{"id":27549,"date":"2021-06-23T18:47:04","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T18:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=27549"},"modified":"2021-06-23T19:03:18","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T19:03:18","slug":"last-pride-on-earth-betty-who-shangela","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/last-pride-on-earth-betty-who-shangela\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Pride On Earth, Day 1: Betty Who and Shangela at The Rainbow Room"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Betty
Betty Who performs at the Love Above All Ball (Photo: Noam Galai\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pride<\/a> is back\u2026sort of. Mostly? It\u2019s hard to say what it\u2019s going to be like this year. New York is well on the way to fully reopening<\/a> after more than a year of COVID restrictions kept most of us housebound and isolated. But while in-person LGBTQ+ parties, celebrations and actions are happening\u2014and selling out fast if my group texts are any indication\u2014NYC Pride\u2019s official events remain mostly virtual for the second year in a row. This weird, transitional, hybrid Pride season has me thinking back on Pride 2019, the last one before the pandemic\u2014which also happened to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. That year, I kept a diary of all the nonsense my friends and I got up to during what, in the two years since, I\u2019ve come to think of as The Last Pride on Earth. These are those mostly accurate, entirely true diary entries. It all seems like a lifetime ago\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Friday, June 28, 2019<\/strong>
\nThe provincial gays have definitely arrived. All week, I\u2019ve been seeing them on the subway, even in Bed-Stuy, where I assume they\u2019re renting Airbnbs. They\u2019re taking pictures of all the rainbow flags in Rockefeller Center, popping up on Grindr. For some reason, they\u2019re always in pairs. Pride tourism is such a funny thing. During the day, I assume, you do all this kinda basic sightseeing and shopping at H&M and, until this year, Topshop (RIP). And then at night you go out dancing until brunch the next day.<\/p>\n

I feel like you can always tell who\u2019s visiting for Pride. They\u2019re the guys who have put together strenuous <\/em>little outfits consisting of\u00a0lots<\/em> of prints and patterns just to walk around the city, because they think that\u2019s what everyone in New York does.<\/p>\n

Ugh. <\/em>I should not think such condescending, judgmental thoughts!<\/p>\n

8:20pm: <\/strong>My friend Skip and I grab a drink at Indochine before heading across the street to Joe\u2019s Pub for Justin Vivian Bond\u2019s show, \u201cGay for the Gods.\u201d Fans of Pose<\/em><\/a> will be happy to know that stunning trans women of color with an air of purposeful hauteur are still the gatekeepers to this downtown institution\u2014though their standards for entry seem to have mellowed significantly.<\/p>\n

9pm: <\/strong>In the bathroom at Joe\u2019s Pub, I pull a red lip liner out of my clutch and draw a Vivienne Westwood<\/a>-esque outline around my entire eye. I feel like making a bold statement tonight. On the way out, Jake Shears<\/a> clocks me. I turn to look as we pass each other, and I\u2019m pretty sure he did the same.<\/p>\n

Justin Vivian Bond, wearing a massive platinum wig in v\u2019s persona as our Auntie Glam, starts the show off with \u201cGet This Party Started\u201d in the style of Shirley Bassey. It\u2019s a disco-heavy set, which also includes a lovely acoustic version of Erasure\u2019s \u201cA Little Respect,\u201d and v\u2019s thoughts on the corporate Pride campaigns. V on Chase bank: \u201cThat\u2019s not a safe space for queer people. Do you think a Black transwoman can go into Chase bank and get a loan?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yas! Right on!<\/em> I think, as I ask the waitress for our check, which I pay with my Chase Amazon Prime card.<\/p>\n

\"Shangela
Shangela performs at the Love Above All Ball (Photo: Noam Galai\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

11:19pm: <\/strong>Love Above All Ball at Rainbow Room. Shangela is doing a little cabaret set when Skip and I arrive. He\u2019s super excited about her. We find our friends at BD Wong\u2019s table in the adjacent Bar SixtyFive and start our epic attempt to drink all of the champagne in 30 Rock.<\/p>\n

My friend Brick and his husband meet Cynthia Germanotta (a.k.a. Lady Gaga<\/a>\u2019s mom) and are already texting with her. Despite this, no one can seem to explain to me what exactly the Born This Way Foundation<\/a> actually does.<\/p>\n

I run into a couple former editors of Next Magazine<\/em> and it\u2019s like a little reunion. They\u2019re going to the WE! party at the Javits Center tomorrow night where Bette Midler is expected to make an appearance. My friend who works for Bloomberg now is excited to see the sunrise through the big glass ceiling, which sounds kinda cool but also like a literal nightmare to me.<\/p>\n

We catch Betty Who\u2019s performance, but somehow manage to miss Marina (without The Diamonds). I keep seeing blond women and thinking they\u2019re Jane Krakowski, but none of them are. We hit the dance floor with Kate Walsh who is wearing a dress with angel wings sprouting from the shoulders, and later there\u2019s a sing-along around the piano in Bar SixtyFive. I introduce Skip to Shangela and then manage to lose track of him. It turns out, he met a nice, handsome, slightly older gentleman and gave him a blowjob in the bathroom, while I shared a cab back to Brooklyn with an editor from Interview<\/em>. We sang Fleetwood Mac songs as we crossed the Williamsburg bridge.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow: Grace Jones and inexplicable Pride FOMO!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29097,"featured_media":27554,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[38,16],"yoast_head":"\nThe Last Pride On Earth: Betty Who and Shangela at The Rainbow Room<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This weird, transitional, hybrid Pride season has me thinking back on Pride 2019, the last fully in-person Pride before the pandemic. 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