The Gay Phoenix (Not the bird)
You read about Tucson.
Phoenix is just a little bit hotter, a little bit gayer. Although, Tucsonans do believe their town to be more gay friendly, and Phoenixians (my name for a person living in Phoenix) don’t seem too eager to defend themselves.
All gay owned and themed restaurants nest themselves in Arizona (or so it seems). Here I am again at another gay spot ordering a gay Mexican burger (whole wheat bun and an avocado, I’ll let you decide which is Mexican and which is gay). I’m throwing on some lettuce and tomatoes to be all-American. I have to counter act the deviance.
After I break the number one gay male rule of all time by overeating, I have a choice: choose the red pill or the blue pill. I can either explore old Phoenix culture in the confines of museums’ walls or see what it means to be gay in this part of the country.
I choose the rainbow pill.
Our first stop is the One Voice LGBT Community Center of Phoenix. It’s the gayest part in the strip it inhabits. It’s quite out of place, but the design is fierce. No need to have LGBT on the logo, the on-set of red, yellow, green, blue and purple hint quite strongly to what kind of establishment this is.
The eye candy here is top notch as the “Library Assistant”, which I will later learn is a volunteer position, is amazingly handsome, or “delish.” I half pay attention to the tour of this small, but useful, community center hoping to strike a conversation with Mr. Assistant. There are LGBTQ friendly and inspired books, and I envision my novel there someday (The Gayest Tamal by Bryan Luis Pacheco).
A staff member offers me coffee (they are so nice!), but I politely decline. Mr. Assistant, unable to (obviously) resist my charm, finally begins some dialogue. He does not seem to be from Arizona, and I later find out that most gays in Phoenix are just transplants for a temporary stay. True? I’m not sure. But, that is what I am told.
Upon the innocent noise of chatter, I learn that One Voice offers programming, including talks and forums. The center has a beautiful art exhibit on display by gay artists. I’m not sure how long the exhibit will be up, but I imagine it’s temporary. I really don’t know what anything is, but this is art after all.
(Attention frugal traveler: the tour, art exhibit, community center and eye candy was all FREE.)
Because my stay in Phoenix is brief (11 hours), I am rushed out of 1 voice and make my rounds at other gay establishments. It seems that all the LGBTQ community can own are either cafes or porn shops.
I conclude my stay in Phoenix learning about the annual Phoenix Pride festival while playing with whips and other adult items in an adult themed store (probably the third I am visiting). Apparently, Pride not only overprices their drinks; the amount of money you will spend purchasing a booth to represent your LGBTQ organization/group will cost more than what you will make from selling any memorabilia.
Does that not defeat the purpose?
You would think that Pride, a LGBTQ community focused event, would support the development of LGBTQ establishments by at least having a sliding scale for pricing. Not all gays have the pockets or skin color of Clay Aiken or Ellen DeGeneres. But, hey, it’s all about the bottom dollar and as frugal travelers, you know we will have to window shop.
But, really…how many rainbow items do you really need?
Bryan Louis Pacheco, Contributing Writer
