Time to go to Fire Island, Ladies!

I'm a native New Yorker and I've never cared to go to Fire Island. I've been invited to spend weekends a few times but it's just not my scene. I see it as being at a big sprawled out gay club with everyone looking to hookup as many times as possible. But some of the guys in the video are cute. Perhaps I'm a bad gay?

If only it had ended with those dumb sluts.

Ah 1998.....the best time ever in the history of humanity. It all went downhill after 2001.

R1, no you don’t know do you? And you’ll never find out. Some people do what you suggest and some don’t. Why don’t you find out for yourself. When I’m in a nice house, that and the setting is pretty much all I need for a few days. A drink at the first tea during the week is fun- uncrowded, happy people and always some good looking guys. Since I’m gay that’s great! Andy referred to in the vid is one of my oldest and best friends- decades. He’s out there now-

Was there virtually every summer from 1993-2015 and often had a share on the Pines or visited friends who did. Nice retreat on weekdays Mon-Thursday and packed on the weekends. Occasionally saw Sam Champion, Robin Byrd, Calvin Klein, Tommy Tune. Lots of fun and one can choose to overindulge or not.

R3 right?! Society & humanity truly peaked. We had hope. Now we have hate, everywhere.

I arrived in NYC in 1998, and I was only 31 yeas old. It was pure magic.

I was born summer of '98!

My first summer in The Pines was in 1975 and you young whippersnappers have no idea what you missed. None.

Well, the A-gays have found the thread.

The two gay American "institutions" I hear about a lot are Fire Island and Provincetown. Which one is the better?

I always think these things sound so fun and then when I go to them I never enjoy myself as much as I expected.

They're only fun for the pretty and the rich R11, and the ones with the good drugs.

not 1 masc man in that clip.

Damn. We're all destined for canes and walkers.

Please R14, I doubt most of those guys got or will get to cane and walker age.

When I have heard some people talking historically about Fire Island, it sounds incredibly hedonistic. On my research into the movie Cruising, I read that Friedkin had gone to Fire Island and seen a daisy chain happening on the beach. On watching old clips from Emerald City TV you can see Larry Kramer and Vito Russo talking about really crazy sex things happening there. And what is the "meat rack"?

Is this sort of hedonistic behaviour, or something similar (as I imagine HIV/AIDS put a bit of a damper on it in the 80s) still a thing on Fire Island?

R15 You're probably right. AZT got them all.

The man in the white t-shirt at 20:13 is so hot. JC.

The nice part about this video is they took a break from living to talk to the camera, not living in front of the camera 24/7.

I read that NYT article about New Hope, PA as a gay destination. Is it really worth it? What say you, Gurls?

Gays in large groups turn into cunt fests.

Men encourage the very worst behavior in their fellows.

Where are all the TRANS WOMEN OF COLOR who GAVE THEM their RIGHTS!!!???

R16, the Pines has not changed much since the 1960s all considered- beach and dune erosion but men chasing each other around and partying- the same essentially. And why not. You don’t have to oarticipate if you’d rather take in the beach and natural beauty of the place- go there and find out for yourself. When I was young I thought it was paradise.

R23 Oh, they were the paid entertainment for the weekend. As they should be.

Brings a tear to my eye, thinking about my ex who lived his life in the closet. he would have been so ecstatically happy and in his element! Solo cups full of booze, thumping music, good drugs, and bucket hats. Telling me to loosen up. I have never stopped loving him but I wanted to get out of the closet myself. The closet killed him.

R26 sorry for your loss. Live now, baby. You’re still here.

Ladies! Gurls!

Welcome to yet another self-hating Eldergay thread

[quote]And what is the "meat rack"?

The Meat Rack is the section of bush between Cherry Grove and The Pines. It's a cruising area for gay men. Most of the action is on the north side near the bay. You walk along the northern path that goes east-west and at one point you'll see a bush with red ribbons tied to the branches. Near here there are various paths that go northward through the bulrushes and end in clearings. This is where the magic happens. Most active in the afternoon and at night. I have heard there have been times when park rangers? (I doubt they were actual policemen) have cracked down on casual sex outdoors and handed out tickets but there was never any problem when I have visited.

When walking to the beach from the Grove or the Pines, use the elevated boardwalks and wooden stairs. Do not walk on the dunes behind the beach because you'll disturb the vegetation that holds the sand in place and reduces wind and water erosion.

Fire Island is good for maybe two to four days. After that it gets a bit boring. I've heard there is more to do in Provincetown but I've never been. I believe the relatively few hotels in the Grove and the Pines raise prices significantly on weekends because it's much busier.

Make sure you check out the ferry schedule online and know when the last ferry of the day is. The Grove and the Pines are accessible by ferry only. The "streets" are actually boardwalks. No cars.

[quote]Men encourage the very worst behavior in their fellows.

I know all our experiences might be different, but privately I have see a lot of men holding each other accountable when in male-only groups, in a way a lot of women never seem to realise.

Thanks R29! I appreciate it. Larry Kramer made the "meat rack" sound like a lot worse than it sounds in reality. Areas for public sex seem pretty standard to me, even when I came out in the 00s it was well known around my town that there were areas you could go for stuff like that.

Really appreciate you giving a bit of insight into the place, it's interesting to me, especially hearing so much about it as a part of gay history/culture and also being unlikely to ever go there (living on the other side of the world, for a start).

All those menz dancing shoulder to shoulder..... what does it smell like?

Here Hedda Lettuce complains about rangers writing tickets in the Meat Rack at the 5:00 mark but this video is at least eight years old. I assume this is a rare problem. Probably some prissy, prudish queen or one of the few straight couples that live in The Grove or The Pines stumbled across the cruising and contacted the authorities and the rangers felt they had to act.

R30 I've seen sleazier behavior at bath houses The Island House in Key West or any of number of venues or places than I've seen in the Meat Rack which is a lot safer than The Ramble in Central Park. I've never really heard of any muggings or arrests occurring in the Meat Rack The increasing number of straight people in the Pines is probably responsible for there being less nudity on the beach and perhaps the meat rack being patrolled during the day. I've usually gone there later at night after midnight with sand ocean breezes and a starry sky it's very alluring.

R33 what’s up with the straights making their way into the Pines and the Grove? Are they going to take it over like they did Greenwich Village? So annoying.

So true, R34. Do hets have to push their way in everywhere? Can't we have any place to ourselves? I haven't been to Fire Island in quite a while, R33. I just assumed The Pines was still mostly gay men and The Grove had more of a mix of gay men and lesbians with a small minority of straight couples. Very disappointed to hear about the growing straight presence in The Pines.

R34 R35

I think it might have had something to do with the economy post 2008 Perhaps fewer gay men could afford a share as well as the Hamptons becoming increasingly popular with gays, Most of the venues on the Pines still seem very gay and you will see straight people mostly on the ferry, Fire Island Blvd and the beach

Every guy in this vid is either an eldergay now or dead.

This really was the tail end of a Golden Age...

R37 more likely elder gays. The guys in the video seem to be in their late 20s or early 30s so most of them are now in their 50s or 60s and most likely alive as I am. I was 32 in 1998 and was on the Pines and most of my friends are still alive as are Tommy Tune, Sam Champion, Calvin Klein and my dermatologist all of whom I use to see on FI.

R39 That little "speedo hunk" with his sugar daddies that the camera man kept zooming in on. They would have to be 90 - 100 years old by now or dead.

In 2018 I visited FIP just for a weekend. I remember seeing a straight couple out at that big bar near the dock. The mother was bopping on the dance floor holding an infant at her chest in one of those baby carriers. The father was also on the dance floor goofing around with another child of tender years . I don’t remember what time it was, but it was twilight. The couple seemed so pleased with themselves as fun enlightened parents yet were totally unaware of how much their and their kids’ presence was keeping others off the dance floor.

It was always a place for the A gays or A gay wannabes, the merely average need not apply.

[quote]Ladies!

You're tedious and unimaginative, OP.

R43 yet here you are on July 4th weekend. Quite exciting.

I'm not sitting here using tired cliches in a vain attempt for attention OP/R44.

[quote]It was always a place for the A gays or A gay wannabes, the merely average need not apply.

That sounds uninteresting to me, but then again I've always personally had a 'everyone's invited to the party' kinda thing. Not that an area full of hot gays isn't amazing, but that the gays who are obsessed with being "A" list can be very tedious to be around. It sounds like no one would be having real fun, just measuring themselves up against each other and stressing whether or not they were at the top of the pack or not.

R45 you win. You’re better than me. Enjoy your weekend.

[quote]It was always a place for the A gays or A gay wannabes, the merely average need not apply.

Not true at all. There are some impressive summer homes, especially the ones facing the ocean in The Pines, and a house on Fire Island is usually not cheap, but all kinds of people make day trips to F.I.

Glad that this viedo exists … it is a bygone era … today everyone is looking at their phones …

r18

lol

R40 Chasten is 33 and Rat-face Pete is 40 neither ever looked as good as that hunk in the speedo who was probably 30 in 1998. 30+22=52

Fire Island? Oh darling, no.

I spend summer days on Two Mile Hollow Beach, going to pool parties at wonderful houses like Eric Ellenbogen’s on Further Lane, and driving my vintage 1955 Mercedes 190SL over to Sagaponack to pick up a few things from Loaves & Fishes for a quiet dinner at home with friends.

And all the rich straight people pretend to like you, R52. How adorbs.

R54 redid the math 30+24=54 it was 1998

Gorseshit R42. Clearly you’ve never been there.

Horseshit that is-

As an official elderghey, if I were in the Pines and saw a couple with infants or small children I would hiss at them!

Can gays have ONE fun thing without your fucking lousy kids, PLEASE!

I even know straight people who used to come to gay spaces because there are no kids there.

Who needs to go R55 when every book, movie, and eldergay talks about what a scene queen clone war Fire Island was/is.