Howling at the Lightning — My First Trip to the Gay Mecca Fire Island
A version of this story won the NYC Moth StorySlam last week!
As we climbed to the top of the ferry on an overcast summer day, Athena’s hair whipped in the wind, and we breathed in that clear ocean breeze. Our friend Cassius had invited us to spend a day and a night at his timeshare on Fire Island for some much needed rest and relaxation.
A year out of college, and a decade out of the closet, I had still never been to a designated “gay place.” Drag bars were few and far between in Boston when I was a student, and most of the theater communities I had been a part of were a lot more heteronormative than you might think.
Cassius, Athena and I had met that summer, rehearsing a play — the first I’d ever been a part of where the majority of the men in the cast were queer. And yet, Athena (an older straight woman) and I were the only ones invited to the island — so I had no idea how gay the weekend would be.
Our play was a revelation for me in so many ways. Staged in Kentucky of all places, it was the first time in years I was going to a place I had…
