Queer Clicks: November 05 | The Financial Reality Of Gay Nightlife, Ali Mushtaq Breaks Down The Leather World & The Gay Community, & Other News

Ali Mushtaq Breaks Down The Leather World & The Gay Community

“Earlier this year, while writing for another publication, I did a piece on gay men (bears really) who you should know. Meaning, who is making a positive and upbeat change for the community. When I asked my Facebook friends who should be on this, Ali Mushtaq’s name kept getting tagged over and over again. I thought, wow, this guy is popular. Then I got to know him, and understood why he needed to be featured.” Instinct Magazine

The Financial Reality Of Gay Nightlife

“As scholars, club kids, drag queens and muscle bears will all agree, nightlife is something special for queer people. Something sacred. If the shooting at Pulse in Orlando last year taught us anything, it’s that clubs and parties can function as spiritually healing spaces for queer folks.

But that doesn’t mean nightlife is queer utopia. Gay nightlife — from weekly drag bingo nights to huge Sunday night house music parties filled with circuit boys to underground raves where fashion interns steal looks from broke queerdos for their bosses moodboards — is a capitalist enterprise. While it may be a place for queer people to engage with their community, nightlife in and of itself is not community, and this conflation is something many young queer people seem to have a problem understanding.” Out

Queer Signs And What They Tell Us

“My American Sign Language (ASL)* and Deaf studies classes created a strong foundation for learning ASL. Classes can only go so far in teaching real-world vocabulary, however. While my professors may believe that it is crucial to teach the sign for “onion” so I can feed myself, I find it more important learn the sign for “gay” so that I can ask a random Deaf stranger wandering the streets “hey, I’m lost, where’s the gay parade?” I would choose a parade over onion rings any day. The only place that I felt I could appropriately learn these terms was by socializing with my LGBTQ Deaf and signing peers.” Huffington Post