As Seen on Riis Beach

When I ask why they come here, they all giggle before one of them tells me, “The gays.” They’re all New Yorkers and have been coming here since high school. It’s where they learned to be comfortable topless and where they brought their first-ever girlfriends to make out by the water. “Queers always exist at the margins,” one of them says wryly; the gay part of the beach technically lies at the eastern edge of Riis Park, in front of the ruins of a tuberculosis sanatorium.

It’s not as easy to get to by subway as, say, Coney Island or even the beaches at the other end of the Rockaways. Instead, you need to take a bus or the ferry, or ride your bicycle, or splurge on a Lyft, or track down that one friend of yours whose partner has a car. The journey is made more tolerable by good company.

If OP’s pic is at all indicative of the usual clientele, I think I’ll just stay home.

It's nice to see a place where very low standards are welcome.

It’s the People’s Beach!

Do I pronounce that as Reese or Rice?

How to pronounce Riis:

Those are painfully unattractive men

Riis Beach does not appear to be the gym crowd.

Back in the day Bay One was our open secret section for nude bathing.

I disagree about them being painfully unattractive. I like the brother with the blond hairdon't and the stappy scrappy bathing costume. Thong? Jockstrap? What? This is because I'm one of those "high-low" degenerate sophisticate, and all classes can excite me. This is trade, and not even rough trade, so unclench, fellas, you'll have a good time.

Sadly, he seems to be owned by the skinny bearded latino, and you can see in her eyes that one will defend her property.

No VPLs in the photo. Can't tell who is cut or uncut.

[quote] I like the brother with the blond hairdon't and the stappy scrappy bathing costume.

How do you know they’re brothers?

I prefer Riis Beach to Fire Island. Riis is much more diverse, and tolerant of those who don't have the perfect gym body.

So Riis Beach is a famous gay beach, .yet until now has never been mentioned on Datalounge?

R16, we’ve mentioned it here just a few hours ago. OP is worse than Hitler.

Where is the beach at OP? There are actual waves on that coastline. And the dune thing behind them? It doesn’t look like the landscape there.

But what do I know?

Are the beachgoers knowns as "Riis's Pieces"?

[quote] Are the beachgoers knowns as "Riis's Pieces"?

No. They’re known as fags.

R20 Matty, did you already forget the little talk we had about this?

Out of shape bottoms rejoice.

R11 I agree, if the guy you're talking about is the one on the far right he's cute

But the Asian guy third from left with glasses is lovely too, definitely wouldnt say no to him, in fact I think he's my favourite of the lot. Far left isnt too bad either

Some of the guys in article R15 linked are downright hot too

They all look very soft

It’s a long time since I have seen a group that exudes as much vibrant, male sexual energy as the men in OP’s photo.

R5 It has all the charm of a Black Sea resort circa 1973.

The rainbow means all shapes, sizes and colors.

The OP's link makes a casual reference to "the racist Robert Moses".

70 years dismissed in one adjective.

Does queer mean flabby?

I'm sure I'm not 100% accurate in my assumptions. But that group looks like nice young gay men of modest backgrounds, enjoying the sea with friends. Why not smile upon them? They aren't trans! They aren't superficial narcissistic A listers. They don't seem to have any body dysmorphia.

But you need to snark on them, as well. vWell, what do want? What would you condone? Who passes Muster?

Jacob Riis Beach, where the clientele eat a lot of grease.

I have been to Fire Island and Field 6 at Jones Beach....but I, a native New Yorker who has lived in Brooklyn his entire life never heard, read, or visited this spot. You just know they all lived their entire lives in public housing.

The lesbians in the article were all very attractive as well as the guy who has his career listed as “poet”

R28 a Jewish man who was born to immigrants who added nearly 3 million acres of land to the NY state park system. It's pretty sad how dull and guileless the acceptable public discourse has become.

[quote] It's pretty sad how dull and guileless

I agree, R34, journalists and educators seemed determined to send the prejudiced younger generation into a hell-basket of gibberish, ignorance and bigotry.

It's appalling.

Founding Father and Slave Fucker Thomas Jefferson

OP lost me at “queer”.

It's appalling.

George Washington had lousy teeth and used a slave to chew for him.

[quote]The lesbians in the article were all very attractive as well as the guy who has his career listed as “poet”

Are you sure those were women? I subscribe to NY magazine, I saw the article. The muscular masculine looking lesbians looked like transexuals, especially their faces, they didn't look like biological women. The two lesbians with the boobs out, and all the tattoos, looked like actual bio women. The lesbian with the long curly hair was attractive.

OT, this is extremely confusing, a gay man becomes a woman, then becomes a lesbian. Help me with this.

Isn't this similar to the situation actress Ellen Page is going through? EP was a lesbian, she then got her tits cut off, now she claims to be a gay man, yet is still dating women? Couldn't she have remained a lesbian to do this?

As Ricky Ricardo would say, "Please 'splain this to me Lucy."

"Riis Beach???" No one ever called it "Riis Beach." It's Riis Park. And it's pronounced the same way the Witherspoon woman pronounces her first name.

Who says riis beach it's Jacob riis park. That said I'd fuck that Asian.

R42, what R41 said.