actually

I never have wanted to be at a big scene with other gay men, so I avoided Fire Island and Provincetown when I lived on the East Coast.

I graduated high school and with the wisdom of experience feel no need to return.

Besides, variants are often worse than the original.

I just watched a documentary on cherry grove and thought it looked wonderful. For some odd reason, I’ve been scared of Fire Island, mainly because I haven’t a clue how to just visit for a week or so.

I go to Ptown yearly because it just made more sense in how it worked. PTown is heaven

Twice. The second to verify the first time sucked.

R5, how could it possibly suck? It’s a beautiful place by the ocean

It’s really an idyllic place where you don’t have to worry, even an iota, about being gay.

Living in NYC, I thought I was free to be gay, but there’s still a thin thin layer of shame and fear, even in a progressive city. On Fire Island, even that goes away.

The same NYC guys are far more welcoming and loving when on FI than in NYC. My friend says he hooks up with guys who wouldn’t even give him a second look in NYC

^ And does that make him feel better or worse?

Fire Island = Cesspit

R9, it makes him feel good during the summers but bitter the rest of the year.

It’s is very sexually charged of course but you can make the experience what you want it to be.

PTown allows for more diverse experiences as about half the town is straight tourists.

Clique-y and unfriendly, interspersed with moments of beauty. Go with friends.

[quote] middle class white men and any beautiful man

isn't that the same ?

two homophobic cunts having fun @ 2:40 ha-ha-ha

Joan is hilarious. “Officer Bruce”

Just watch your suitcase on the boat ride over. I caught someone trying to steal my stuff.

R17 's stuff

Is Fire Island the famous Me?

No, R18. I wish, though! :)

I have been going on and off for many years. It’s beautiful, easy to access from nyc, surprisingly affordable (if you do a share with friends) and you can make the experience what you want. I love going there and will often take friends who’d never been, just to show the place off. They were almost always were blown away by it. Check it out if you get the chance. As per an earlier poster, it’s definitely best to go with a group of friends in a shared house.

If you are dull and think lying on your ass under the sun is a great way to spend the day, then Fire Island is for you. Because that's all there is.

Except... 1) get high or drunk, 2) change clothes A LOT, 3) try to get laid by anyone who will have you.

If your idea of a good time is doing something interest, Fire Island is not for you. If your idea of a good time is doing very little, you might like it.

A weekend or a week of the music in the background must be total hell.

I’ve heard the trannies have taken over.

I've been to Fire Lake

Fire Island is popular for NY area gays. If you aren't one then of course you would never have gone.

I've gone with some of my more wealthy NY artist friends, who (as was mentioned by some upthread) fuck around with guys they wouldn't dare take out in the city. Our lesbian couple friends came with us a couple of times last summer, and they liked it.

I couldn’t afford Fire Island until I was at least 40 and by then I didn’t care anymore.

My summer vacation is in Provincetown

I never understood how the two is afford shares in FI.

Are there still young gays going or is for eldergays ?

Just found a Facebook page called BOFI (Boys of Fire Island). Mainly discussing the various parties and guys trying to find a room here or there (even a couch) to rent for the weekend. The prices are sky high—it’s obscene—if you don’t have a share for the summer. Shares can be 1/4, 1/2, or the whole summer.

It seems to be for upper middle class white guys and their hot poorer friends allowed to tag along

[quote]It’s considered a Mecca for gays but, it seems to be targeted to middle class white men and any beautiful man who can stay with friends.

"targeted to"???

It is not being offered up by The Powers That Be as some sort of Promised Land to all gay men of all income levels everywhere in America, despite the bizarre insinuations of your syntax.

It's real estate, and wealthy gay men (not middle class gay men) tend to be the demographic that favors it and can afford to buy property there.

[quote] It seems to be for upper middle class white guys and their hot poorer friends allowed to tag along

It's very expensive, yes--you are living in a capitalist nation where rich people can afford nicer and more desirable things than poor people, and that includes real estate.

As for "white": Do you have proof non-white people are being kept from buying property there? if so, by whom?

Never been to PTown. How do they compare?

Has anybody ever stayed in the hotels on FI?

Are there hotels in PTown

[quote] It's real estate, and wealthy gay men (not middle class gay men) tend to be the demographic that favors it and can afford to buy property there.

Yes, I realize I live in a capitalist country. The problem is that's not the way FI was every envisioned. It started as a way for gays to be in a place they can feel free--but it's now a place for white wealthy gays to feel free.

Apparently, it's slowly becoming a place for straight whites.

[quote] Has anybody ever stayed in the hotels on FI? Are there hotels in PTown

The hotels on FI are really expensive (like $500/night) and are very sexually charged.

PTown has hotels and guesthouses.

Ptown is amazing--tons of restaurants and shops. Amazing ice cream. Whale watching. It's very gay although about 50% of the visitors walking down the long main street are straight. Gays of all types holding hands. It really is magical.

I've only been to FI once long ago so my recollections may not be so accurate--but it's also magical. Almost 100% gay. Cherry Grove is a a quirky, smaller Ptown. Being on an island with beach all around you is just stunning

Overall, Ptown is much, much easier to get a place for a long weekend or week to check out. FI generally requires a summer long share or going to the crazy expensive hotels.

I've been twice and it's pretty awful.

Like everything you hate about big groups of gays turned up to 11.

Guys trying to look like "straight jock bros" who sound gayer than Jack from W&G when they open their mouths.

Guys with the whole "everything about me from my hair to my clothes to my obvious male make-up shouts G-A-Y" thing going posing and preening

The Rich Eldergay with a house full of twinks who are happy not to have to pay for anything.

The Rich Eldergay with a very hot 20 year old blue collar boyfriend who may or may not actually be gay, but is in it for the coke and the clothes and the jewelry

25:1 bottom to top ratio

Shaved and plucked guys in banana hammocks (the 25 of the 25:1) scoping out guys in board shorts (the 1)

Lots of drunkenness by 6pm

Lots of coke-induced sleeplessness (and noise) at 3AM

Because Ptown hosts a variety of people--gays, straights, gays and straight families, etc, and it's in a biggest place, it has more options.

I've been to Ptown as a single gay guy, a partnered gay guy, and with my straight sisters and their kids. Each time the experience was completely different--which makes Ptown so interesting.

Yes, lots of drugs, alcohol, and sex in FI but you can make the experience whatever you want.

[quote]The problem is that's not the way FI was every envisioned. It started as a way for gays to be in a place they can feel free--but it's now a place for white wealthy gays to feel free.

Ridiculous. Naive. And just plain wrong.

Fire Island was never "envisioned" to be some sort of gay socialist utopia, if it was envisioned at all. It was remote. Hard to get to. Poorly supplied with necessities. That always pre-ordained it would be expensive. There were hotels there in the 19th Century. The LIRR/shuttle/ferry routine and expense is nothing new. Not at all. Economics has always been an exclusionary filter that keeps Fire Island a getaway destination. This is decades and decades old. Any second home anywhere is a huge expense. There are no housing projects on Fire Island and there never, ever, have been.

Gay people with enough discretionary income to afford it could go there and feel much freer than they did in their well-paid work places. They could host younger, less solvent, and very sexually attainable guests. You did not have to be rich to summer on Fire Island and you still don't. In face, if you were really rich, you would give the place a second glance.

Wherever people go, they take their "isms" with them. Racism. Classism. Snobism. All of it. If people were there, so were these weird things that people always seem to do.

R40, FI only became wildly expensive when the wealthy gays started buying up the property. Before that, it was an island of generally poorer people. Then gays found it and bought property and created summer communities. and then the land developers found it

[quote] That always pre-ordained it would be expensive.

It was never expensive until rather recently

I met a man (very nice) who owned the house next to Calvins in the 80s. He said C put in a lap pool for the model who had the perfect pecs. The blond with the curly hair, long forgotten, but a five minute sensation.

FWIW, I've also been to the straight parts of Fire Island and they are just as expensive and filled with well-off white people.

Some are more family oriented and some are more young-singles-oriented

When I was in my 20s in the late-00s, the deal for heteros of a certain income level was that people right out of college (especially guys) would do shares in Ocean Bay Park, but then by the time you hit 24 or 25, you would take shares out in the Hamptons or Montauk.

[quote]It was never expensive until rather recently

That all depends on what you deem to be expensive. My personal experience with Fire Island goes back to the late 1970s. In 1977, a full share in the Grove and an apartment in the city... it was a significant financial burden. people committed to spending their summer there saved money all winter long to pay for their share. And that is just a share. If you preferred the Pines, it usually cost a great deal more.

There are million more people residing in NYC than there were in 1980. With that going on, of course prices have risen. Everything has risen. It almost always does. But NO WAY was a summer on Fire Island not expensive, at least since the 1970s.

It's not a haven for all gays. FI's a haven for weathy white (and increasingly elderly) gays.

The owners of the various establishments at FI are getting worried that younger gays arent flocking there as they did years ago.

When the younger gays become wealthier, they won't think of FI as their place to summer, which would affect businesses severely

Had a share in my party boy days. Danced till dawn at the Pav, spent the next day in a coma at the beach. Did impromptu drag shows after dinner with some hideous dresses we found in the closet. Mostly didn't eat dinner cuz it weakened the effect of the drugs. Had a lot of cocktails. Had a lot of sex. Had a lot of fun even though most of it I couldn't remember come Monday. Was useless at my job on Mondays.

OP, you constantly claim that Fire Island was "envisioned" to be some sort of gay multi-racial socialist utopia--so then who envisioned it to be such, and when? Who were the planners who reneged on their promises to non-white gay men of lesser means?

You're all over this thread, according to Ignor-dar, so I know you're reading this and can answer me.

R49, the gay community has envisioned it and promoted it as such.

It never told us the truth that's it's a white, wealthy gay man's paradise.

It has every right to be. I'm just sick of the false advertising.

Are "The Gay Community" the same people who publish "The Gay Agenda" OP/R50?

I keep googling but never seem to find a link for either.

[quote][R49], the gay community has envisioned it and promoted it as such.

You weren't paying attention. And that's not much of an answer. Who is this 'gay community' that you hold responsible for this calumny you perceive? Stop with the nebulous broadside statements and get command of the details.

The Hamptons, for example, has never claimed to be anything other than a getaway for the wealthy and mainly white. It doesn't pretend otherwise even for a second.

Gay vacation areas are rare in the US. There aren't lots to choose from, especially if you're not especially wealthy and not white. The not white matters because poorer gays get to hitch along with wealthier guys if they're really attractive. Minorities are rarely seen as gorgeous in today's marketing world so that puts them immediately at a disadvantage.

[quote] Who is this 'gay community' that you hold responsible for this calumny you perceive? Stop with the nebulous broadside statements and get command of the details.

I'm holding YOU specifically responsible. YOU and only YOU

[quote] Who is this 'gay community' that you hold responsible for this calumny you perceive? Stop with the nebulous broadside statements and get command of the details.

Check out every article about FI. Every documentary. Every discussion.

They all market FI as a haven for gay men. Never more specific than that

[quote]Check out every article about FI. Every documentary. Every discussion. They all market FI as a haven for gay men. Never more specific than that.

Gah! You are stupid. Your beef is clearly with the writers and editors of those articles and documentary film makers. And participants in discussions. (Mighty broad. I commend you, sort of, for being inclusive.)

[quote] Gah! You are stupid. Your beef is clearly with the writers and editors of those articles and documentary film makers. And participants in discussions. (Mighty broad. I commend you, sort of, for being inclusive.)

You are free to show me an article or documentary that says FI's a haven for white rich gays. That would help disprove your stance that the gay community considers it as such

[quote] The Hamptons, for example, has never claimed to be anything other than a getaway for the wealthy and mainly white. It doesn't pretend otherwise even for a second.

This may be the first time I've seen The Hamptons anthropomorphized like that.

R57, "disprove" = prove

[quote] This may be the first time I've seen The Hamptons anthropomorphized like that.

Yes, the Hamptons is a human beast

[quote] Gah! You are stupid. Your beef is clearly with the writers and editors of those articles and documentary film makers. And participants in discussions.

Um, how else do you think we get our views about the place? Smoke signals?

No one "marketed" anything to you, OP. That would mean they made money off promoting a false idea of FI as a gay multi-racial sociailst utopia.

You still have yet to point to anything specific that did this "marketing" to you. You just keep gesturing vaguely to everything ("articles and documentaries"), but you refuse to link anything specific.

[quote]No one "marketed" anything to you, OP. That would mean they made money off promoting a false idea of FI as a gay multi-racial sociailst utopia.

Off course they have made money off that marketing. Every gay thinks of FI as a destination, just like we think of Provincetown, Ft Lauderdale, and Palm Springs. The marketing has worked wildly well.

...and then you actually try to go there...

Your argument keeps going around in circles, obviously because you do not have a valid one, OP. You cannot substantiate what you've claimed though you've been asked to do so repeatedly You just keep making vague statements and using the passive vocie as a way to excuse your naivete..

You are wasting everyone's time. Go crawl back under your bridge.

R64, examples are the reality TV show Fire Island and the relatively recent "Cherry Grove Stories" documentary. The movie Long Time Companion. The book The Best Little Boy in the World.

Just some examples of how Fire Island has been portrayed.

Again, I ask you to provide examples that say up front that Fire Island is a destinations for wealthy gay white men. If you can't, it just shows that's not the prevailing understanding of FI even though it's the truth.

[quote] our argument keeps going around in circles, obviously because you do not have a valid one, OP. You cannot substantiate what you've claimed though you've been asked to do so repeatedly You just keep making vague statements and using the passive vocie as a way to excuse your naivete..

And your argument is that everyone is aware that FI is only for rich white gay men, yet you provide no examples at all.

I always preferred Amagansett, because whenever I got out of the city the last thing I wanted to be was surrounded by people at the beach house.

[quote] Provincetown, [bold]Ft Lauderdale[/bold], and Palm Springs

"And another thing, Sylvia. Because this place has been so cleverly marketed to feygelahs, there are so many places to get your hair done. No, not here in Century Village, in Wilton Manors they live. Such tastefully decorated homes--they don't know from mirrors and formica there."

--Rhoda Goldstein, Vice Social Chairperson, Century City Phase 5, Buildings 102-106

Provincetown......Drug City!! Every other local in P'town is either a Drunk, drug addict. both or in the "program"!! Lots of the locals are "closet Gay or Lesbian" There is a "seedy,sexual,druggie unseen side of P'town . However, the best Lobster-Lobster roll, but seafood. And the 2 hot awesome Fishermens cousins who made my month there wonderful!!

[quote] Just watch your suitcase on the boat ride over. I caught someone trying to steal my stuff.

Oh no. Just casually push them overboard. No harm no foul.

[quote] I’ve heard the trannies have taken over. —Always do a “dude check” before taking someone behind the bushes

What exactly is a ‘dude check’ - is that akin to ‘grab em by the pussy’? AKA finger fuck them?

[Quote] Provincetown......Drug City!! Every other local in P'town is either a Drunk, drug addict.

Yes, apparently Cape Cod, in general, is very druggy. There was a dramatic TV series recently about it on STARZ with great scenes in and around PTown: Hightown. It wasn’t Shakespeare but it was entertaining enough.

The nice thing about going for the week is you don’t deal with locals

An incredible setting- physically unique and beautiful and full of good looking men. If you don’t take it seriously or yourself seriously you’ll have a wonderful time. By Fire Island I am including the Pines, Cherry Grove and Water Island communities. There’s lots more-

For a first timer day trip, where would I go?

[quote]For a first timer day trip, where would I go?

Cherry Grove and The Pines are next to each other, just a short walk between them. You can easily peruse them both on a day trip.