Pink outside the box

A friend of mine and I were drinking one night at Buck’s Saloon in Boystown and bitching about the bar scene. We decided to put our feet down right then and there and end boring nights on Halsted Street. We dreamt up a new party that we’d host at Buck’s called “Motherbuckers.” We’d get our friends to deejay, ask the bar to throw in a drink special, and then MySpace the hell out of everyone we knew until all the cool queer hipsters in town showed up. But as we recently found out, it’s already being done for us.

In fact, it’s being done all the time and often at unlikely venues. If you stop by the Continental, a straight venue in Humboldt Park, on a Thursday night, for example, you’ll find groups of hirsute, laid-back gay men chilliing with a beer among pockets of somewhat bewildered heterosexuals. It’s not sponsored by the Continental, but no one seems to mind. It exists because a couple of locals were interested in reaching out to other gays in the neighborhood (long live craigslist and MySpace).

Likewise, the Hideout is another traditionally straight bar that finds itself bursting at the seams with gays during its sporadically held, antioxidant-filled queer party, Fruit. Fruit began several years ago as a fund-raiser for WLUW radio show Think Pink, hosted by Erik Roldan and Ali McDonald (McDonald has since left the show).

“We just decided that there was nowhere for alternative gay people to gather,” says Roldan, who organized the party with the Hideout’s help. “The owners are very grassroots and active and supportive and amazing, and they have been from the beginning.” Fruit has since become a platform for queer emerging bands as well as an all-night alternative dance party attracting more than 200 partygoers.

Its success has had a ripple effect. Chances Dances in Wicker Park followed with a monthly party that has become so legendary it now occupies two levels at the Subterranean. Club promoter Scott Cramer is a master at attracting alternative-nightlife seekers to unusual places including queer parties Ahhh! Men at Y Bar and Flawless at Four, as well as current gay faves OUTdanced! at Funky Buddha Lounge (a repackaged version of Titillating Tuesdays), LBC Sundayz at Lakeview Broadcasting Company and Friday nights at Ohm .

What these events have in common is what Halsted Street lacks. While Boystown welcomes all into its gentrified confines, these parties actually seek out the marginalized people in Chicago’s queer communities. Take, for example, the new monthly party at Big Chicks called Formerly Known As, the brainchild of McDonald. After leaving Think Pink last year, McDonald was approached by Star Gaze to do a biweekly party for the trans community. Transmission has since changed homes and names, but the makeover has served it well. FNA debuted last December to a packed house of hipsters (and confused Big Chicks regulars). McDonald’s motivation is simple. “There aren’t a lot of parties for people who identify as trans or gender queer, but also just a party that brings together gay men, lesbians, queers, trannies,” she says.

Best of all is the DIY ethos that motivates people like Roldan and McDonald. “We very quickly discovered that anyone can do it here as long as they know how to be friendly,” says Roldan, who will debut a new monthly dance party at Kitty Moon on February 24.

McDonald agrees. “I think anyone can do this,” she says. “It’s a matter of sitting down and figuring out a few basic logistics and just doing it before somebody else does.”

Who knows, Motherbuckers may see the light of day yet.