New York is one of the world’s most exciting travel destinations and has long been a magnet for men and women looking to put their petal to the mettle—or the metal, depending on your particular proclivity. New York is the kind of place where the salesman selling you a pair of shoes may be earning a six-figure income, or where today’s socialite is tomorrow’s outcast. The city is full of surprises, and few places cater to the homovisitor as enthusiastically as New York. In a country without royalty to respect, queens are the next best thing to a royal family. Sure, hotels are luxurious, meals delicious, but here in the city that never sleeps, it is the vibrant energy that keeps bringing people back for more.
New York’s attractions are famous, but there are many others waiting to be discovered by those who like to strike out on their own. Small museums abound catering to every interest, and sporting events, concerts, and special occasions like Fashion Week add to the city’s appeal. Broadway has its theatres with hypermusicals for the masses, but the off-Broadway theatres like the Lucille Lortel in the Village offer racier fare. Check out the latest copy of the weekly HX to see what is happening around town; it covers everything from opera to sex parties.
For better or worse, we have New York’s tourism board for the invention of the ‘I Heart’ phenomenon now applied to everything from garlic to diarrhoea. Back in the 1970’s, when New York was in financial meltdown and the city was on the brink of bankruptcy, a series of television ads was created to attract visitors to the city. The ads featured many Broadways stars and famous native New Yorkers who volunteered their talent and cleavage to help the city pull itself up by the bootstraps. Obviously, it worked; one heart led to another to take us to the ubiquity of hearts around the world today. YouTube has an interesting clip about the beginnings of the heart campaign; search for “I Love New York” Ad Campaign Origin to see it and see if you recognise any of the stars of the time.
Shopping in New York is surreal; you can come out of the shop with more money than when you went in, pickpocketing not required. Well, almost; CVS pharmacy regularly runs specials issuing five-dollar coupons to be used on whatever you want. Free money. The chic boutiques of Madison Avenue are not nearly as pricey as they used to be, and the discount outlets that have always attracted bargainhunters are still doing a roaring trade. Though prices in Australia have come down a lot for certain items like electronics, things like designer clothes and shoes are still expensive here—and there is still a whole range of products that never even come to our shores. It also works the other way; believe it or not, I saw Australia’s Yellow sparkling wine for sale at a lower price in New York than at home, only $9.99 a bottle. With Australian brands like Crumpler and Country Road maintaining a presence in the city, you can enjoy a bit of your own surrealism by buying going to New York to save money shopping for Australian goods.
A visit to New York this year would be particularly poignant in light of the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the event which has transformed gay life around the world from the secretive underworld to out and proud. The Stonewall Inn is the name of a bar in Manhattan where a police raid on June 28,1969 resulted in mass rebellion against the continual repression experienced by homosexuals at that time. The rioting lasted several days; in the aftermath, gay leaders recognised the need to mobilise and within months the first gay-activist groups were formed to defend the rights of homosexual men and women. Wikipedia has an excellent and extremely comprehensive entry online about Stonewall; type in ‘Stonewall’ and read all about it. Some people, wryly or seriously depending on their tastes, attribute the fight back to the heightened sensitivity of Stonewall patrons on the night of June 28, the day after the funeral of gay icon Judy Garland. Whether true or not, the friends of Dorothy were up in arms and not going to take it anymore.
How to get to this hotbed of revolt against authority? I went with Scandinavian Airlines on their ‘Round The World’ ticket so I could visit the Latino hunks of New York and the cool blonds of Sweden in the same visit. I like supporting SAS because it maintains a dedicated gay page on its website, and recognition of the importance of the gay traveler is something I take to heart.
Robert La Bua
MORE INFORMATION
www.flysas.com/gay
www.iloveny.com
www.hx.com
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