The OW for the last 25 years or so has preferred not celebrating any holidays; no Christmas means VD is pretty much out there as well. So we don’t do anything really unless it falls on a weekend. In that case maybe we’ll go out to eat but basically Cracker-Barrel-ish rather than some dining experience.
From last week:
Thanks! It was done for our local PBS station. A friend of ours was one of the founders; the problem was that when he was still alive the ones he was attending we were always busy and when we were free he had other gigs. So the end result was we never got there in the very early days. He passed away and we didn’t think about it again and then one day I saw a mention of it on (of all things) a horror movie message board and we decided to go in his memory. We found a ton of friends and people we knew there so we just never left.
In the very beginning it was at a place called Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall. Until they found out what GLCC stood for and kicked them all out. They did approach several churches and got turned down everywhere. They used a local GoodWill facility but it was small and crowded even with 100 or so people. The only people who opened their arms and hearts to the entire thing was the one Jewish congregation. I’m betting there was some debate within the Council but they never showed it and its run there for like 13+ years. We’ve been regulars the last 10 or more.
Until lately the OW and I were in the vast minority. But it became so famous that now half the crowd is “one and done bingo virgins” and a small majority of the people attending are straights not actually connected to the community. Some people say that’s a bad thing, and I must admit that there are some days when I think that as well. But the GLCC does such fantastic work and that is 90% of their budget so in the end MAKE IT RAIN and bring in the bus groups and stuff like that. It is still a safe place for people from across the LGBT community and the people who love them so we can live with a few tourists once a month.
Pittsburgh wasn’t the first gay bingo and it probably isn’t the biggest. But by God its about the most fun thing you can imagine.