Get Out! GAY Magazine – Issue 520

You don’t like these really
great pictures of these
hot guys with their shirts
off and drag queens and
club kids?” I was like,
“I’m saving these.” I just
became obsessed with
collecting them. I got on
mailing lists. Some of
the promoters have very
extensive mailing lists. So
I would go into different
gay type bookstores and
they always had stacks
of the flyers. I kept them
all. My friends kept on
telling me, “You should
be sharing this with other
people.” So I decided to
do a book.
Here’s my question.
Do you still live in New
York? Do you still go to
the clubs in New York?
I still live in the West
village. I lived in Chelsea
before but now I’m in the
West Village. I still go
out occasionally, mostly
to the smaller bars. But
occasionally I will go out
to some of the big dance
parties in Brooklyn. But
they don’t hand out the
flyers anymore.
drug treatments had not
been available yet. So,
if you got AIDS, you had
a death sentence. So
the clubs, in my opinion,
became a refuge and a
safe haven, as well as
a community builder for
the LGBTQ community,
where you could go and
be with people who were
like you. Like I said, it
was a safe space. They
would hold parties to
benefit AIDS service
organizations such as
GMHC and ACT UP. In
the ‘90s, especially in
the beginning, you could
rarely go to a big gay
club and not have it be a
benefit for AIDS.
What prompted you to
get Michael Musto to
write your intro?
Well, to be honest, I
interviewed him in the
past when he came out
with one of his books. I
know he’s very articulate.
And I would run into him
in the theater, so we
crossed paths. I know
that he’s been around,
not just in the ‘90s, but
also with the ‘80s. I used
to read his “La Dolce
Musto” column in the
Village Voice and I just
thought he would be
the perfect person to
explain what that ever
was about. So it started
out as an interview for an
article and it turned into a
forward. Also, we just had
lunch yesterday because
he hadn’t seen the book
yet, and I had just gotten
the advance copy, and
I was so excited, the
first person I ran to was
Michael Musto!
What do you hope will
happen with your book,
aside from the fact
that you hope it sells a
billion copies?
This really is a passion
project. I am not sure how
many copies are going
to sell. It’s all first edition,
but I am already planning
a second edition. I am self
publishing, so I wanted to
be sure that the response
was as favorable as it
could be, and so far it has
been.
How did the
atmosphere change
from the ‘90s to now?
The way I see it,
the ‘90s was a very
particular time in
LGBTQ history. AIDS
was raging. The
AIDS crisis obviously
happened across the
‘80s, but then, in 1990,
it was getting to a very
critical point, where
the cocktails and the
DAVID KENNERLEY AUTHOR AND MARC ZINAMAN CONTRIBUTING EDITOR