Will TikTok Revolutionize LGBTQ+ Travel? FA L L 2021
10 Best Places To Go In 2022
FALL 2021
TIKTOK’S NICKY CHAMPA & PIERRE BOO 10 BEST PLACES IN 2022
TikTok’s Cutest Couple Nicky Champa & Pierre Boo on Their New Global Expedition
Destinations
No 25
South Florida Las Vegas Iceland New Orleans Portland Costa Rica Provincetown
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CONTENTS
ON THE COVER
48 TIKTOK AROUND THE CLOCK
Pierre Boo and Nicky Champa have already conquered TikTok. Now, they’re taking on the world.
ON COVER AND ABOVE: Pierre Boo and Nicky Champa photographed in Southern California by Perry Picasshoe
Styling & Glam Nick Champa and Pierre-Amaury Crespeau
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Where red and blue all are part of the same rainbow.
When it comes to being yourself, few places feel as effortless as Key West. Because with gay tours, an eclectic art scene and other LGBT friendly attractions, you can roll however you please. Add Key West’s authentic history, architecture and cultural scene along with clothing-optional resorts and other guilty pleasures, and the only person who’s going to put the brakes on you – is you. fla-keys.com/gaykeywest 305.294.4603 For the latest protocols on health & safety in The Florida Keys, please visit our website.
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CONTENTS
FEATURES
CARRY ON
SAVOR
destinations rule for LGBTQ+ travelers.
beautiful answer to shorter days.
Michael Twitty explores the cultural history of food.
56 TOP 10 FOR 2022 These global
SPECIAL SECTION
THE FUTURE OF LGBTQ+ TRAVEL 65 TIME TRAVEL The trends
impacting travel today and tomorrow.
66 DECOLONIZING TRAVEL Can we make the industry less exploitative? 68 DINAH AFTER 30 The biggest
lesbian party looks to the next decade.
69 PARTY OVER? Does the White Party
have a future without its founder?
70 TIKTOK TAKEOVER How the platform is transforming travel.
DESTINATIONS
30 AMERICAN BEAUTY From sea to
shining sea.
32 VIVA GAY VEGAS Why this desert
town is an oasis for queers.
34 SPOOKY N’AWLINS New Orleans is perfect Fall destination.
35 WEIRDO WONDERLAND Portland is the northern artsy town where it’s hip to be strange.
10 LIGHT THE WAY The most
AROUND THE GLOBE
28 FOOD FOR THOUGHT Chef
NAVIGATION
12 STATE OF THE WORLD Lena Waithe, homophobic islands, and lesbian bar rescues.
change the world?
COMING ATTRACTIONS
NOURISH
14 PLAN AHEAD A Melissa Etheridge
cruise, bucket list vacays, and more.
OUT GEAR
16 LEGENDS OF THE FALL The
products we’re coveting now.
DAY TRIPPING
18 ART OF THE BARRIO Public art, tacos, and lowriders in this San Diego neighborhood.
OUT FITTED
20 HIKE UP YOUR SKIRT From the runway to the trail.
24 GLAMOUR OF FLIGHT Louis
72 TAKE A VACAYA Can a vacation
74 FRESH AIR A gay Black man’s journey from the city to the sea brings new perspective.
ROAD MAP
76 NATURE GALS Hit the road with
RV-ing lesbians.
WANDERLUST
78 LADIES NIGHT How one woman is igniting lesbian nightlife in the Motor City.
DEPARTURES
80 WHERE THE RAYS FLY Dreaming about this Galapagos dive spot.
Vuitton’s latest menswear line recalls its travel roots.
VENTURE OUT
26 AGAINST ALL ODDS A trans
woman’s Icelandic journey of a lifetime.
36 FAB FLORIDA From Ft. Lauderdale to Miami to Key West, Florida is an out traveler’s paradise.
CAPTURE
38 QUEER LOVE IS GLOBAL Inspiring images of LGBTQ+ couples from around the planet.
TRAVELOGUE
44 CITY IN THE SKY Exploring the magic and beauty of Machu Picchu.
46 RETURN TO P-TOWN One trans
Poas volcano, Costa Rica
MATTEO COLOMBO GETTY IMAGES
man rediscovers Provincetown.
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EDITOR’S LETTER
Jacob Anderson-Minshall #ImTransAndITravel
The gay couple has been crossing the U.S. this summer creating our exclusive OutTraveler.com video series. After the past 18 months, we see how deeply interconnected our world is, even more so within the LGBTQ+ community. I first worked with writer Robin Lowey 25 years ago in San Francisco at Girlfriends, the queer women’s magazine I cofounded. She was a natural to pen our piece on the OG of lesbian travel influencers, Mariah Hansen (page 68). Contributor Kathy Belge co-authored a long-running relationship advice column for Curve magazine (which I also once wrote for) but the one-time Airbnb exec is now a full-time road warrior. Kathy wrote this issue’s Road Map (page 76) about meeting other lesbians while living the #vanlife. Kathy urged me to stop by P’town Essentials and say hello to her friend, owner Laura (that’s her below), while I was visiting Provincetown this summer (read about my trip on page 46). Interacting with other LGBTQ+ folks can bring us surprising insights. Meeting Captain Kendall of Moments Sailing there left me reflecting on how rarely tour operators, guides, and proprietors are trans or nonbinary. As the first out transgender editor in chief of a major travel magazine, I hope to be a part of changing the industry to better reflect us all. Trans and nonbinary tourists have long been like ghosts: there but not seen. But #outtravelers come in all genders, shapes, sizes, religions, abilities, and ethnicities. It’s time we were all seen for who we are! Out exploring our world,
Jacob Anderson-Minshall Editor in Chief P.S. Find me at editor@outtraveler.com, especially if you’re an #outtraveler too!
SHUTTERSTOCK (MAP); JACOB ANDERSON-MINSHALL (ALL OTHERS)
T
he issue of Out Traveler you are holding is special. It’s our 25th issue and reflects the 18th anniversary of our brand, but it is also our first magazine in over a decade. Our relaunch of the print edition has been a long time coming, and we initially planned to release it last year — before the pandemic hit the travel industry like disaster dominos. Like everyone else, we were forced to retreat and hunker down. But a surprising thing happened during lockdown. Rather than turning away from travel content, our readership grew as the queer community sought to escape their homes and see the world — even if for just a few moments via what we came to call virtual travel. Paradoxically in 2021, there’s a greater thirst for Out Traveler than at any time in the last 10 years. This year, LGBTQ+ travelers have led the way in getting back out there, many of us eager to reconnect with queer friends and the broader LGBTQ+ community. Our identities have long been one of the drivers of how we travel, as we seek out people like us and celebrate those aspects of ourselves that others still want to drive back into the closet. But as the Out Traveler team was putting this issue together, we also witnessed the rise of the Delta variant, which has since swept the globe, once again causing closures and travel disruptions. And yet, I still want to welcome you back. Back to Out Traveler, and back to travel. Because we will venture out again. Far flung places and unknown cultures beckon us. LGBTQ+ people are global and we’re driven to connect with our communities far from our own. The founders of VACAYA argue (page 72) that queer and trans travelers can change the world simply by being out and sharing their stories when they are on the go. It’s true that travel itself has been dramatically altered during this period, but we will find new and different ways to discover and share the world. One of those new modes is via TikTok, the video sharing, social networking app changing tourism (page 70). Our cover stars, Nicky Champa and Pierre Boo (page 48), are two of TikTok’s rising stars and their 11 million mostly straight fans adore their queer love and globe trekking lifestyle. (Their new YouTube series takes them to to Switzerland, France, and Italy.) I’m excited that we are also bringing you the latest adventures of Will & James, winners of The Amazing Race (page 34). OUT TRAVELER 8
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We can’t be everywhere at once, that’s why our #OutTravelers explore the world and share their stories with us. OUT TRAVELERS
DIANE ANDERSON-MINSHALL Chief Executive Officer and Editorial Director
JOE VALENTINO Executive Vice President, Group Publisher, and Corporate Sales
JACOB ANDERSON-MINSHALL Editor in Chief
STUART BROCKINGTON Vice President, Brand Partnerships and Associate Publisher
EDITORIAL NEAL BROVERMAN Executive Editor DONALD PADGETT Managing Editor TRUDY RING Senior Copy Editor OUT TRAVELERS Kathy Belge, Barry Hoy, Robin Lowey, Will Jardell & James Wallington
BRAND PARTNERSHIPS JAMIE TREDWELL Director, Brand Partnerships MICHAEL LOMBARDO Creative Director, Brand Partnerships TIM SNOW Senior Manager, Brand Partnerships MYA MIRARI Coordinator, Advertising & Brand Partnerships REEMA THARANI Junior Manager, Advertising & Brand Partnerships
ART RAINE BASCOS Executive Creative Director BEN WARD Creative Director CHRISTOPHER HARRITY HARRITY Editor at Large, Digital Art PRINT PRODUCTION JOHN LEWIS Production Director DESIRÉE GUERRERO Production Editor PRIDE MEDIA EDITORIAL TRACY E. GILCHRIST Editor in Chief, The Advocate JOHN CASEY, ALEX COOPER Editors at Large RACHEL SHATTO Associate Editor MEY RUDE Staff Writer DANIEL REYNOLDS Editor in Chief, Out RAFFY ERMAC Digital Director, Out.com NEAL BROVERMAN Editor in Chief, Plus and Editor in Chief, Advocate.com TAYLOR HENDERSON Digital Director, Pride JEFFREY MASTERS Director, Podcasts and Special Projects EDITORIAL INQUIRIES editor@outtraveler.com
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Barry Hoy is a Canadian travel writer transplanted to New York City who takes us to Florida’s Key West (page 37) in this issue. He’s also collaborating with his partner, Teraj, on a video series for OutTraveler.com. The host of Gay Travel Today, Teraj is also a musician with over 1 million streams from his album, DEFY. They document their adventures at Pride events where Teraj also performs. @asianmapleleaf and @teraj08 San Francisco-based Robin Lowey founded the lesbian site, Epochalips.com. Her award-winning book, Game Changers: Lesbians You Should Know About, includes Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend founder Mariah Hansen, who Lowey interviewed for Out Traveler (page 68). @lesbiangamechangers The Amazing Race winners Will Jardell and James Wallington have been on the road for Out Traveler's Get Back Out There video series. The couple gives us a sneak peek at two of the show’s stops: Portland, Ore. (page 34) and New Orleans (where they won Amazing Race, got engaged, and were married before Hurricane Ida hit). Find out more on OutTraveler.com. @itswillandjames Before embarking on any travel suggested in Out Traveler, please check the latest travel restrictions and recommendations — especially around COVID-19. Stay safe!
COURTESY SUBJECT (ALL)
MASTHEAD
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For those of us still stuck armchair traveling, Louis Vuitton’s long tradition of beautifully crafted travelinspired products gives us something to dream about. Over 160 years after Louis Vuitton began exploring new ideas around travel, the Objets Nomades collection proves the brand still has a sense of adventure. Paying homage to the brand’s designs of the past and today, and created by renowned designers, the stunning Objets Nomades and Petits Nomades collections are swoon worthy. Here’s one of our faves.
The Lantern
This lantern—from the Treviso, Italy-based design duo Zanellato/Bortotto—continue the duos’ reinterpretation of artisanal techniques, with a blown glass light dome and honeycomb-patterned cage of interwoven leather strips inspired by beehives. It puts off a warm, romantic glow when lit, but it’s a modern rechargeable LED light. Details were inspired by Louis Vuitton handbags, including the carrying strap and the three brass “feet,” that protect the leather base. The lanterns are made to be used indoors, but they make us think of long fall nights cuddling under the stars.– DA M
COURTESY LOUIS VUITTON
CARRY ON
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seize
the stay membership without the dues upgrades without the charge SPirit Hour without the check
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AROUND THE GLOBE
Travelers Beware
These Caribbean countries still ban gay sex. Though rarely enforced, the Caribbean islands of Saint Lucia and Saint Kitts and Nevis (the latter are two islands but one country) have yet to legalize same-sex sexual relations. Instead, both countries still have laws on the books which ban and punish such acts between consenting adults, and which can carry a punishment of up to 10 years in prison. “You are not safe,” a 20-year-old man from Saint Kitts and Nevis told Human Rights Watch. “You have to hide who you are” or otherwise folks will “get physical.” Cristian González Cabrera, LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement, “Laws criminalizing same-sex conduct reinforce prejudices and provide social and legal sanction for discrimination, violence, and prejudice against LGBT people. Saint Lucia and Saint Kitts and Nevis should heed the recommendations of UN member states and provide their residents protection on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. LGBT people are part of the social fabric of the island nations and deserve the same respect and rights as everyone else.” — DP
Lena Waithe Takes on Outdoors So White Out actor, filmmaker, and advocate Lena Waithe (Master of None) has been tapped to co-lead The North Face’s new Explore Fund Council. The fund has been around for more than a decade, incentivizing outdoor participation through grants to various nonprofits, but North Face wanted to do more. The new council gives voice to traditionally underrepresented communities to increase access to nature and outdoor recreation that has been predominantly seen as the domain of cis, straight, white Americans. Waithe joins Academy Award-winning director Jimmy Chin (Free Solo) to distribute $7 million in grants to organizations that will help Black, Indigenous, and other people of color venture outdoors in greater numbers. Eric Raymond, The North Face’s director of social impact and advocacy, says they recruited Waithe to represent and speak to those traditionally outside the outdoor industry. “Lena’s experience in Hollywood is incredibly valuable,” Raymond says. “She brings a unique perspective on how to impact culture, create opportunities, and tell stories.” The fund has already helped thousands of BIPOC experience the benefits of nature. The star power of those involved in this new effort will introduce even more folks to the joy of adventuring into the great outdoors.
Living on the Edge The Lesbian Bar Project is a fundraising and education effort founded by legendary lesbian actress Lea DeLaria. It began in 2020 to crowdfund for the 21 lesbian bars remaining in the United States, as they faced the unprecedented economic onslaught of the lockdown. Keeping those bars alive is about more than just keeping their (usually) lesbian owners and staff in business. As Lesbian Bar Project notes in their appeal, “Without space, we lose power, validity, communal safety, and access to intergenerational dialogue.” DeLaria also produced a short documentary about the plight of lesbian bars. Although fundraising efforts continue, the focus seems to have shifted from collecting individual donations to engaging corporate partners like dating app Hinge, which donated $50,000 to the cause this summer. Ultimately, the best support is getting customers back into brick and mortar bars; until then, many are trying to keep connections and community alive online. —JACOB ANDERSON-MINSHALL
— DONA LD PA DGET T
DANIEL BOCZARSKI/GETTY IMAGES (WAITHE); ALEXI ROSENFELD/GETTY IMAGES (CUBBYHOLE)
The star joins Jimmy Chin and North Face to increase BIPOC presence.
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COURTESY ASHER & LYRIC (MAP); COURTESY LESBIAN BAR PROJECT
You’re The Worst For their exhaustively researched index of the Worst (and Best) Countries for LGBTQ+ Travel, Asher & Lyric (Asher Fergusson from Sydney, Australia and Lyric Fergusson from Los Angeles) carefully examined LGBTQ+ rights for each of the 150 most-visited countries in the world. “We created our LGBTQ+ travel safety index based on a total of nine ranking factors,” the couple explains in their report. “We worked with academic researcher, Eliot Assoudeh PhD., to design the methodology and crossreference all data. We utilized a mixed methods research design to create the index. In this year’s update we also added transgender legal identity laws which weren’t included in our original 2019 study.” This map visually demonstrates that LGBTQ+ rights aren’t well protected in Russia, Africa, and the Middle East. Every traveler will assess their tolerance for risk before leaving home and plan accordingly, but Asher & Lyric believe we should all be armed with the data we need.—JAM
The Last Remaining 21 Lesbian Bars in America A League of Her Own, Washington, D.C. Alibi’s, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Babes of Carytown, Richmond, Virginia Blush & Blu, Denver, Colorado Boycott Bar, Phoenix, Arizona Cubbyhole, Manhattan, New York Frankie’s, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Ginger’s, Brooklyn, New York Gossip Grill, San Diego, California Henrietta Hudson, Manhattan, New York Herz, Mobile, Alabama
My Sister’s Room, Atlanta, Georgia Pearl Bar, Houston, Texas Slammers, Columbus, Ohio Sue Ellen’s, Dallas, Texas The Backdoor, Bloomington, Indiana The Lipstick Lounge, Nashville, Tennessee Walker’s Pint, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Wildrose, Seattle, Washington Wildside West, San Francisco, California Yellow Brick Road Pub – Tulsa, Oklahoma Source: Lesbian Bar Project (lesbianbarproject.com)
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Cruising Melissa Etheridge
A week in Caribbean waters with the lesbian rocker! In 2016, when Melissa Etheridge launched her first fan cruise, she was surprised at what she got out of it. “It was actually more of an experience for me,” she told Out Traveler earlier this year. “I think my fans had a great time, but just being there, realizing that there’s actually 3,500 people that really want to spend a week with you on a boat. And how freeing it was just to do all the songs I wanted.” That gave Etheridge the opportunity to have different interactions with fans than she does performing at stadiums on tours. And it’s what’s brought her back for what will be her fourth cruise. Produced by Sixthman, Melissa Etheridge Cruise IV sets sails aboard the Norwegian Jewel November 12-18, 2021, traveling from Miami to Great Stirrup Cay, Ocho Rios, and Nassau. This year, Etheridge has something special planned, with special guest star multi-platinum singer-songwriter Jewel co-headlining the cruise. In addition to promised Melissa-Jewel duets, passengers will also be serenaded by Dorothy, Shawn Colvin, Lucy Spraggan, Wendy Moten, Sonia Leigh, Antigone Rising, and many others. (themelissaetheridgecruise.com) —JACOB A NDERSON-MINSH A LL
COMING ATTRACTIONS
Bucket List. Check. Next year take a once-in-a-lifetime safari, cruise, or adventure.
A Gay Winter Wonderland Aspen’s original LGTBQ+ ski week returns to queer the slopes for its 45th anniversary. Go on safari with your chosen family on Olivia’s 11-day/10night South Africa Adventure. This exciting adventure starts in Cape Town and visits Franschhoek, Cape Winelands, the Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve, Kruger National Park, and more before ending in Johannesburg. You’ll see the natural wonders of South Africa, while also enjoying wine tastings and visiting cultural sites with primarily lesbian travelers. The tour departs April 17, 2022, and includes all accommodations, group transfers, most meals, some alcoholic beverages, gratuities, and more. (olivia.com)
If you’re tired of the stress of daily life, then head to the 5-star Oasis at Andaz Papagayo resort on VACAYA’s 8-day/7night Costa Rica tour (June 5-12, 2022). The resort sits on 1,400 acres of lush tropical rainforest with stunning views of Culebra Bay. Whether you join the LGBTQ+ vacation to learn to paddleboard and surf, relax by one of the resort’s four pools with a book and cocktail, pamper yourself at the spa, or party into the night with friends and family at one of the multiple bars and lounges, this amazing oasis on Costa Rica’s north Pacific coast just might be the escape you crave. (myvacaya.com)
Break out your speedo, sunscreen, and copy of Homer’s Odyssey for an epic adventure cruising the Mediterranean Sea on the Atlantis Odyssey Med Cruise. This absolutely gay cruise sets sail August 21-30, 2022, onboard the brandnew 4,200-guest Odyssey of the Sea. Starting in Rome with stops in Naples, the Greek Isles, Sicily, and Corsica (the birthplace of Napoleon), the cruise has just the right mix of destinations and onboard activities and promises to be your own epic voyage of discovery. (atlantisevents.com)
Windstar Cruises’ The Grand European Bucket List Adventure, is an exclusive, 79-day cruise from Stockholm to Istanbul onboard their newest yacht, the all-suite Star Legend. With only 312 guests onboard this smaller luxury vessel, you’re certain to receive top-notch service and attention with little problem practicing responsible social distancing while onboard. The cruise visits 71 ports in 22 countries with multiple overnights when it sets sail on July 25, 2023. (windstarcruises.com)
Wax up your Pride rainbow skis and start making plans now because Aspen’s Gay Ski Week is just around the corner. The nation’s longest running LGBTQ-themed ski week runs January 17-24, 2022 — and promises plenty of fun on and off the slopes. The 45th edition will feature some of the best skiing and snowboarding in the country. Still a snow sports virgin? No problem! There will be plenty of parties and live music, not to mention mountaintop yoga, history hikes, art exhibits, and drag queen bingo. You can also sample some of the country’s best dining and spirits at Aspen, Colorado’s 80 restaurants and drinking establishments. Best of all, Aspen Gay Ski Week raises funds for AspenOUT (aspenout.org), a local nonprofit group that promotes tolerance and combats bullying. So, you’ll be doing your part to help the queer community while having an amazing time with great friends. What could be better? (gayskiweek.com)—DP
COURTESY MELISSA ETHERIDGE CRUISE; TAMARA MALESEVIC/GETTY IMAGES (SOUTH AFRICA); JOHN COLETTI/GETTY IMAGES (COSTA RICA); JOSE LUIS PELAEZ/GETTY IMAGES (ATLANTIS); COURTESY WINDSOR CRUISES; LUKAS (ASPEN GAY SKI WEEK)
By Donald Padgett
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PICTURED Worcester Royal Porcelain Co., Worcester (manufacturer) Aesthetic Teapot 1882 porcelain, 15.4 × 17.5 × 8.5 cm (overall). The Dr. Robert Wilson Collection. Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr. Robert Wilson, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2002
The Queen’s Queer
The National Gallery of Victoria International, Melbourne, Australia, is staging the biggest LGBTQ+ themed show in that nation’s history, opening this December. Queer includes more than 300 works of art pulled from deep within the museum’s archives. Pieces range from antiquity to the present day, making the exhibition the most historically expansive thematic presentation of its kind put on by an Australian art institution. Rather than soliciting new works from LGBTQ+ artists, the curators chose to explore the gallery’s extensive collection from a queer perspective, to “interpret queer concepts and stories in surprising and thought-provoking ways,” according to NGV director Tony Ellwood. The collection includes everything from an Ancient Greek vase picturing male warriors embraced in combat and sex to a selfportrait by South African nonbinary photographer Zanele Muholito, to less explicitly queer pieces like this fey, quintessentially British (Empire) teapot. The exhibit, Queer, runs December 10, 2021, to June 2022. —JAM
Destination: Imagination You don’t need to hit the road when you have a great travel book.
COURTESY NGV FOUNDATION (TEAPOT)
COURTESY MELISSA ETHERIDGE CRUISE; TAMARA MALESEVIC/GETTY IMAGES (SOUTH AFRICA); JOHN COLETTI/GETTY IMAGES (COSTA RICA); JOSE LUIS PELAEZ/GETTY IMAGES (ATLANTIS); COURTESY WINDSOR CRUISES; LUKAS (ASPEN GAY SKI WEEK)
By Donald Padgett
Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America by Candacy A. Taylor is an examination of the famed publication that listed establishments serving Black patrons from 1936 to 1966 during the era of Jim Crow and segregation in the Deep South. Overground reveals the personal stories behind many of these establishments and is filled with both archival and the author’s own photos. A young adult version is due out next year. (Abrams)
Around the World in 80 Trains: A 45,000-Mile Adventure by Monisha Rajesh is the story of one woman’s quest to circumnavigate the world via train. Rather than just provide a guide for each train she rode, Rajesh instead centers the human experiences that made her journeys truly unique. She takes readers along through Russia, China, North Korea, and Mongolia. (Bloomsbury)
To Shake the Sleeping Self: A Quest for a Life with No Regret by Jedidiah Jenkins is the story of one gay man’s journey riding a bike from the beaches of Oregon to the southernmost tip of South America. Throwing aside a successful yet unsatisfying career, Jenkins took a break from that world and ultimately found himself and what truly matters in life in the process. Originally published in 2018, To Shake the Sleeping Self is now available in paperback. (Rider)
Subpar Parks: America’s Most Extraordinary National Parks and Their Least Impressed by Amber Share celebrates the natural beauty of the National Park system and the unbelievably clueless reviews by lessthan-impressed visitors. Subpar Parks effortlessly seams photographs and illustrations that capture the breathtaking beauty of our National Parks along with hilarious and head-scratching reviews of those who clearly don’t know a good thing when they see it. (Plume Books)
Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States by the former Mormon missionary-turnedtransgender reporter Samantha Allen is a road trip through the red state America that she loves, revealing stories of LGBTQ+ folks who are surviving and thriving everywhere from the Utah to the Deep South. Queer America is filled with authentic stories from red-state queers who will inspire you as much as they make you laugh out loud. (Little, Brown and Company)
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Not Grandma’s Fanny Pack
It’s time to stop mocking belt bags and accept we love them, especially this wide and stylish Karl Lagerfeld Paris Amour nylon belt bag. ($98, karllagerfeldparis.com)
OUT GEAR
Fall By The Seaside Last chance for beaches and autumn hikes before winter’s chill sets in. Here’s our favorite take-alongs.
Skip His Baggage
Curating luggage of your own, mixing and matching colors, adding initials, and much more is a breeze with Roam. And suitcases stay durable for years. (Prices vary, roamluggage.com)
BY DIANE ANDERSON-MINSHALL
Walking on Rainbows
These TEVA all-gender Rainbow Sandals show your pride and support the company’s HRC donation. Perfect option for Arena Festival, Mexico’s LGBTQ+ music festival on the Riviera Maya in February 2022 (arena.mx). ($65, teva.com)
Off to a Swank Resort?
Mix it up with airy suits, instead of traditional resort wear. London-based fashion brand COS has relaxed, comfortable essentials in muted but lux colors. The Tailored Blazer and Pants (shown here on filmmaker, writer, and activist Adesuwa Aighewi) class up dinner. (Prices vary, cosstores.com)
High Energy Eats
Kate’s Real Food Snack Bites are made by bike racer/ skier/girl boss CEO Kate Schade with delish organic ingredients, sustainably made in the OT ed chief’s rural home state. Score the dark chocolate cherry and almond treats if you can. ($15, katesrealfood.com)
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One Toke Over the Line
Dry herb fans know that different state laws can make traveling with cannabis risky business. This lux Vessel Eclipse Kit may be a solution. The “just-add-flower” kit is a style elevation for purists with a handcrafted one-hitter chillum with a sandblasted, smoked glass finish, a carbon lighter that’s a work of art, and a smell-free and waterproof stash jar in anodized aluminum. (But, don’t risk carrying cannabis when traveling to states where it isn’t legal.) ($99, vesselbrand.com)
Feel a Bit Like Carson Crane
The Mountainsmith Tour Lumbar Pack takes the weight off your shoulders and places it on your hips — a godsend for anyone with back problems who can’t wear traditional backpacks. This rugged, long-lasting day pack has plenty of storage room and works as well at Coachella as does on the Appalachian Trail. Optional backstraps provide greater stability. ($90, rei.com)
The King of Coolers
There are people who would never pay $800 for a cooler. The retro meets futuristic Yeti V Series Hard Cooler in stainless steel is not for them — but it is awesome. This Yeti combines two icons: the cold holding power of the brand’s drinkware (our editors have had ice stay frozen more than 48 hours in their steel tumblers) and the style of their iconic Tundra Cooler. Plus, you’ll never need another styrene-leaching Styrofoam cooler again. ($800, yeti.com)
Winter Ready Threads
KARIM SADLI (COS); COURTESY MAKER (ALL OTHERS)
DKNY’s Fall puffer jackets are not for wallflowers. Be bold, not basic. (Prices vary, donnakaran.com)
Tough AF Socks
Wear a pair of these Hiker Micro Crew Cushion Socks from Darn Tough on the trails and you might just go home and throw away your entire sock drawer (like our managing editor did)! The 61 percent Merino wool blend keeps your feet comfy and dry and eliminates that post-hike boot stank. The best part? Take them off and wash inside-out to prevent pilling. ($24, darntough.com)
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Ultimate Travel Tee
Unbound Merino claims their T-shirt can go over 30 days without washing since Merino wool is naturally resistant to odors, sweat, and bacteria. The 100 percent wool V-neck is soft (not scratchy), comfortable enough for a day sailing and hiking, but still stylish enough for dinner out. It’s light, and it definitely stayed fresh for a week of adventuring. ($75, unboundmerino.com)
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DAY TRIPPING
Go for the Art. Stay for the Tacos. Barrio Logan is San Diego’s joyful celebration of Chicano culture. By Desirée Guerrero
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nly a two-hour drive south of Los Angeles, San Diego offers southern California locals the perfect one-day getaway with its eclectic array of unique neighborhoods to explore. One well worth the drive is Barrio Logan, located just south of the barand club-filled Gaslamp District and a short Uber ride from San Diego’s lively gayborhood, Hillcrest. The barrio’s former industrial strip is now alive with galleries and art collectives in converted old warehouses. Popular eateries and beautifully colorful public art line the street. Yet the neighborhood is a welcome reprieve from the square-icecubed cocktails served by mustached hipsters we’ve come to expect from many gentrified hotspots.
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EXPLORE One of the biggest highlights of Barrio Logan is its amazing collection of public art, particularly in Chicano Park (far left), which sits at the north end of the neighborhood. Every inch of the huge freeway overpasses that arc high over the park are covered in luscious Latinx and Indigenous-themed murals. Art bursts from everywhere, spilling over onto just about every nearby wall, trash can, or other surface. The barrio’s Mexican roots and Chicano/Chicana (aka Mexican-American) culture permeates all aspects of life here, and much of the art speaks of past political movements and struggles of the area’s MexicanAmerican and Indigenous communities. From the park, you’ll want to saunter south down Logan Street to discover a bevy of art galleries and collectives, unique shops, street vendors, taquerias, breweries, and more. Stop at La Bodega, which is constantly hosting exhibitions and events that uplift and support Latinx artists, and the iN Gallery, which features modern figurative work. Monthly Barrio Art Crawls and weekly Walk the Barrio events are a great opportunity to take in the scene, chat with local artists and gallery owners, and pick up some unique handmade souvenirs or snacks from street vendors.
COURTESY FACEBOOK (BORDER X BREWING); DESIRÉE GUERRERO (ALL OTHERS)
GRUB & PUB Whether you need a nice breakfast before exploring town or are looking for dinner, drinks, and ambiance after taking in the sights, the barrio has plenty to tempt your tastebuds and quench your thirst. In the morning, hit up Por Vida for the best Mexican coffee and pan dulce in town (I highly recommend the De la Olla Latte with orange peel, cinnamon, and clove). It’s worth the visit simply to marvel at the gorgeous Frida Kahlo-themed murals inside. For a heartier breakfast or lunch nearby, Maggie’s Café and Las Cuatro Milpas are sure bets to satisfy your belly. When you’re ready for dinner and drinks, and perhaps a little nightlife, Border X Brewing (left) is a good place to start (or end up at), with its large street-front patio offering the perfect place to sit back, relax, enjoy a tasty tomahawk taco and craft beer flight, and watch the lowriders cruise by. Across the way is ¡Salud!, known for its amazing tacos, authentic eloté (street corn), and gourmet cocktails (try the Hooch Horchata). Though they offer plenty of traditional tacos — birria (goat) and el pastor (spicy pork) — they have vegan options, like their delicious papa (potato) tacos. DJs or live music are common in most establishments in the evenings, so you can get your salsa on. CRUISE As the sun begins to set and afternoon makes way for evening, you’ll start to notice one of the coolest things about Barrio Logan — cruising. By the late afternoon on weekends, Logan Street (bottom and far left) is lined end-to-end with a stunning collection of classic lowrider cars showing off their impressive hydraulics and glittering paintjobs, while bumping oldies from tricked-out audio systems. The people-watching is great too, as here the more Chicano your style, the better. Think tattoos and crisp white tees, gold chains and Nikes, tube tops paired with creased Dickies, impeccably drawn eyebrows, and very cool hats. Chicano style is always clean and tailored but mixed with street fashion in a way that is truly unique to the MexicanAmerican culture of Southern California. Cruising Logan definitely had me wanting to bust out my own white tennies and J-Lo hoops. Ultimately, with so much to discover all within walking distance, Barrio Logan is the perfect excuse to venture away from your usual stomping grounds and soak in the colorful art, style, and flavors of this hidden cultural gem of San Diego.
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OUTFITTED
The
world is waiting be discover Why not do it in style? By Desirée Guerrero
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eady to start exploring the world again? The great outdoors beckon — and look no further than the free-spirited The North Face x Gucci collab when deciding what to bring on your next big adventure. In celebration of the spirit of discovery, adventure outfitters The North Face write that the gender-swappable styles of the line explore “the deeper parallels between the two brands in equipping those who seek adventure, challenging the status quo, and quests for self-expression.” Its outerwear silhouettes and branded camping gear are inspired by original North Face designs from the 1970s. Colorful seventies-inspired prints give life to jackets, vests, bombers, and jumpsuits. The collection also features ready-to-wear travel accessories and equipment like sleeping bags, tents, and luggage to ensure you’ll be the chicest campers on the mountain. All pieces sport a special logo created just for the collaboration, which combines The North Face’s half-dome with Gucci’s famous green and red stripes. The brands had synergy in mission too, both are dedicated to decreasing their ecological footprint, using recyclable materials in fabrics and packaging. All looks The North Face x Gucci.
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ting to
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OUTFITTED Fashion meets Function: The North Face x Gucci collection features everything from parkas to backpacks to tents
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The North Face x Gucci collaboration is full of fun, colorful, ’70s-inspired prints and silhouettes
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OUTFITTED
The Golden Age of Travel
Louis Vuitton unveils a men’s collection capitalizing on the luxury brand’s roots. By Jacob Anderson-Minshall
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n t he golden age of commercial av iat ion (195 0 s a nd ’6 0 s), f l y i n g wa s a g la morous affair. Passengers dressed to the nines a nd hostesses ser ved fa nc y c o c k t a i l s a nd b e aut i f u l meals. Louis Vuitton’s Men’s Fall/Winter 2021 reignites that glamour with a fashion collection inspired by both our nostalgia for unfettered movement and a time when travel was recognized as the privilege it is. It is also fitting for a fashion house whose founder first emerged as a maker of fine steamer trunks. What a fabulous way to celebrate that heritage while also breathing new life into the fashion of travel! All clothing and accessories by Louis Vuitton Men’s.
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Bali, Indonesia Mutiara Fitriani and Inka inspired by the fairytale beauty that makes up Indonesia. OUTTRAVELER.COM 25
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VENTURE OUT
Against All Odds
A new film follows a trans woman’s quest be the first person to kayak solo around Iceland—against the current.
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ver 4,000 people have successfully climbed Mount Everest. Nearly 4 0 0 have sum m it ted the dramatically more difficult and dangerous K2, the world’s second highest peak. And barely over a dozen people have successfully circumnavigated Iceland in a kayak, with even fewer having made it around the sub-arctic island nation solo kayaking on their own. Attempts at that feat are rare thanks to a perfect storm of unpredictable weather, the short summer season, and the unforgiving North Atlantic Ocean that surrounds the island on all sides. Many previous attempts have ended in tragedy. The new documentary, Against the Current, chronicles the efforts of an Icelandic woman, Veiga Grétarsdóttir, as she attempts to become the first person in history to solo circumnavigate her native land in a kayak while paddling against the current. She happens to be transgender. The comparison with summitting one of the world’s highest peaks comes from someone who knows from experience, Guðni Páll Voktorsson, one of the few
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Icelandic kayakers who has successfully circled the island. He calls Grétarsdóttir’s attempt to paddle 1,300 miles while battling the current, the equivalent of summiting K2. Just keeping up with the calories burned during long days of paddling can be a constant fight. Burning 5-7,000 calories a day Voktorsson says you’d need to eat 100 Snickers bars to keep up. It is not a journey for the faint of heart. Covering the story, one newscaster says, “Of course, there will be a boat following you, in case something happens.” “No,” Grétarsdóttir replies in her usual, almost brusque manner. She is a woman of few words. “I’ll be on my own.” And so she is. She’s alone, except for a friend who accompanies her for a few days, and the filmmaker Óskar Páll Sveinsson who follows her journey, sometimes tracking her GPS, other times literally driving along the coast to follow her path and gather drone footage. “He just followed me,” Grétarsdóttir recalls. “Day after day, sometimes he had a boat, but mostly he was just doing interviews on land and using his drone.” There’s a point in the film where Grétarsdóttir is centered on the screen.
She talks about kayaking alongside Látrabjarg, one of Europe’s largest seabird cliffs. It is home to millions of birds (many of them puffins). The camera zooms out and the drone flies farther and farther out to sea. Grétarsdóttir becomes a small spec in the frame — and still we cannot see the top of the cliff. It’s a powerful scene, even on a small screen. This is Iceland’s South Coast. While the beauty of the cliffs is undeniable, so is its danger. Few beaches exist along the unscalable cliffs, and most of those are easily consumed by tides. Reaching one of the few precious places to pull ashore requires battling ferocious winds and pounding surf. It is on t he Sout h Coa s t t hat Grétarsdóttir’s unflagging confidence slips for a moment and she feels genuine fear. “There was one moment, yeah,” she admits. “I never thought I would not make it, but it was a time I was just paddling around cliffs and there was no place to land because this is just rocks. It’s [7-foot-high] waves. It was foggy out. I couldn’t see anything. I was just paddling off the GPS. And I started thinking, What the fuck are you doing here alone?”
COURTESY ZEITGEIST FILMS (BOTH PAGES)
By Jacob Anderson-Minshall
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As soon as she had that thought, she says, “I got scared. So, I had to take a break. Start breathing deeply. Doing a little bit of meditation. Talking to myself: You can do this. I just calmed myself down, and after about 15 minutes, I was just fine.” As the days go by and Grétarsdóttir continues to face and overcome difficult challenges alone, her confidence thoroughly returns. To pass one particularly difficult section of coastland, she must paddle almost 30 miles across open ocean, far from land. Her longest day is 13 hours of dipping paddles into water, over and over. Thirteen long hours alone with her thoughts, and the omnipresent landmass of Iceland which, with its dramatic scenery, is the other big star in this documentary film. Time is compressed in Against the Current and the venture’s 103 days pass quickly, especially interspersed with the story of Grétarsdóttir’s own coming out and gender transition. It was bittersweet for the athlete, as her marriage did not survive.
“I had a wife to die for,” she recalls. “And I was losing her.” It’s clear that that heartbreak still weighs heavily on Grétarsdóttir, but she has made peace with it. And with Iceland. Jus t before she completes her jou r ne y, Grétarsdóttir talks about the feat she’s just accomplished, and compares it to transitioning. Two challenging journeys she faced on her own, two exhausting ordeals she survived. And at the end of each is a homecoming. Coming home to a body that authentically reflects her gender for the first time, and returning home from a long, arduous odyssey. For Grétarsdóttir, home is once again the small fishing village of 2,500 people where she grew up. It’s a place she left and “felt I would never be able to come here again because everybody would attack
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SAVOR
Chef Michael Twitty and Colonial Williamsburg explore the Black and queer contributions to America and its culinary traditions.
There’s a rich and largely unknown stor y about the contributions from Black and LGBTQ+ Americans to the creation of our country during the colonial era. Those legacies include much of what we now cherish as American cuisine, as gay chef Michael Twitty explains in his awardwinning book, The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South. Twitty describes The Cooking Gene as “a blend of culinary history, personal memoir, and social commentary sprinkled with a few recipes.” He chose this approach for a simple
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Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia
BRET HARTMAN (TWITTY) ; TOSHIO KISHIYAMA-GETTY IMAGES(WILLIAMSBURG)
Deep Roots
reason. “I wanted my whole being represented,” he told our sister publication The Advocate earlier this year. “I’m an African-American, I’m gay, I’m Jewish, I’m of Southern heritage, I’m a bear, I’m all of these things crossing paths. And I wanted to write a book that responded to that history and those stories in a precise and personal way.” Twitty traces Southern cooking and his own heritage back through the lives of enslaved Black people (and white plantation owners), back through the Great Passage, back to Mother Africa. He now helps others do this genealogical work as well, and he says exploring the culinary traditions of one’s historical homeland is different than doing so as a tourist. He says, “The first thing you look for are familiar smells and flavors. The trip to the local openair market is usually the ice breaker. The street food, the tone of the arguments, the gestures of hospitality and altruism get you ‘back home,’ to a place you’ve spiritually been, but not physically. We get cooking, we haul in fishing nets, we learn how traditional ingredients are made, and we round all of that out with naming ceremonies and other activities that bring us back into the fold.” While Africans brought many of their traditional recipes with them to America, they became innovators here as well. It’s a history begging to be rediscovered. Twitty’s advice for reconnecting with our ignored history is to “Explore alternative spaces that honor local cultures and oppressed and marginalized communities. Look around... how are people treated? Which museums tell the truth?” Twitty is helping to create an alternative space and further truth-telling by collaborating with Colonial Williamsburg to increase awareness of the role of Africans in colonial-era society. He helped establish the Sankofa African Virginian Garden at Colonial Williamsburg to demonstrate what free and enslaved Black gardeners cultivated (for themselves and white settlers).
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Twitty says this “tells us more about their humanity. It tells us about their agency and entrepreneurship as well as power and resistance. These were people not property.” He continues, “Sankofa is about showing the African presence on the land, especially in a place where 52 percent of the population [of the city of Williamsburg], was Black and just miles from the port where their parents or grandparents came from the continent.” Earlier this year Twitty celebrated the Sankofa harvest but he says the garden’s real “fruitfulness lies in visitors seeing the plants and having deeper conversations about the enduring impact of these spaces on food, music, culture, and spiritual and medicinal practices.” Twitty has also performed consultancy work with Colonial Williamsburg, saying “it’s been a wonderful evolving relationship that has widened opportunities to explore early African-American history.” Just as the living museum has increased its representation of Africans and their contribution to early America, so has Colonial Williamsburg recently dedicated a team to discover the queer history of the pre-1776 period.
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation formed a Gender and Sexual Diversity Research Committee to uncover the history and personal stories of queer Williamsburg that were often hidden in plain sight. Ren Tolson of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation believes the reason people know so little about LGBTQ+ contributions to American history is because few experts ever looked for those contributions. This lack of scholarly interest in early American queer history means many people just assume it never existed, but LGBTQ+ people can be found throughout this nation’s history. For example, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand von Steuben, the Prussian military expert hired by George Washington to turn an undisciplined and demoralized Continental Army into an effective fighting force, was also an out gay man, according to many scholars. It’s taken over two centuries to for us to learn of Black and queer contributions to American history, but, thanks to the efforts of those like Twitty and the researchers at Colonial Williamsburg, the truth is finally being told. —DP
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DESTINATIONS
America
Traveling without roaming too far.
ELODIE LO VAN/UNSPLASH
Travel can be complicated these days, but the great thing about living in America is that we have an enormous country to explore, one with surprising regional flavors that are all worth tasting. Whether you just venture out into your own town, go on a road trip with a friend, or take to the air to go coast to coast, you’ll find something that engages your senses, teaches you, and leaves you with memories to share. To celebrate the possibilities of travel in the United States, our writers visit Portland, Vegas, and New Orleans — and spend some time in South Florida. Join us.
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Overton, NV Valley of Fire
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LAS VEGAS
Vegas Keeps Its Cool
Sin City may have been shaken, but visitors will still be stirred. By Neal Broverman
2 Las Vegas Strip
If there’s any place ready to put troubles in the rearview mirror, it’s Las Vegas. Adept at forgetting the past, the tourism mecca is all about moving forward, not looking back. It was one of the first destinations to reopen with safety protocols, and later reluctantly imposed new indoor mask mandates. But even amid all the whiplash of the last year and a half, Vegas has seen numerous openings that make slipping on that face-covering well worth it. Downtown Las Vegas’s first new ground-up hotel-casino in over 40 years cut its ribbon in late 2020. Adding to an already resurgent downtown, Circa Resort & Casino opens right onto the quirky and entertaining Fremont Street Experience, a five-block pedestrian promenade. Circa touts huge sports betting facilities and an expansive pool
stadium, but we found its restaurants the biggest draw. Don’t miss 8 East, a fantastic Asian fusion from the guys behind the city’s iconic Le Thai restaurant. Meanwhile, Saginaw’s Delicatessen, open 24 hours, has some of the best latkes, lox, and pastrami outside of New York City. Circa owner Derek Stevens has a deep love for old-school Vegas, apparent in the resort’s retro steakhouse, Barry’s Downtown Prime, and the salvaged iconic Vegas Vickie (1) neon sign, which now hangs over an eponymously named cocktail lounge. Circa’s rooftop Legacy Club, boasts 360-degree views of the city. Circa, being more modern than other DTLV resorts, feels more welcoming to queer travelers than some dingier downtown casinos, but your Grindr or Tinder may not be popping off like
JEAN PHILIPPE DELBERGHE/UNSPLASH (NEON MUSEUM); COURTESY CIRCA (VEGAS VICKIE BAR); COURTESY LVCVA (AERIAL)
Neon Boneyard
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Queers Made Vegas Vegas LGBTQ+ folks put the glitz in Sin City. By Jacob Anderson-Minshall
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PETER RUPRECHT (AREA 51); BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES (LIBERACE)
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it does on the Strip (2). Move south, to the city’s Arts District, and explore The Garden from Vegas nightlife legend Eduardo Cordova. Elegant and sexy, this indoor/outdoor bar has filled a niche in a city that has lost many of its major gay nightclubs in the past few years. There’s food, a drag brunch (Coco Montrese performs there), and bottle service on Friday and Saturday nights. Celebrities (including Cher) are known to swing by, but most attendees dress casual yet chic. Keep moving south and you’ll hit Resorts World. The new mega-resort that opened this year counts Las Vegas Hilton among its 3,500+ rooms and a myriad of restaurants, including an Asian street food dining hall. Celine Dion, who decamped from Caesars Palace, will be the resort’s first residency in November, followed by Carrie Underwood and Katy Perry. Lady Gaga will return to Park MGM for her acclaimed Jazz & Piano. The unforgettable Area 51 (3) is an art experience that has to be seen to be believed. Inside are Meow Wolf and Omega Mart, immersive experiences with giant neon creations and virtual reality opportunities. It is a fantastic commentary on consumerism that is thought-provoking not preachy. Luxor’s Temptation Sundays is the city’s longest running LGBTQ+ pool party. Sipping a cocktail while surrounded by smiling queers from around the world — that you can actually see and possibly touch — will make you forget both the pandemic and the desert heat.
Las Vegas announces its fabulousness on the giant welcome sign that ushers visitors to the Nevada desert’s most popular oasis. Vegas is the reigning drag queen of American cities, with a wardrobe to die for and body built for sashaying down catwalks. Sin City’s very history is infused with an anything goes attitude. Sure, that was initially about gambling, drinking, and debauchery. But just as New Orleans’s laissez faire attitude provided an environment where LGBTQ+ people could exist and even thrive, so did Vegas. And as the destination matured from a gaming town into the “Entertainment Capital of the World,” the queer community boomed with it. One could even argue that the thriving queer community made Vegas what is today, rather than the other way around. Liberace and Siegfried and Roy are prime examples of gay celebrities whose flamboyance became synonymous with Vegas. From the 1950s to the ’70s, while Liberace had his residency in Vegas, he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world. Just as Vegas is known for tearing down its past to build bigger and glitzier casinos, Liberace kept upping his game, wearing increasingly exotic costumes, draping himself in ostrich feathers and mink capes — and creating more spectacle in his shows, from being chauffeured onstage in a Rolls-Royce to incorporating chorus girls, animal acts, and even flying (via a secured cable) into his choreography. Other lesser-known LGBTQ+ artists joined the big shows in town, from Cirque du Soleil to Broadway tours, to showgirls, male revues, and drag cabarets. Jahna Steele, a Vegas showgirl with the Riviera Casino’s Crazy Girls revue in the late 1980s, was voted “Sexiest Showgirl on the Strip” in 1991. The following year, she was outed as a trans woman on national TV (on A Current Affair). LGBTQ+ people been putting the Vegas in Vegas even back when audience members didn’t realize the dazzle was brought to them courtesy of the city’s queer and trans folks. The city’s former motto, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” played up the accepting atmosphere of the adult playground, where travelers could try anything, or be anyone for a night or a week, and then return to their relatively sedate lives back home. In other words, straight tourists go to Vegas to give themselves permission to go a little queer, even if it’s just for the duration of their stay. This year the destination is embracing its unspoken queerness, with a marketing campaign that nods to LGBTQ+ visitors while encouraging all travelers to “Let out the Vegas in you.” The city wants visitors to open their inner closets and let out the parts of themselves they might usually shun. That permissiveness continues to draw queers of all stripes – even those that only let their hair down while in the glittering desert oasis. OUTTRAVELER.COM 33
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NOLA
1 Rich in history, culture, and great food, New Orleans is the perfect escape for queer travelers. By Will Jardell and James Wallington
Laissez le bon temps rouler — let the good times roll in the Big Easy, New Orleans, Louisiana! You could spend an entire trip to New Orleans focused only on the delectable food or soaking in historical and cultural sites. There is so much to see, experience, and savor. Particularly during eerie fall nights, visitors to New Orleans often book a voodoo or haunted tour through the French Quarter (1) or the city’s graveyards (2). But with the French Quarter’s rich LGBTQ+ history it’s worth taking a walking tour to explore it. Queer authors Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams both frequented New Orleans and had homes in the French Quarter. The acclaimed play, A Streetcar Named Desire was written while Williams was living in the city and is named after a streetcar line that passed his apartment on St. Peter Street. Queer and trans folks have long had a major hand in making New Orleans, particularly the French Quarter, what it is today. One such place is the gay bar Café Lafitte in Exile located on Bourbon Street, which happens to be the oldest continuously running gay bar in the United States. Each year Mardi Gras, or Carnival, takes place from January 6 until Fat Tuesday, celebrating the last final day of excess before the deprivation of the Catholic Lent that stretches into Easter. Events are put together by
Pride during Southern Decadence
numerous Krewes, t he f rater nit y organizations that host extravagant balls and fabulous celebrations each yea r. While the pandemic threw the ability to host large celebrations of f- c ou r s e, t he t rad it ions a re still celebrated as groups anxiously await being able to gather in person aga in. Last year, many homeowners hired the traditional float artists to create Mardi Gras float houses, decked to the nines in color, flowers, and that essential gumbo that is N’awlins. To learn more about the LGBTQ+ history of Mardi Gras traditions, visit the Carl Mack Mardi Gras Museum of Costume and Culture, which is full of showstopping costumes. It’s a sequin and rhinestone heaven with beads as far as the eye can see — and you won’t even have to show skin! New Orleans has always been home to the LGBTQ+ community — even if it’s a gothic mansion of a home, one that sometimes falls into disrepair or draws disparaging stares. The city has only become more inclusive and embracing of LGBTQ+ travelers, who today will find themselves easily drawn into the local queer community in the Big Easy. The city that holds hurricane parties rolls with the punches and the muddy Mississippi River. Floods and pandemics can dampen the city’s spirit but they’ll never extinguish the flame that burns bright in this bayou.
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NOLA graveyard
Amazing Race winners Will Jardell and James Wallington with their New Orleans guide
JOSHUA GRESHAM/UNSPLASH (PRIDE); SHUTTERSTOCK (GRAVEYARD); WILL JARDELL ( WILL & JAMES )
Rollin’ On the River
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PORTLAND
Proud to Be Weird
Queer and eclectic Portland offers lots of outdoor recreation, great food, and the oldest working drag queen in the world. By Will Jardell and James Wallington
JOSHUA RAINEY/SHUTTERSTOCK (KEEP PORTLAND WEIRD); JAE PARK/UNSPLASH (VOODOO DOUGHNUTS); WILL JARDELL AND JAMES WALLINGTON (MOXY HOTEL AND DARCELLE XV)
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Plastered across Portland, Oregon, are signs urging people to “Keep Portland Weird.” The city’s “weirdness” (dare we say queer ness?) per meates t he northwestern town on the banks of the Columbia River. Portland is known for its coffee houses, eclectic art, vibrant food scene, and abundant outdoor spaces providing a destination where any traveler can find something that fits their interests. Foodies flock to the city’s food trucks and stop at Voodoo Doughnuts (1) for a box of out-of-this-world flavors, while outdoorsy types take advantage of the many hiking and biking trails, and water sports like paddle boarding and kayaking. With all Portland has to offer, you’ll be sure to find something that will inspire you to keep coming back for more. New to the city and located in downtown Portland is the Moxy Hotel (2), a fun and funky space, with a lobby bar greeting guests checking in, classic industrial
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rooms, and lots of hip modern art. Guests can request a record player for their room or get their room “flocked” by the hotel staff, who decorate it with pink flamingos! It’s a fantastic hotel that serves as the perfect base to explore The City of Roses. You must v isit (3) Darcelle XV Showplace, the oldest continuously running drag cabaret in the United States. Headlined by Darcelle XV, the Guinness World Record’s “oldest working drag queen,” the show also includes performances by Poison Waters, Alexis Campbell Starr, Bebe Jay, Cassie Nova, Syra St. James, and Summer Lynne Seasons. It is an incredible show that keeps you engaged and entertained throughout. Shine Distillery & Grill, a gay-owned distiller y and restaurant located in Portland ’s Williams District, made some incredible “pandemic pivots” that allowed them to remain in business and provide for the community. Soon
after the pandemic hit, Shine Distillery caught the attention of the world as it began producing hand sanitizer, sharing the recipe with distilleries across the country and giving products away to the communit y. Now back serving food and drinks, you’ll want to try their daily mac & cheese, paired with a Butterfly Knees cocktail. The distillery is a great spot to meet and chat with locals over a glass or a plate.
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The region’s gorgeous scenery and la ndscapes sur round ing Por t la nd are another reason to visit. One of our favorites was Rooster Rock State Park. The Park is home to the first official clothing-optional beach in the U.S. where you can enjoy the cool water, hike to explore the surrounding nature, and have a really great time. Washington Park is another mustvisit for its International Rose Test G a r de n (w it h mor e t h a n 10,0 0 0 individual rose bushes that bloom from May to October) and the serene Portland Japanese Garden, a place of inclusivity, anti-racism, and cultural understanding. No matter what you are looking for, you can find a vibrant LGBTQ+ inclusive activity or venue throughout Portland that will leave you wanting to visit time and time again. The city is the best kind of “weird” where travelers from all walks of life will feel seen and supported.
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F T. L A U D E R D A L E
It’s Always Sunny in Ft. Lauderdale
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MIAMI
Life’s a Drag in Miami
These performances are some of the best we've seen By Taylor Henderson
When you think of drag queen hubs around the U.S., Florida isn’t usually the fi rst place that comes to mind. But in Miami, I discovered some of the best shows I’ve ever witnessed firsthand. Palace South Beach (2) is an iconic Miami Beach bar that’s been around for decades, and when the show starts, you’ll quickly learn why. One queen performed Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love A Bad Name” in the rain, broke into cartwheels in high-heeled boots, and shook her boobs under the pouring water like she was in Flashdance. It was surreal to see women who looked like my Aunties screaming over drag queens right next to a table of exotic dancers throwing ones like their lives depended on it. On top of that, Palace’s servers are so beautiful that it feels like you’re staring directly into the sun as you order your QuesaDiva. But the highlight of the trip was R House’s drag brunch (1, 3). The line was down the block and entry is $50, but each guest gets bottomless mimosas, a full family-style meal from chef/owner Rocco Carulli, and one of the best shows of your life. The royal Athena Dion hosted, Morphine Love Dion slammed into splits during her Nicki Minaj medley, Angie Ovahness Pryce twerked in a headstand, and the stunningly beautiful Gadfrie delivered a show-stopping Beyonce Coachella medley that nearly had me in tears. Later, Gadfrie stripped away reveal after reveal to strut around nearly naked, then straddled a patron and (with consent) poured a full carafe of water over them both. At one point, Dion led the crowd into a conga line that quickly evolved into an all-out twerk-session!
The Florida beach town has been embracing LGBTQ+ people of all shades since the 1970s. By Jacob Anderson-Minshall
Fort Lauderdale held its first Pride in 1977, and it was born more from anger than celebration, as LGBTQ+ people spilled onto the streets to protest the state-wide referendum that overturned Miami-Dade County’s landmark gay rights ordinance. Since then, the Florida beach city has gained a well-earned reputation for inclusion a nd celebrat ion of queer travelers and the local LGBTQ+ community. Greater Fort Lauderdale is home to more LGBTQ-owned businesses
than any tourist destination in the nation. There are queer and LGBTQ-embracing hotels for every kind of traveler. Want a dog-friendly beach-side hotel with one of the best pools in the city? Check out W Fort Lauderdale with WET Deck, the pool five floors above the ocean. (Insider tip: want to experience the pool while staying elsewhere? Day passes are available.) Want to bring your furbaby
COURTESY R HOUSE; COURTESY PALACE SOUTH BEACH; COURTESY GREATER FT LAUDERDALE CVB (SEBASTIAN BEACH)
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but also hang out at an exclusive, adultsonly gay resort in Wilton Manors? Ed Lugo Resort has adorable renovated 1950s-style Florida bungalows with plenty of privacy. If you’re looking for clothingoptional queer accommodations, the Grand Resort, first opened in 1999, is a few blocks from the beach in a quiet residential area; while Pineapple Point Guesthouse & Resort sits on 2.5 lush tropical acres. Fort Lauderdale gayborhood Wilton Manor is home to numerous restaurants, including best-breakfast-in-town Shawn & Nick’s Courtyard Café and perennial open-air favorite Rosie’s Bar and Grill. Stop by Bubbles & Pearls Champagne Raw Bar, where effervescent owner and Top Chef star Josie Smith Malave mingles with regulars and serves delicious small plate creations. The oysters menu is like choosing vintages at a top-notch winery — the flavors are more diverse than you’d imagine, and each oyster has its own notes distinctive to the region where it was harvested. Straddling the fence between restaurant and nightclub, Georgie’s Alibi morphs into a bar as the day progresses. At Hunters Nightclub Wilton Manors, an eclectic mix of leathermen and bears mingle with beach bunnies. Other local gay bars include The Manor and Village Pub. Year-round beach weather offers LGBTQ+ travelers plenty of things to do beyond hanging out at Sebastian Beach or visiting Wilton Manors. You could spend days exploring the Intracoastal Waterway, a 3,000-mile maze of natural inlets, saltwater rivers, and canals.
KEY WEST
The Key to Unwinding
Florida’s sexiest southernmost island is just what the doctor ordered. By Barry Hoy Key West is a true paradise any time of the year and the perfect destination whether you are traveling with friends or looking for a romantic getaway. This lush little island at the tip of the Keys celebrates openness and diversity all year, with a lauded LGBTQ+ scene complete with amazing restaurants, vibrant nightlife, entertainment, and of course, the popular key lime pies. As one of the top LGBTQ+ destinations in the country, Key West hosts over 300,000 LGBTQ+ visitors annually. Key West is about a three-and-a-half hour drive from Miami and 90 miles north of Cuba. The ride down from Miami is beautiful with 42 bridges and breathtaking views of both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Key West has bountiful options for watersports, sport fishing, snorkeling, or a romantic dinner sailing or sunset cruise. There are endless Insta-worthy spots, but you may be too distracted by the experience to choreograph a photo shoot. Sta r t your day at Cuban Coffee Queen, the place to go for coffee and breakfast. Stop at Fisherman’s Café for a lunch of the absolutely best fish tacos ever. Settle into a romantic dinner at Azur, a gay-ow ned Mediter ranean restaurant with a delectable menu including Toasted Gnocchi with Pine Nuts, Truffle, and Arugula. The refreshingly light key lime pie, was first made in Key West with locally grown ke y l i mes. E ver y pa s t r y chef in town has their own interpretation, and it’s worth sampling more than one. But also go for the traditional ver sion, l i ke t he one at Kermit’s Key Lime Shoppe. Key West is k now n for LGBTQ+ owned and friendly
accommodations, so it’s hard to go wrong. But choosing the right accommodations can really have an impact on your experience. Everyone’s idea of a dream vacation is different. Some people love crowds, others love peace and quiet. In Key West, you can find luxury (Ocean Key Resort & Spa), camping (Boyd’s Campground), LGBTQ-owned B&Bs (Alexander’s Guesthouse) and men's clothing-optional stays (Island House). But The Marker Key West Harbor Resort hits our sweet spot: a quaint petfriendly boutique hotel with luxurious accommodations. In the Historic Key West Seaport District, the modern waterfront hotel is just steps from famous Duval Street, where most of the island’s restaurants and bars are located. Be warned, it’s hard to pull yourself away from The Marker, which features three saltwater pools (one that’s adults only), occasionally serenaded by a live DJ. The resort offers spacious yet cozy rooms or suites with private balconies, on-site yoga, a state-of-the-art fitness center, an open-air restaurant, and so much more. The Marker embodies what most of us envision when we think of a Key West experience, and it will undoubtedly make your visit one to remember. So, what are you waiting for?
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CAPTURE
Queer Love is Global
With All Love Is Equal, photographer Braden Summers illustrates the beauty and diversity of queer love. By Jacob Anderson-Minshall Photography by Braden Summers
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raden Summers moved to F r a n c e t o ph o t o g r a ph a modern vision of romance. While liv ing in Pa r is, his husba nd (t hen boy f r iend) suggested he shoot a romantic gay scene. “I took it as a welcome challenge,” Summers recalls. And the resulting image of two men holding hands in London (pictured here) inspired him to create “an entire body of work. I worked on a series of photos that would illustrate idealized romance for samesex couples from a wide variety of cultures and countries. The message I was trying to get across is that same-sex romance is beautiful! It should be accepted and celebrated, not just tolerated, around the world.” That project became Summers’ All Love is Equal series, which indeed captures the beauty of queer love, but more than that, the photographs also challenge the perception many have in other countries that LGBTQ+ couples exist exclusively in Western nations. “I remember hearing about heads of state in African countries proclaiming that gays do not exist in their own country and thinking how absurd that was,” Summers says. “Representation holds so much power. If you show people that diversity exists, in time they will fear it less.” He says that his favorite image still “might just be the first of the series, the men in London walking in the rain on the bridge. To me, there was always something about it that felt simultaneously classic and revolutionary.” Summers says this project, like much of his photography, “is meant to inspire people to see beauty in diversity; to expand their own definition of what might be considered beautiful.” (bradensummers.com) OUT TRAVELER 38
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London, England John Hall and Gleeson Paulino, the first of the All Love Is Equal series, show that same-sex romance is beautiful
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Bali, Indonesia Mutiara Fitriani and Inka, inspired by the fairytale beauty of Indonesia
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p Paris, France Joanna and Azalea a couple living their truth, enjoy a moment in the City of Lights
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Oahu, Hawaii Ho Vinh Khoa and Rhonee Rojas stroll hand-in-hand through the botanical gardens in Koko Head OUTTRAVELER.COM 41
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Johannesburg, South Africa Luisa Chagwala and Ebby Weyime at Lion Park
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Johannesburg, South Africa Tshepo Sithole Modisane and Thoba Sithole Modisane, a couple who had recently wed in a traditional Zulu celebration, the first same-sex wedding of its kind
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Mumbai, India Divya Puri and Divya Tandle in the streets of Mumbai
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TRAVELOGUE
Mystic Mountain
A land shrouded in insurmountable beauty, culture, and mystery, Peru’s Machu Picchu is a must-do on your travel destination list.
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t’s impossible not to be awestruck upon taking your first steps into Machu Picchu. The sacred city in the clouds is rightly famed for its stunning views, meticulous terracing, precise stonework, spiritual aura, and mysterious origins. Surrounded by peaks covered in the lush green of the rain forest and jutting nearvertically into the sky, the first question that comes to mind is how our fellow human brethren from centuries past were able to accomplish such an astounding feat. Perhaps more pressing in my thoughts, though, were the questions of who and why.
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I blame Andres for my predicament. He was my tour guide from Mountain Lodges of Peru, which provides fully customizable packages of five to seven days, with additional stays in Lima and Cuzco. A few nights earlier in the comforts of the Huacahuasi Lodge, a private lodge exclusive to MLP, Andres had given a presentation on stargazing and the archeoastronomy of the Incan empire. We were high in the Andes, above 14,000 feet, and sated after a meal featuring locally sourced fish and the obligatory but always welcome pisco sour. His lecture was intriguing. Machu Picchu, Cuzco, and other Incan temples
were built on a line in accordance with a series of astronomical alignments. The astronomy upon which the alignment was based is not visible today but graced the sky in the distant past. That Peruvian’s ancient ancestors had the astronomical and architectural prowess to conceive, design, and construct Machu Picchu left me starstruck. Of course, by now I had come to expect the unexpected with Peru. Here I was high in the outback of the Andes, yet later that night I was relaxing in my room’s private hot tub overlooking a thousand-foot valley and waterfall, framed by jagged mountains higher than the Rockies and
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t Clockwise Fallen Angel Hotel courtyard; the author in Huacahuasi Valley; Indigenous Peruvians
a glacier slowly grinding yet another topographical masterpiece. Rather than base their itineraries on existing hotels, MLP constructed their own luxury accommodations allowing travelers to venture into areas not visited by other tour companies. Each is unique and stunning. Llamas wandered about the jacuzzi and communal areas of the Lamay Lodge. Huacahusi Lodge is perched high astride a glacial valley. Individual townhouses featuring full kitchens, private patios, and secluded gardens welcomed us outside the ancient city of Cajamarca. The meals were equally impressive and varied, with every evening offering a multi-course dining experience. Over lunch with native artisans in the small village of Choquecancha, we learned from locals about how the ancient arts are passed on to future generations. The resident women in attendance wore garments woven from alpaca wool using their own hand looms. This timeless knowledge has been passed down for countless generations but now faces the threat of disappearance within the coming years. To help keep these cultural practices alive, MLP assists the elder women in reaching remote villages to share their ancient knowledge with a new generation. Travelers might also be surprised at the size and diversity of Peru, from the cosmopolitan capital to the ancient Incan capital of Cuzco and the timeless villages high in the Andes. Nothing exemplifies this mix of old and new, of citizens native and the transplanted, than the capital city of Lima, home to 11 million Peruvians. If Lima is the modern Peru, then Cuzco is its proud grip on the past. This city in the clouds is the heart of the successive Indigenous empires that ruled Peru for over 4,000 years before the arrival of the first Spanish conquistadors. Inca n s y m met r y remains in the the layout and design of the old town. The Spanish built their
massive and ornate cathedrals upon the perfectly aligned stone foundations of Indigenous temples. Cuzco is touristy in places, but the history and the altitude will take away your breath. Our hotel in Cuzco was located in a newly gentrified section of the historic town. The El Retablo Hotel, another MLP-exclusive property, has bright and inviting rooms with hand-painted walls and ceilings. They surround an inner courtyard with small tables and chairs that provide a respite from the 12,700 feet of elevation. Don’t take the altitude lightly. It’s best to spend a night or two in Cuzco to acclimate to it. The local remedy is to chew cocoa leaves constantly and you can buy small bags of the natural stimulants for less than a dollar. Alternatively, check with your physician about a prescription for medicines like Meclizine which can help prevent the headaches associated with altitude sickness. Cuzco is the gateway to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. It boasts a surprising number of upscale dining options and a gay-friendly restaurant, night club, and hotel, the Fallen Angel,
the very definition of eclectic. Most of local establishments welcome queer travelers, though it’s still not advisable for same-sex couples to hold hands in public. Buses run visitors up and down the mountain to Machu Picchu from the touristy but delightful town of Aguas Calientes. Tip: stay the night at a hotel in town. Daily trains return thousands of tourists back to Cuzco in the midafternoon — leaving the site significantly less crowded around sunset, when one can wander amid the ruins relatively undisturbed. My stay in town was at the Inkaterra Machu Picchu Puebla Hotel, an exquisite property set amid acres of lush rain forest. After a long day with the crowds on the mountaintop, Inkaterra’s private paths, streams, and waterfalls are the perfect setting for a relaxing stroll. The Andes and Machu Picchu are breathtaking, and I felt privileged to experience cultural and historical immersion and the niceties of luxurious accommodations and unparalleled cuisine. My departure left me anxious to research and return, which is perhaps the best indicator of a journey well-spent.
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TRAVELOGUE
Untamed P-town
Returning to Provincetown a changed man, this writer finds a wild nightlife even in an off-season. BY JACOB ANDERSON-MINSHALL
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p Commercial Street business where the window reflects the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown t The author aboard the 47-foot yacht with Moment Sailing Adventures
of the Delta variant that would run through P-town like wildfire, leaving nearly 1,000 confirmed cases despite 75 percent of those being among the immunized. Provincetown made it through unscathed, with no deaths, and says it’s an even safer place to visit since they learned from the experience. On the narrow tip of Cape Cod, the town of under 3,000 (during the summer it can swell to 60,000) is immensely walkable and bikeable. Ptown Bikes provides convenient rentals, and most inns in town have bicycles as well.
With nar row streets and a fair amount of pedestrian traffic, it’s hard to maneuver a car around and I was happy to arrive on Bay State Cruise Company’s Provincetown Fast Ferry from Boston Harbor. The 90 minute trip down the coast was beautiful. Provincetown’s bustling Commercial Street is crowded with quaint shops and busy restaurants. Although I spent much of my visit away from the area I returned every evening. At the Crown & Anchor for dinner and a drag show I especially enjoyed the crème brûlée.
GETTY IMAGES (OPENER); JACOB ANDERSON-MINSHALL (ALL OTHERS BOTH PAGES)
he first time I v isited P r o v i n c e t o w n , Ma ssachuset t s, I wa s a young dyke who was escaping from personal drama in Northampton, a town known as Lesbianville, U.S.A., even back in 1989, when I followed a girlfriend there. In the six months since arriving I’d had my heart broken, had to move three times, been fired for being a lesbian, and been held up at gunpoint. When a housemate suggested I go to P-town for a few days to clear my head, I jumped at the chance. It was off-season and a lesbian inn owner she knew let me stay in one of the rooms for free. I credit the psychological space that the seaside solitude afforded me with literally saving my life. And yet, in the ensuing decades, after I went back to my western roots, met my lovely wife, moved to California, and matured into the transgender magazine editor I am today, I never returned to P-town. Until this year. In some ways the queer tourist town hasn’t changed in the past 30 years. But I certainly have. I don’t have the kind of adrenaline-and-alcoholfueled drama that I did in my 20s. I was happy to arrive in the offseason (before mask mandates were lifted but after indoor meals returned). I came and went well before the rise
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Clockwise from top Fox River trail; Crown Anchor’s crème brûlée; low tide; The Pointe’s Tuna Poke; Strangers & Saints’ Lady Alden’s Dress
This onetime fishing village serves incredible fresh fish. While in town I also partook of Oysters Rockefeller at Lobster Pot and oysters on the half shell at Strangers & Saints, known equally for its inventive cocktails as its new American cuisine (I enjoyed a Lady Alden’s Dress made with lemon and mandarin juices and a touch of lavender syrup). The Pointe Restaurant’s Tuna Poké was also delectable. As I walked back to the hotel after dark I passed the pilgrim monument, which commemorates Provincetown for being the place that the pilgrims first came ashore. Whether the arrival of the pilgrims should be celebrated or not can depend upon your heritage and the color of your skin. But I do like that the first place the Puritans visited has become one of the queerest towns in America. When I tell my wife I’m staying at The Stowaway on Bradford Street, she reminds me that the Plymouth colony’s first governor, William Bradford, is one of her distant relatives (on one side of the family — on the other are the Indigenous peoples of this land). The inn’s proprietors, a lovely gay couple, Steven Katsurinis and Brandon Quesnell, also run the B&B 8 Dyer Hotel, where they’ve perfected contactless stays. The Stowaway was a fabulous launch pad for a week of adventures. Indeed, t he in n’s cross s t reet, Howland, leads to a number of lovely trails. I wandered down the Fox Run Old Colony Nature Pathway and later hiked up a trail into the Beech forest near the campground in The Cape Cod National Seashore. The seashore, managed by the National Parks Service, stretches more
than 43,000 acres along the state’s coast, and it is one of the reasons P-town retains its character. The protected wetlands and dunes host a wide range of wildlife. You can access the National Seashore by car, bike, or on foot; but the most fun may be on one of Art’s Dune Tours. Started in 1946, by Art Costa, the business is now in the capable hands of Art’s gay son, Rob. He showed me where he and his husband said their vows, introduced me to the dune ecosystem, and delivered me to Race Point Beach just in time to catch a spectacular sunset. You can book a campfire dinner, and Art’s will provide the s’mores and beach chairs. Around the bend, Herring Cove Beach is more protected from the Atlantic and is a popular swimming destination. Known as Boys Beach it also draws onlookers from an unexpected direction. Charters from Provincetown will happily sail or power around the horn and anchor off the beach for swimming and sightseeing. I booked a private sail aboard the 47foot yacht with Moment Sailing Adventures. Captains Chris and Kendall sailed me around for several glorious hours. They are happy to teach those who want to learn, but I preferred sitting in the bow with a stupid grin on my face as the spray misted my skin. Having a trans woman captain made me realize how rarely tour operators or guides are trans or nonbinary. On my final day, the tides were out as I walked along the beach to the ferry dock. At its highest elevation Provincetown peaks at 100 feet. The bay slopes gently and the beach is so shallow that low tides reveal wide expanses of glistening sand and small tidal pools. In the clear waters horseshoe crabs, looking like ancient evolutionary holdovers, were mating, proving once more that P-town can be a wild time even during the off-season.
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Call HIM By Your
NAME They’re TikTok’s hottest young-andin-love duo, but Nicky and Pierre’s international life is about to get a whole lot more interesting.
PHOTO CREDIT
By Diane Anderson-Minshall Photography by Perry Picasshoe Styling & Glam Nick Champa and Pierre-Amaury Crespeau Clothing by ASOS
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hen TikTok star PierreAmaury Crespeau and h i s b o y f r ie nd Nic k Champa get to Italy this year, they have one big goal, to do what other TikTokers before them have done: recreate a pivotal love scene from the Pixar film Luca. “They’re doing the dialogue between those two boys as the sound, and so people are recreating it,” says Champa of the folks heading to the Italian Riviera where Luca’s fictional town is located. “I was like, ‘We need to go do that. We have to do that.’” Luca, director Enrico Casarosa’s animated film about a couple of young sea monsters and their adventures on the coast of Italy, is so fully evocative of the region — with a story that speaks to queer people everywhere — that you can imagine seeing this cute couple as the titular character and his new “friend.” Crespeau and Champa, better known as Nicky Champa and Pierre Boo on TikTok, where they have over 11 million followers — a lot of them LGBTQ+ youth, tween girls, and their middle-aged moms — who love their 15-30 second videos of goofy pranks, jokes, challenges, skits, and viral dances. Both men eschew gay labels; they consider themselves to be fluid in all aspects, including their sexuality. And their audience can’t get enough of the unconventional, freespirited pair who first met at a movie audition in early 2017. Both were aspiring actors, which is why you can easily imagine them performing Luca scenes — in Italy, France (where Boo is from), upstate New York (Champa hails from Syracuse), or any of the places this globetrotting couple loves to visit. “They’re mermaids,” Boo begins explaining Luca to the uninitiated. “No, they’re sea monsters,” Champa interjects. “They live under the water, but then come out, and they turn to humans; human is their mask. So, these two monster things…turn into boys in a gay relationship. It’s very fluid. Like, there’s no label, they don’t kiss or anything. But you know that there’s a deeper connection and it’s just like the evolution of that relationship.”
Champa and Boo, now 25 and 30 respectively, appreciate the film’s symbolism — the allusion to, as Champa calls it, “hiding your sexuality, blending into the world. And when you’re caught, you say, ‘No, he is. I’m not!’ And the town that was so fearful at the end of the day…[admit] they hated them so much, because they were afraid of them. Then they actually embraced them. It’s so touching because it’s so representative of what we all have to [go through]. And the fact that it’s not only a Disney movie, but it’s also taking place in Italy, and it’s just so romantic and gorgeous.” “It’s very, very beautiful,” Boo adds. Boo and Champa began their social media presence a year after they met by posting about their relationship on Instagram. The response from fans was immediate and more powerful than they’d anticipated. When TikTok emerged, the creators embraced the new platform’s potential and produced even more forms of content. Their audience skyrocketed. But when they first met, Boo, now 30, admits he was a bit guarded about starting a relationship. “I was coming out of a tough break-up and after 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 heartbreaks, I lost the dream of a fairytale relationship.” The couple says before getting together they were each “a bit heartbroken about our relationships prior… just turning out to not be what we always wanted,” but they quickly realized, “Whoa, we found each other!” As much as he wanted to take things slowly with Champa, the connection couldn’t be denied. “I was telling you,” Champa recalls, turning to Boo, who often finishes his sentences. “I was like, ‘I’m ready to get this going. I want to commit to each other. I want to be with you.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, fine, you have to move in with me.’” So they did, a month after they first met. They had already negotiated the intimate details of their modern relationship. “Monogamous,” Boo says. “That makes us happy.” “We’re ver y commit ted to each other,” Champa adds. And part of that commitment is sexual exclusivity.
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“In the world of social media, there is a little bit of toxicity. It’s just hard to navigate that because it can directly affect our relationship, because relationship is our platform, it is our brand, it is our social media.”
“Our community is a very free-spirited community, which I think is amazing and beautiful,” Boo says. But, he adds, “We found a happiness in creating a relationship for us.” “We’re not alone, obviously,” Champa says. “Everybody has their own wants and desires. But there is a portion of the community that does want that fairy tale [relationship]. We’re not the only ones that want this, so we have to show that we have it, and it’s attainable. You can have it, too. It just takes some searching, some time.” Few couples have woven their personal and professional lives together like this duo. Although they each have their own handles, their videos are almost always the two of them together. Stans post comments threatening them if they ever dare break up. Now every move they make as a couple is scrutinized. But at first, they kept it to themselves. “For a year, we didn’t post about being in a relationship at all,” Champa recalls. He says that time was “a very constructive year of solidifying what we want and what we expect from each other. And once we had that, it kind of just happened naturally. The thing is, with our relationship and social media, it’s funny because it’s like the social media part feels so small to the relationship [overall].” That’s true, Boo adds. “It’s a little window to it.” Still, they admit, it’s sometimes hard to keep the two separate. What will they keep private, just for themselves, and what will they share? And, they admit, it’s a lot of work keeping their TikTok (and YouTube) fans satisfied with fresh and interesting content. “We have days where we just sit, spit out ideas, and compile our funny concepts,” Champa explains. “We’re constantly thinking about what viewers want to see and what we’re willing to reveal. We’re sometimes nervous to show too much of our personal lives because you never know what will work and what will fall flat.” Boo was a theater actor in France (“There was always a cigaret te in my mouth, and I was saying some monologue”) and admits that acting is
“such a passion that you always have in your heart.” Champa has been in a few indie films, and of course the duo uses their acting chops to create the characters, Nicky and Pierre, which are based on themselves but played up for comedic value and TikTok audiences. Some skits take three straight hours of taping and retaping; videos taped in one shot are rare. “We’re just creators at this point,” Champa insists. “We create and this is our platform that we’ve created.” Though he’s not fond of the term “influencer” (“I don’t feel like we’re influencing…I think it’s just like we’re sharing.”), the couple has been sponsored by a number of larger brands, like Spotify, ASOS, and the singer Ariana Grande. Eventually they hope to do their own clothing line, so that what they wear in videos can be bought online by fans. While their fame has allowed them to buy their first home together, being TikTok stars is “not all flowers and roses,” says Boo. “In the world of social media, there is a little bit of toxicity. It’s just hard to navigate that because it can directly affect our relationship, because relationship is our platform, it is our brand, it is our social media. And it is not easy to navigate that being two persons…putting ourselves out there in a platform where we can be compared [to others] or where we can be criticized. We take all this at heart, of course. That’s a challenge.” What keeps them grounded, Champa says, is that they have a shared goal. They are chasing the same dream. “I feel like there’s a bond and there’s a mission together…my success is your success; your success is my success. We’re doing this together. We’re going to help each other and we’re always going to have each other’s back. As long as that’s solidified, nothing can break…that foundation of understanding what we expect and want from each other.” The couple says they’ve learned which narratives they can and can’t control in Hollywood, including plastic surgery rumors. In a discussion about fillers, Champa outlines the importance of healthy living, but says if eating right, working out, and staying hydrated
doesn’t solve a perceived problem, it’s OK to address it. “We talk about this with our friends… filler and Botox and whatever you want to do does not fix anything. It helps you be the best version of yourself if that’s what you’re looking for. We’re not trying to say, ‘You need this to look beautiful.’ No. It’s what we did for ourselves to make us feel happy. We own it, and we don’t really feel like we owe you an explanation for it.” Still, as role models, Champa says they feel a responsibility to be transparent. But, Boo interjects, “If you want to get an earring, you don’t have to explain it to anybody.” “This next generation, Gen Z, it is so different from what I feel like we were used to watching,” Champa says. “It’s this open book. Do whatever the hell you want to do to make you feel happy. And, you know, obviously, there are standards…and you have to navigate that correctly. But at the end of the day, if it’s what you want to do, do it. If it doesn’t hurt anybody, do it.” C h a m p a a d d s , “ We d o o u r maintenance, but I think if you’re genuinely happy and you’re feeling happiness and feeling love that really shows t h rough on your physica l appearance. A lot of people are like, ‘Why are you glowing today?’ I feel like we’re both just very much high on life. Happiness really goes a long way.” The next step is one full of adventure: a longer-form YouTube series and, hopefully someday, “some sort of Netflix series or show that is kind of semiscripted, like Broad City, but with two guys in a relationship…still acting, but we’re playing ourselves.” Their new web series (on their Nicky and Pierre YouTube channel) will feature 15 videos, following them to Europe and presenting a life that has them shuttling between California, New York, Paris, and other parts of Europe (pre-pandemic). Boo says the series will introduce viewers to their life together as well as their families, and what Champa calls “trying to embrace the international [aspect] of our relationship. His family’s in Paris, mine’s in upstate New York. We live in L.A. This is how we live our lives.
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We also have roots in Europe and we want to embrace that more, and I want him to be more connected to his family and I want them to be more a part of this whole world that we’re building along with my mom. Like the Brady Bunch but instead of revolving around a guy and a girl, it’s two guys with families.” Many of their favorite places are in Italy as well, like Venice, says Champa. “We honestly really enjoy the cities that are kind of more low-key and romantic rather than like the big party cities. We’re going to go back to Lake Como, Portofino, Montserrat. The Italian Riviera we really enjoy. We love Switzerland — Pierre’s family’s country home is like two hours away from the border of Switzerland.” Champa recently found out that his mother’s family is 100 percent Italian. “My great-great-grandfather on my mom’s side falls under this clause where he came to the United States and had children before he declared his residency, which basically means that all of the descendants are qualified for Italian citizenship. So, I qualify.” He’s in the process of getting that formalized. Their union has roots in France, Italy, and the Unites States, where they’ve fallen for California as well as the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the desert of Joshua Tree National Park, and Big Sk y, Montana, where they spent a pandemic Christmas. “We rented a house in the middle of nowhere,” Champa recalls. “It was really, really beautiful and amazing. We didn’t think about how scary it would be in the middle of nowhere. So that was scary, but other than that Montana is gorgeous.” Boo and Champa see TikTok as the perfect platform for travel content that speaks to Gen Z, a generation the creators say wants content that hasn’t been filtered or carefully edited. “Gen Z is so open, you just, you put yourself out there,” Champa says. “I feel like Millennials are a bit still curated and still like putting on a face for them to filter behind. So, I think that’s Instagram. And I think that travel content reflects that. I think with TikTok, you’re going to get beautiful content of places…I also love seeing funny shit that happens in these
places and stuff that you would not see on Instagram, like the moments of, you know, someone falling into the canal in Venice. That, to me, is entertaining and makes me want to go to Venice more than seeing [a] beautiful picture that’s curated and perfect.” B o o s a y s , “[It ’s] r e a l l y a b ou t discovering other people and cultures and knowing how to respect it…while experiencing it. I think there’s always the same hunger to discover the other culture and to [experience] the food and the places, the beauty, the music. But we’re definitely not going to appropriate culture anymore. Gen Z is going to change that.” Champa sees TikTok having a big role in how Gen Z is changing travel. “When you’re a kid,” he says, “the last thing you want to do is go to a museum. You want to go to the cool spot that the locals go to, where it seems like no tourist has been. And then you make the TikTok there, and that gets millions of views. TikTok fuels this new age of like discovering new places, and new intimate spots that no one has gone to. And finding and making new places cool, and like making new places relevant.” It goes back to Luca for Champa. The couple hadn’t planned to go to the Italian Riviera until he kept seeing so many people recreating the movie there. “And because I cried my eyes out in that movie, it was just so amazing — I’m going to tear up right now — it was just so amazing. I was like, ‘We need to go do that. That is so beautiful. I feel like we could do that too.’ And I’m just one person seeing those TikTok videos that just inspired me.” The couple is very aware of how they are inspiring others, and empowering LGBTQ+ youth is a central concern. They get letters from queer kids asking to be adopted. Letters so sweet but sometimes heartbreaking too, kids who share stories of difficult home lives. Older generations aren’t always as kind. “My theory is we trigger that feeling of something they may have missed out on,” Champa says. “I feel like the generation before us went through so much trauma and so much fear,” Boo says, alluding to the
AIDS crisis, LGBTQ+ discrimination, and internalized homophobia. Champa’s aunt is gay. He says she and her friends never talked about their sexual orientations, while he and his boyfriend are now making a career out of theirs. “I feel like there is a generational [difficulty] understanding each other. I’m like, ‘Why are you not more like this?’ And she’s like, ‘Why are you more not like that?’” The young men say they understand the pressure to keep one’s LGBTQ+ identity under wraps. Auditioning for roles, the actors say they were often told that they weren’t coding gay enough for gay roles but would have to stay closeted in the media for straight ones. “I remember at one point we were just like, ‘Fuck this, let’s just own it. I don’t want to have a career where I’m hiding our relationship. This is ridiculous.’” Asking LGBTQ+ actors to stay in the closet is “very toxic, because you just have no idea what you’re doing to that person’s internal [psyche],” Champa says. “It’s what we really are trying to fight for. We don’t even necessarily want to be a gay couple; we just want to be a couple. We want to just normalize love, normalize having a relationship that happens to be two guys, that both of our moms are very accepting of. We try to show that as much as possible. It’s normal. You don’t have to make it anything else other than this is just how life is supposed to be. You can love whoever you want. You can have a career with whatever you want.” Boo agrees. “I feel like there are different ways to be a part of the fight. We are focusing on that side of the fight. There is still a lot of fighting to do on other fronts. This is our focus.” They aren’t inf luencers. They’re storytellers, activists in their own rights, showing that men loving each other is not just normal, but adorable, enviable. Audiences will see them as a happy, sexy, successful couple; together wherever they are on the planet that day. “I think the sky’s the limit,” Champa says, both of their relationship and careers and the lives of their young fans. “You can be whatever you want to be.”
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After almost two years at home, it’s going to be time to fly. But travel has to mean something more now. These places fit the bill.
COSTA RICA
There’s A Reason This Is The Happiest Place On Earth (Sorry Mickey!) BY DIANE ANDERSON-MINSHALL
I’m trudging up a waterfall, or really a mile-and-a-half-tall series of mini waterfalls, some large enough to stand under, others much smaller. It’s like climbing staggered shelves with warm water pouring over them, each one a sense of accomplishment but also farther away from the bottom. Some guests at Tabacon Springs just stay on that first level, playing Instagram boyfriends in a pool jam packed with people. But I insist on trekking to the source of the water flowing around me (it gets hotter the higher you go), and on staying in the water rather than walking the paved path. Still in pain after the previous day’s rugged hike up and down volcanoes, I continue to climb rhythmically, until I’m the lone hiker slogging on. Now alone with the water and sounds of the rainforest’s inhabitants I reach a place that’s rare for someone in media, and even rarer for me. I’m awash with happiness. I’ve reached a quiet state of bliss and I’ve only been in Costa Rica for a few days. According to Dan Buettner, author of Blue Zone Happiness, and to the Gallup World Poll, Costa Rica is the world’s happiest place. Compared to those living in 139 other countries, Costa Ricans report laughing, smiling, and experiencing joy more than the inhabitants of any other place on Earth. Living a full life in a place that lowers stress and heightens joy actually increases one’s happiness. Costa Ricans call it pura vida (pure life) and it’s real, baby. And its why your next trip should be to this country, where tourism is built around sustainability, there are no oligarchs, no military (by choice), and no exploited class of indigenous labor, but rather a lot of small property owners, entrepreneurs, and coffee growers. While some countries are still trying to keep girls out of school, Costa Rica has been committed to gender equality for decades, and mandated school for both girls and boys in 1869. The country’s simpler life impacts quantity, not just quality, of life. The death rate for men from heart disease here is about a third less than in the U.S. Although you can drive across the country, from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea, in a day (9-10 hours), you’ll want to embrace the country’s slower pace. Julio Cesar Calvo, the cofounder of GayCostaRica — a gay-owned and operated travel agency specializing in LGBT+ curated travel experiences — met me at Juan Santamaría International Airport in San Juan. He showed me around the country’s largest city, pointing out gay bars and driving through the artsy Barrio Escalante neighborhood past eclectic eateries and boutiques and Palm Springs-esque apartment complexes built in part for LGBTQ+ residents. Julio knows everyone — regardless of where we go, he’s talking with someone. After an overnight at surprising Victorian hotel in the city (Hotel Grano de Oro), we were on to LaPaz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park, the most-visited privately-owned eco attraction in Costa Rica. There we stayed at Peace Lodge, a boutique hotel with only 18 rooms, waterfall showers and giant stone tubs, and amazing views of La Paz River Valley and the towering Poás Volcano. Less than an hour from the airport, yet worlds away, the lodge is built around the country’s largest animal sanctuary, which protects more than 100 species including pumas, sloths, and monkeys. It was the rows of butterfl ies hatching in
COURTESY ANDAZ RESORT AT PENINSULA PAPAGAYO; KRYSSIA CAMPOS/GETTY IMAGES (HOWLER MONKEY)
The 10 Best Places To Go In 2022
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COURTESY ANDAZ RESORT AT PENINSULA PAPAGAYO; DENISE PANYIK DALE/GETTY IMAGES (LA PAZ WATERFALL)
OPPOSITE PAGE Andaz Resort rooms and a frequent visitor: Goldenmantled Howler Monkey THIS PAGE The indoor/ outdoor space at Andaz, where VACAYA hosts annual LGBTQ+ retreats (top) and its pools (middle). The La Paz Waterfall Gardens and Peace Lodge (bottom) are the amazing rain forest preserve with five waterfalls and the largest animal sanctuary in Costa Rica. La Paz is located betwen Poas Volcano National Park and Braulio Carrillo National Park.
real time, emerging slow and sleepy, that really enthralled me. It was the Peace Lodge’s 2.2-mile, stepped hiking trail that had sparked the soreness that I felt climbing waterfalls. But the venture had also been well worth the trek, taking us from the cloud forest to the rain forest. The trail weaves in and out of water, wrapping around, under, and over five giant waterfalls. Another couple of hours drive around Arenal Volcano National Park, and we were at Tabacón Thermal Resort & Spa. The 20 in-river thermal springs and waterfalls are all naturally warmed by the volcano’s bubbling magma. The resort also features an Insta-worthy tropical pool, and an adult only Shangri-La Gardens, which has private cabanas, a bartender, and six hot pools. That’s all on the other side of the 103 room eco retreat and two eateries, including the very delicious Ave del Pariso international restaurant. The spa features open-air bungalows where the calls of monkeys and macaws serve as a live relaxation serenade to treatments. The next day we drove to the North side of the country and trekked through Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges Park, an area where several different ecosystems collide, dramatically increasing the biodiversity of the region. As our handsome guide talks about the trees, you can almost feel the rainforest’s life force. In this park that encompasses a volcano and a lake, there are six suspension bridges and 10 regular bridges you can cross and some of them are accessible to electric scooters and wheelchairs. From Lake Arenal it was another 3.5 hour drive to Guanacaste where I met up with Randle Roper, a gay American and cofounder of VACAYA (see our story on page 72). The travel company will make history by doing the first all-LGBTQ+ resort takeover in Costa Rica in 2022, and Randle is here wrapping up the arrangements at Andaz Costa Rica Resort at Peninsula Papagayo, where I’ll spend the rest of the week. Andaz is as close to living in a tree you can get while still having the modern comforts of a luxury hotel. Surrounded by the natural beauty of the tropical rainforest, the resort is perched on a hillside overlooking the bay and the Pacific Ocean, giving every room spectacular views. Balconies are staggered and floor to ceiling windows and folding glass doors make it feel wall-less and immersed in the tropical forest. A river stone rain shower opens out to the balcony, where, if you accidentally leave food out, you’ll have monkey guests (though the hotel frowns on interspecies dinner parties). Andaz is a 5-star resort that has embraced indoor-outdoor living. The lobby does not have four walls (and supports are adorned with Indigenous OUTTRAVELER.COM 57
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You can’t divorce Costa Ricans’ happiness from the land they live in. Everybody I spoke with from the groundskeepers to the bartenders to the VP of a hotel spoke about the natural beauty of the region, the perfect climate, the commitment to preserving this paradise. Costa Rica leads, not just Latin America but globally they’re ahead. They’ve pledged to be carbon neutral by the end of this year. Already 95 percent of the country’s electricity comes from renewable sources and their forested area has increased by 10 percent in the last decade. It’s easy to come home from a visit to Costa Rica healthier and happier than when you left. Of course, I was sore for about 10 days after those 2,000 foot up and down waterfall hikes. But I finally understood pura vida the ubiquitous phrase that’s reflected this country’s ethos for at least 50 years. In English it means simple life or pure life, but it’s much more than that to Ticos (what Costa Ricans call themselves). Costa Ricans don’t dwell on adversity or set backs. Pura vida means life is short, be grateful for what you have, live the life you have, and don’t worry, be happy. I have a feeling that if more tourists took that philosophy back home with them instead of cheap tchotchkes, the world would be a happier place.
THIS PAGE Tabacon Thermal Springs (top left) is on the ecoroute from San Jose’s LGBTQ+ neighborhood to Andaz Peninsula Papagayo, an easy day drive. Mixologists use the country’s vast exotic fruits in their drinks (top right), including Lulo, a delicious fruit that tastes like a cross between a citrus and a cherry tomato. Beans, rice, and seafood is on tap everywhere including two delicious eateries: Tucanes Restaurant at Tabacon (above) and Andaz’s Chao Pescao.
COURTESY TABACÓN THERMAL RESORT SPA (SPRINGS AND MUSSELS)
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made art) the spa is integrated into the outdoors where monkeys come to dip in the fountains. It also has four restaurants, four pools, an outdoor theater, multiple bars, a spa, and three different private beaches (and a cabanna where we hung on rainbow-colored hammocks). The ever-present monkeys are a wonder. A n d a z r e f l e c t s t h e c o u n t r y ’s commitment to sustainability, with farmand sea-to-table ingredients and locally inspired cuisine. The restaurants also have open kitchens, a floor plan that allows for interactions between chefs and guests. While I’m there, Costa Rica’s top mixologist leads us in a workshop using fire, herbs, and cheese to make cocktails (and introducing me to the tropical fruit, Lulo, that tastes like a cross between a tomato and an orange). Andaz is the silent answer to our quest to escape to a place of harmony and happiness. The resort offers yoga, an open-air gym, and sound therapy. Yet it also facilitates a wide range of outdoor adventures like snorkeling, kayaking, paddle boarding, biking, and ziplining. And of course, hiking up volcanos and climbing waterfalls. Julio, my new friend at Gay Costa Rica, isn’t just selling travel to LGBTQ+ folks; he’s showing them a new way of life. And like a lot of happy people, he juggles this passion with another cause: he’s created a foundation, to open a shelter (and eventually a school) for disenfranchised trans and queer youth. It’ll take time, but he’ll keep plugging away because in Costa Rica, pura vida. So why are Costa Ricans so damn happy? How are they still happy, even now, while a pandemic rages and the world burns? And how do I bottle some of that to use when I’m back to the grind?
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SWEDEN
Proudly gay since 1944 BY DONALD PADGETT
Scandinavian countries are known for their inclusiveness, and Sweden consistently stages the largest Pride celebrations among Nordic countries. That makes sense, seeing as how Sweden got a head start on inclusivity. In 2019 the nation celebrated the 75th
anniversary of its decriminalization of homosexuality, making it, the locals like to say, “gay since 1944.” It’s been celebrating Pride for 30 years, and holds more Pride festivities per capita than anywhere else on the planet. This August, the Swedish city of Malmö proudly cohosted WorldPride 2021 with Copenhagen ( just across the river in Denmark). Malmö combines Old World charm with a modern cosmopolitan atmosphere. Walk the cobblestone streets of Old Town, visit the gothic 14th century
Saint Peter’s Church, then meet up with friends for drinks and dinner at one of the many bars, cafés, and restaurants of the 500-year-old Lilla Torg district. There’s certainly more to Sweden than Pride and the best place to start is in the country’s capital. Stockholm, oft called the Venice of the north, is located on a 14-island archipelago on the southeast coast. The Nationalmuseum is a must see, as are the Royal Palace and Bergius Botanic Garden in the Haga Royal Park. But the one excursion you can’t miss is the Stockholm archipelago, know as skärgården among local Swedes, is a collection of roughly 30,000 islands extending 50 miles east of the city. It’s the perfect daytrip for exploring by boat, but it’s also perfect for hiking, biking, kayaking, fishing, and more. Try staying at the historic Grand Hotel, which truly lives up to its name.
DRAZEN/GETTY IMAGES (SWEDEN); ESPEN HAAGENSEN-VISIT BERGEN (BERGEN)
NORWAY
In the land of fjords, Bergen is a hidden gem for queer travelers in search of history, natural beauty, and welcoming locals. Norway is one of world’s happiest countries, and one with a long history of LGBTQ-inclusion (legalizing samesex sexual relations in 1972). Discerning visitors will center Bergen on their itineraries. The UNESCO World Heritage City has a vibrant queer scene and a wonderful yearly Pride March that takes place rain or shine. As the locals like to say in Norway, there is no bad weather, just bad clothes. Known alternatively as the “city fjord” or the “city of seven mountains,” Bergen’s history, which dates back to the 11th century, is preserved today with cobblestone streets and historic architecture. Bryggen, the city’s old wharf that was rebuilt after a fire in 1702, is still a bustling center of trade. A stately former stock exchange building
from the 1800s has been repurposed into the marvelous Bergen Børs Hotel. Journeying just a few minutes outside Bergen rewards travelers with limitless natural beauty. You can visit Sognefjord, the “king of fjords,” the longest and deepest in the country, with mountain walls rising 6,500 feet, conveniently located between Oslo and Bergen. Another option is the Flåm Railway (Flåmsbana), which whisks riders through small villages and deep fjords filled with emerald-green rivers and cascading waterfalls. The Northern Lights add a mystic quality to the majestic landscapes.—DP
THIS PAGE The cable car to Mt Ulricken rises above Bergen, Norway (above) but cycling is a popular way to get around town on the ground.
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CANADA
Get Back to Nature in Newfoundland As evidenced by Canadian trans author Cooper Lee Bombardier’s amazing IG grid, the island of Newfoundland is a nature- and history-lovers paradise. It’s also a safe, queer-inviting destination, as demonstrated by a new program from the Association For New Canadians to sponsor LGBTQ+ asylum seekers. Newfoundland’s quaint capital of St. John’s is the oldest city in the country at over 500 years and counting. The British colonial architecture can still be seen alongside later styles of more traditional Canadian fishing villages. The hilly terrain might remind you of San Francisco, as will the array of fresh seafood restaurants. Find LGBTQ-welcoming boutique accommodations at establishments like Gower Manor Historic B&B. St. John’s conveniently connects to the East Coast Trail, a network of paths extending 200 miles along the Atlantic coast. To truly experience Newfoundland’s incredible natural beauty leave the city for the island’s National Parks. The most spectacular is Gros Mornek National Park on the island’s western side. Explore a seemingly endless landscape of fjords with thunderous waterfalls, dense forests, and the Earth’s exposed mantle pushed upwards by plate tectonics. The region is stunning and yet accessible and there are a number of smaller accommodations in the area.—DP
SPAIN
There’s always a party on Ibiza Spain remains a coveted LGBTQ+ tourist destination despite its deep Catholic heritage. Whether you choose to walk the historic Way of St. James in the north, explore the Gaudi architecture and nightlife of Barcelona, or party nonstop on the Mediterranean isle of Ibiza, you’ll never be at a loss for activities of every kind in the Iberian Peninsula nation. Queer travelers looking to let their hair down after a long global lockdown simply bypass the mainland and head directly to Ibiza for a wild and crazy gaycation. The island is rightfully renowned for its over-the-top nightlife since there’s probably a party going on somewhere at any hour during the summer months, filled with both the glitterati and locals, all mixing together. Ibiza is also the site of the infamous punch thrown by Orlando Bloom at that Bieber boy in the super swanky Cipriani restaurant back in 2014. Queer visitors should head to Ibiza Town’s gay neighborhood, Calle de la Virgen, with its terraced restaurants and gay bars ideal for fun times, people watching, and cruising for hookups. If you’d rather not party like Paris Hilton but prefer to relax in luxury and relative solitude, leave behind Ibiza Town and head north to the Six Senses Resort. This exclusive beachside hotel and spa centers wellness and relaxation rather than a night on the town. The accommodations are refined, the food thoughtfully prepared, and the setting is simply a natural work of art. —DP
JARMO PIIRONEN/GETTY IMAGES (NEWFOUNDLAND); JAIME REINA/GETTY IMAGES (SPAIN)
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Rainbow flag flies during Ibiza’s Gay Pride
St. John’s, Newfoundland reminds some of San Francisco
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LEFT The author with guide The Fabulous Wonder Mama BELOW The Bondi to Bronte coastal path
AUSTRALIA
COURTESY DONALD PADGETT (AUSTALIA); PRIME IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES (NEW ZEALAND)
Beaches, barrier reefs, and boys. The LGBTQ+ love affair with Australia began for many with the iconic movie, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, but it continued with the great food, queer-friendly nightlife, friendly people, the Great Barrier Reef, and miles of unspoiled beaches. Sydney is the country’s gay capital and home to Mardi Gras, its unique version of Pride. The quirky yet refined 5-star Ovolo 1888 Darling Harbor Boutique Hotel is centrally located. See the famed Oxford Street gay district with a private tour from The Fabulous Wonder Mama (@thefabulouswondermama), a wealth of knowledge and humor who also possesses some of the biggest peaks this side of the Grand Tetons. Bondi Beach is perfect for working on your tan or taking a surfing lesson. From there you can stroll the Bondi to Bronte coastal walk. The pathway’s natural beauty hides a dark past during the 1980s when a number of gay men lost their lives thrown from the cliffs onto the rocks below. Further north is Byron Bay and its amazing beaches, famed lighthouse, and pristine waters. After a day of responsible snorkeling with endangered sea turtles, you can glamp at the Hideaway at Cabarita Beach. Just steps from a mileslong unspoiled beach and adjacent to a nature reserve, the well-appointed airconditioned tents will keep you cool on hot summer nights. No visit to Australia would be complete without an excursion to the Great Barrier Reef, a natural wonder that is currently threatened by the warming oceans brought on by climate change.—DP
NEW ZEALAND
Find adventure in the South Islands
The Milford Sound fiord, in Fiordland national park in New Zealand
New Zealand has long been a bucket list destination for nature lovers, and it’s also a sought-after destination for queer travelers as well. The nation is divided into the North and South Islands, with the former being the more populated of the two. South Island has a buffet of travel options for the intrepid LGBTQ+ traveler. Start your visit in Christchurch, staying at The George, a 5-star hotel that overlooks Hagley Park and is a short distance from the famed Christchurch Botanic Gardens. But don’t limit yourself to the bright lights of the city. The South Island is bisected by the Southern Alps which reach heights of over 12,000 feet. These mountains also feature some of the most accessible glaciers in the world, like the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. You can hike to them with relative ease, but perhaps the most spectacular views come from a helicopter tour. Be sure to also visit Fiordland National Park for near-limitless exploration of these mountains and their fiords, forests, and alpine lakes. And don’t miss a visit to Te Anau and its famed glow worms. —DP OUTTRAVELER.COM 61
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MEXICO
Visit the San Francisco South of the Border BY DESIRÉE GUERRERO
The Indigenous people of Mexico were historically accepting of
the queer, trans, and nonbinary folks among them until European colonists brought Christianity (and consequently, queer-shaming) to the continent. However, today many locals hold tight to their Indigenous ancestry and it’s a growing movement to return to pre-colonization ways of living and thinking, specifically in terms of queer acceptance. The country has expanded LGBTQ+ protections in recent years, and most areas welcome out travelers with open arms. If you haven’t heard (have you been living under a rock?), one of the most beautiful, fun, queer-friendly
places in the country is Puerto Vallarta, these days often referred to as the “San Francisco of Mexico.” The thriving gay scene is centered in Zona Romántica, a concentrated area of hotels, resorts, queer bars and nightclubs, and a gay beach on the main shore. For beachfront luxury stay at Almar Resort, an exclusive LGBTQ+ hotel. For a wild time off the beaten path, Piñata PV Gay Hotel offers rustic charm and clothing optional pool parties. Mexico City runs a close second, particularly for the electric gay nightlife located at the heart of the city in Zona Rosa, the area’s official gayborhood (which also has some of the best shopping). During the day, you can take in the sights via an all-gay tour of the capital city and surrounding areas (outadventures.com) — highlights include Fr ida K ahlo’s “Blue House,” Chapultepec Castle, and nearby Teotihuacan.
FERRANTRAITE/GETTY IMAGES (MEXICO); JOE DANIEL PRICE/GETTY IMAGES (MALTA)
Panoramic aerial view of Puerto Vallarta skyline
MALTA
PHOTO CREDIT
Creatures of the Blue Lagoon
Malta is a small archipelago, or groups of islands, just off the southern coast of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea. Historically, the tiny island nation has served as an important port and trading hub connecting Europe to Africa. Because of this prime location, much of Maltese food and culture is a nuanced blend of many worlds. Today, Malta is known for its gorgeous views and perfect year-round weather (though visiting in the spring or fall will help you avoid the crowds and costs of the peak seasons). The predominately Catholic country recognized same-sex marriage in 2017 and it is gaining a reputation as a queer-inclusive hot spot, with festive annual Pride celebrations (September). We love club Lollipop, located in the coastal capital city of Valetta. The Birdcage Lounge in Rabat has a fun, mixed crowd and karaoke. Though not an exclusively LGBTQ+ space, lesbian-owned Maori is a popular due to its monthly parties for queer women. The Phoenicia in Valetta offers 1920s elegance and 5-star luxury while the Marco Polo Party hostel in St Julian’s provides a lively, mixed crowd. Despite its small geographical size, there is no shortage of culture or natural beauty in Malta, so there is always plenty to discover. To soak in some history and architecture, visit Medina, Vittoriosa, and Gozo (an island surrounded by famous shipwrecks). Most importantly though, you’ll want to head over to the island of Camino to see the famous Blue Lagoon, a breathtaking natural pool of deep azure-colored waters. —DG
Inside the Pirate Cave under the iconic Blue Grotto, Qrendi, Malta
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A beautiful temple in reflection in twilight at Wat Non Kum
THAILAND
PAKIN SONGMOR/GETTY IMAGES
Queer-embracing Bangkok, Phuket, and BoyzTown Thailand, known for its lush tropical beaches, fascinating ancient ruins, and gorgeous Buddhist temples, has also been long regarded as the most LGBTQ-friendly country in all of Southeast Asia. The country is especially progressive toward transgender people, who are arguably more a part of mainstream life here than most other places in the world. The capital city of Bangkok, the center of queer culture in Thailand, juxtaposes quiet canal communities against a modern metropolis filled with clubs, bars, cabarets, and lots of great shopping. The canal waterways, once used as the area’s main form of transportation, still run through much of the city and connect to the Chao Phraya River. Just about any accommodations in Bangkok’s chic gayborhood of Silom are queer-friendly, as well as in the nearby area, Sathorn. We love The Babylon, a gay-exclusive hotel in the center of Bangkok. The beach resort towns of Pattaya and Phuket are known for their gay beaches and lively LGBTQ+ nightlife. Pattaya’s queer red-light district, BoyzTown, will ensure you have an unforgettable time. Nearby Phuket also offers wild nights (including famous ladyboy shows), white sand beaches, and luxurious boutique hotels like La Flora Resort Patong. Or spice up your trip by staying at the Aquarius Gay Guesthouse & Sauna. —DG
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Queers lead the way in a changing industry. BY JACOB ANDERSON-MINSHALL
SHUTTETSTOCK
People in the LGBTQ+ community have long valued travel more than our straight/cisgender counterparts. Part of that is because so many of us have had to leave our homes and go elsewhere in order to be ourselves, find others like us, and celebrate our natural fabulousness. We’re also more interested in and open to experiencing something different from what our hometown offers, and that has led us to explore and engage with the world — and spend more money and time to do so. That spirit remains vibrant despite the pandemic. A recent report by the IGLTA, an international LGBTQ+ travel association, shows that getting out into the world remains a high priority for queer folks. And we’ve shown that by leading the charge back to favorite destinations. “Gays lead, and the rest follow,” Roger Dow, president and CEO of U.S. Travel Association, which represents all segments of the industry, told the National LGBT Media Association earlier this year. Of course, as the past 18 months show, we can’t predict the future and the Earth is shifting under our feet. So, what will 2022 bring for queer travel? In this special section, Out Traveler examines the trends, the future of circuit parties, and how TikTok will change where, why, and when we travel.
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Future
Casting What does LGBTQ+ travel of tomorrow look like?
WE ARE FAMILY! After being sequestered from our extended
families, people are looking to spend more time with parents and friends who are farther away. A rising number of LGBTQ+ vacationers are bringing along adult children, siblings, parents, and grandparents.
TRAVEL INTIMACY Gone are the days where many want to
join 10,000 other people sardined into a single venue. More and more tourists are looking for small, inherently intimate experiences and tours.
HYBRID EVENTS The half in-person, half digital events
are here to stay. Instead of a half million visitors, this year’s WorldPride saw tens of thousands and held 100 events online. Expect more to follow.
POP-UP EVENTS Keeping up a brick-and-mortar location is
expensive, especially when you may have to close or curtail your business unexpectedly. Expect more food trucks and popup parties like those put on by Chelcea Stowers (see page 78). Also expect more micro-events and personal experiences that come to you.
SAFETY REMAINS IMPORTANT Travel safety isn’t a new
buzzword for a community that has long had to worry about anti-LGBTQ+ violence, discrimination, and harassment. We’ll continue to choose our destinations carefully and gravitate to places and people who make us feel safe.
WE’RE HERE, GET USED TO IT It took a lot of work to get the
travel industry to not just accept gay and lesbian tourists but start catering to our particular needs and interests. Now it’s time for trans, nonbinary, BIPOC, plus-sized, and disabled travelers to be embraced for who we are.
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF PRIVILEGE 2020 has woken
more of us up to the privileges we have — and how those privileges come at the cost of others and therefore carry a responsibility. The freedom of unrestricted travel is indeed a privilege most of the world will never experience. More of us now want the places and people we support to help make LGBTQ+ lives — especially queer people of color’s lives — better.
REGENERATIVE TRAVEL Last year didn’t just bring
us a global pandemic, it also brought new awareness of social inequalities, and new urgency in addressing the climate crisis. Those elements have given credence to the new “regenerative” travel movement that aims to enrich destinations and their local communities.
REDEFINING LUXURY Luxury used to evoke images
of gold taps, silk sheets, personal space, and concierge services. Now luxuries (especially space) are being redefined as essentials. Luxury travelers want once-ina-lifetime experiences, sustainability, itineraries curated specifically for them, and contactless stays.
SLOW TRAVEL Rather than jetting off for a weekend of
drug-fueled quickies, more and more Americans — even the gayest and horniest among us — are reevaluating where and how we travel. Many travelers feel safer behind the wheel, even if that limits their reach or increases the time getting somewhere. Sometimes the journey is more powerful than the destination.
ROAD TRIP! With international travel on pause and a
common desire to limit our exposure to other people and indoor events, road trips, weekend getaways, and RVing will continue to increase in popularity.
INTO THE WILD With the emphasis on social distancing
continuing, outdoor activities are gaining in interest. An increasing number of LGBTQ+ people are venturing into the great outdoors: biking, hiking, camping, and embracing water sports.
SLOW BOAT? Cruise ships may have done more than
any other segment of the travel industry to prevent infections, but that hasn’t kept numerous passengers and crew from testing positive. Yet they have prevented big outbreaks on board. Fans of VACAYA, RSVP, Olivia, R Family Vacations, and others are likely to still queue up, even when others are still nervous about doing so.
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Unsettling Travel
Travel can be a force that perpetuates systems of discrimination and exploitation. Bani Amor describes how we start dismantling coloniality. BY JACOB ANDERSON-MINSHALL
A friend of mine recently commented that all travel is colonizing. Do you think that’s true? No. I say that because I think it’s important to be specific about what we’re talking about, since “travel” is usually implied to describe leisure tourism abroad. I like to reframe travel to consider all migratory experiences, from people displaced due to the effects of imperialism to those stolen and trafficked into slavery, to just how we all navigate our local communities. When we limit this word to only apply to a small minority of monied, usually white Westerners, we limit the scope of the
conversation and exclude needed visions for actual change in this space. In that regard, when oppressed peoples visit each other and share resistance tactics, analysis, and joy, radical change occurs. Look at Marcus Garvey in Costa Rica or Malcolm X in Egypt or Angela Davis in Palestine and Black Lives Matter activists in Cuba. I also see how Afro-descendant people traveling to Black regions in Latin America or on homegoing journeys to the African continent, for example, like the tours that groups like AfroLatinx Travel organizes, places that the tourism industry warns us not to visit because of perceived danger or seemingly poor infrastructure, can bring about healing and solidarity for those communities and those deep, deep wounds. How do we decolonize the travel industry? You can’t decolonize a capitalistic enterprise like the tourism industry. Decolonization is about the sovereignty of Native communities, brought about by a return of land so that self-determination can be possible. Abolishing systems that keep power imbalances intact (for
Angela Davis, speaking here after she was fired from UCLA because of socialist affiliations, found kinship with other oppressed peoples during her visit to the Middle East
DUKE DOWNEY/GETTY IMAGES
Bani Amor is a genderqueer travel writer, photographer, and activist from Brooklyn by way of Ecuador. They explore the relationships between race, place, and power and teach other authors to “dismantle coloniality,” in travel writing. Because the genre was born during European expansionism, its tropes can inherently offer a colonial point of view. Out Traveler spoke with Amor about their work, whether all travel is colonizing, and what we can do to change things.
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instance, there is no decolonizing travel while borders are still in place) is central to this project, as is paying reparations to Black African and Afro-descendants for centuries of colonialism and slavery. Only then do I believe that truly just forms of travel can be achieved. How does participating in the “mass tourism industry” lead to greater social inequality? It’s about taking advantage of the social inequities already in place that allow for such an enterprise to flourish in the unsustainable ways that it does. No matter the intent, and, often, the form of travel chosen, a class of people enabled by systemic disadvantages arriving in a place benefits a small class of corporations and individuals at the expense of those who have to contend with its consequences — namely, displacement. …the presence of this class of travelers prices people out of their homes and transforms their economies and cultures into one of service to the foreigner in power. As long as these systemic inequalities exist and there’s money to be made, we’re really just making a minority of people richer at any cost.
COURTESY BANI AMOR
Tourists are often encouraged to “help save” a place by returning to a destination after a disaster. Does that really help? No, it often doesn’t. As we see now, the health of local people is put at great risk (like, um, death) by the loosening of travel restrictions, forcing people to return to work…too soon. Just send money to the overwhelming number of individuals and organizations that need them. What does decolonized travel look like? How can we recognize it? There is no “decolonized” in the past tense. To quote Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang from their text “Decolonization Is Not A Metaphor,” “decolonization brings about the repatriation of Indigenous land and life.” This movement has been in progress for a long time and decolonization as it pertains to travel is going to look different to each community working towards it, so it’s up to their visions. Decolonization begins at home. If you are a settler or a settler migrant as I am, you need to be
reckoning with what that might look like locally first. Our identities, historical and interpersonal relationships to place, and location within the pyramid of hierarchy inform how we move outwardly. I look at the landmark book Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawai’i as one such framework that could be replicated across the world.
Genderqueer travel writer and activist Bani Amor
Can you share some of your tips for dismantling coloniality in travel writing? We look at the history of the dominant narrator in travel writing and dismantle what that internalized colonizer sees, thinks, and the ways that manifests in our writing today. Colonization could not have taken place without a written narrative of
“When oppressed peoples visit each other and share resistance tactics, analysis, and joy, radical change occurs.” Western imaginaries of the Other, so I believe that travel writing, which is really just the story of the world, is crucial to the movement toward decolonization. We identify these stale worldviews behind the language often used to death in travel writing and look to more creative ways of breaking the old formula of the genre. Just turn that shit upside down and look at it for real, behind the veneer of good intent and leisure at any cost. That’s kind of what queer theory is, right? The travel writer is in desperate need of an identity crisis, and that’s where queering the travel genre comes in.
Follow Bani Amor at @baniamor
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ME AND MARIAH (AND DINAH)
What to expect for the return of the world’s largest event for queer women. BY ROBIN LOWEY
Why she’s grateful “At 28, I was a pioneer at creating this platform for lesbians in a whole new format. There was a lot of responsibility that came with that, but I knew what to do and enjoyed it. It’s rare to be fortunate enough to be able to align what we love doing with what we are good at. So, when I look back on over 30 years of producing events, I feel really grateful for the trajectory of my life. I’ve been given this gift of The Dinah, and I’m always asking myself, how can I share this gift in a way that creates positive change in the world?” Why she does it: “I come from an activist family. Having a really powerful mother with a deep commitment to challenging the inequities in our world really shaped me. My mother marched in every civil rights protest she could possibly get to. For me, The Dinah is an opportunity to rail against the machine in very subtle and nuanced ways by bringing together a diverse group of people and creating an extremely inclusive environment. Our commitment is to increasing that diversity as much as we can.” Why it matters “It’s bigger than a party — and even though it looks like five days of bacchanalian delight,
TOP TO BOTTOM Kode Shane, Taylor Rene, and Kiana Lede performing at The Dinah in 2019
it’s actually a movement! The Dinah is a place where it’s possible for people to live in the world they want to live in, and the diversity there is beautiful. What people experience at The Dinah is incredibly powerful. We are bringing people together from all over the country — and the world — people who don’t always have the same experience as those of us who live in a liberal bubble, like San Francisco. I think bringing nonbinary, queer, and woman-identified women together from all different backgrounds and ethnicities really makes a difference in helping us to understand each other.” What she’s doing to keep it safe “I’ve hired a COVID compliance manager… I’ve hired a medical company to come in and do onsite testing…You will need to bring vaccination cards or proof of a negative test within 48 hours. We are planning on masking inside…[and] I have venues with a lot of space for social distancing indoors. We are, however, in a pandemic, and anything we do, other than locking ourselves in our homes, has a certain risk factor.” On the entertainment this year “The 2020 line-up we had planned was incredible — Saweetie was my headliner but she’s had stratospheric success this past year and now I can’t get her! People can expect a really phenomenal line-up this
year. I am bringing back some old-school [performers like] Macy Gray and a roster of emerging artists, including MK xyz.” Why we need it “We have our own specific and amazing culture — and we need to be with each other….After a year and a half of not being able to connect in person, we need each other more than ever. Even though we are not yet out of the pandemic, one thing I know for sure is that The Dinah will prevail. We are always going to be here.”
COURTESY CLUB SKIRT DINAH SHORE WEEKEND
Down a long dusty driveway in Sonoma, California, past a stable of horses, an old discarded truck and other rusty artifacts, I arrive at Mariah Hanson’s beautiful ranch house, where the party producer spent childhood summers with her family. I’m here to chat about Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend, aka The Dinah, which celebrates 30 years under Hanson’s tutelage when it returns to Palm Springs September 29 through October 3. I’m also here to renew a friendship. It’s been a few years since we’ve ridden horses together in these northern California hills. I first met Mariah when she was producing lesbian clubs in San Francisco in the ’90s. She’s always been a spark plug, but in the past few years I’ve seen a change in her — a softening. We’ve all grown older and wiser, but it’s especially exciting to bear witness to an old friend’s personal growth. After three decades of what has been called the world’s largest lesbian circuit party — but which she has transformed into an annual music festival — she muses on why The Dinah still matters.
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Party On?
Jeffrey Sanker, “godfather of parties” is gone. Will White Party gyrate again?
TIBRINA HOBSON/GETTY IMAGES (WHITE PARTY); VINCENT SANDOVAL/GETTY IMAGES (SANKER)
BY NEAL BROVERMAN
White Party Palm Springs founder Jeffrey Sanker sadly succumbed to cancer in May, but those who are stepping into his shoes insist his legendary party will still go on — just not this year. Under Sanker’s leadership, the event — the largest gay circuit party in the United States, attracting 30,000 attendees in 2019 — had been planned for Halloween 2021. But organizers have now postponed the three-day bacchanal until April 29, 2022, because of his passing. Nightclub owner Chris Diamond is one of three people taking over Sanker’s company — now called White Party Global (whitepartyglobal.com) — along with Diamond’s business partner, Javier Jimenez, and Sanker’s sister, Diane Sanker. Diamond and Jimenez own Industry Night Club in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, the site of many White Party-produced events, and White Party Global has PV parties planned for 2021’s Halloween, Thanksgiving, and New Year’s Eve. Diamond tells Out Traveler that the addition of the word “global” to the organization’s name is purposeful, reflecting White Party’s goal of hosting events around the world. But for now,
White Party Global will focus its energies on Puerto Vallarta and ensuring that next year’s event in Palm Springs is a blockbuster. Superstars like Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, and Ariana Grande have graced the stages of White Party Palm Springs in the past, and there’s hope another A-lister will welcome back revelers following the two-year break. Sanker launched White Party Palm Springs back in 1990, when HIV and antigay discrimination were bearing down on the community. Diamond recalls dancing in the desert and thinking of the elaborate events, with their cutting-edge lighting and talented DJs, Wow, there are places like this gay people can go? White Party has never been entirely hedonistic: the organization donates a portion of proceeds to the Desert AIDS Project, and Sanker also produced charity events for organizations like Gay & Lesbian Elder Housing and The Trevor Project. Diamond promises that charitable aspect will continue, although he envisions that White Party Global may choose different organizations to benefit (he mentions shifting support to The LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert). Mostly, Diamond’s excited to have people back on the dance floor after all the Zoom parties and isolation. “The idea is to do White Party Global and help bring people together,” Diamond says.
TOP TO BOTTOM The Renaissance Hotel Pool Party at Jeffrey Sanker’s 2018 White Party; Jeffrey Sanker at the 25th White Party Anniversary at Palm Springs Convention Center in 2014
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Next Travel Forget the filters. #TikTokTravel is bringing us the real world. BY DIANE ANDERSON-MINSHALL
It’s said these days among marketing gurus that that every generation has its own social platform. Facebook is for, well, old people like me, according to Nicky Champa, the 25-year-old half of TikTok’s most adorable couple. He doesn’t say “old,” but we both know what he means (and he’s right). He and his boyfriend, Pierre Boo, have 11 million followers on TikTok, another 100,000 on YouTube, and while they don’t always do travel, they tap into what makes that content on TikTok so appealing. Sure, beautifully curated Instagram was a hit with Millennials and Twitter, I assume, is for rageaholics of all ages. But over the past year, no social media app has been hotter than TikTok, with over 1 billion monthly active users (more than half of worldwide users are under the age of 30). TikTok is now second only to Facebook in terms of app popularity (passing Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat in downloads). It’s not just the kids though. During a year of quarantine, TikTok got us out of our houses (at least in our minds) and visiting far flung places. It’s going to change how many of us travel moving forward. A few years ago, I went on a trip to a Caribbean destination with an Instagram influencer. It was the antithesis of travel to me. There were clothing changes and staged photos and even a (admittedly cool) trick using a puddle and two iPhones to make it look like she was walking on water. The afternoons I spent with her were some of my least favorite, in part because I don’t want to stage my experiences — I genuinely want to explore and experience a destination. In 2021, TikTok is set to revolutionize travel with the fiveyear-old app’s escapism-based entertainment-driven algorithm (it’s an endless scroll adjusted based on what you do or don’t engage with). Unlike Instagram, there’s very little feeling that the experience is curated for you, and I have yet to meet someone who has left TikTok feeling worse (unlike the k-hole of shamescrolling through uncannily beautiful people and out-of-reach resorts that Instagram often leads to). The filtered aesthetic is missing here; TikTok offers travel reality. TikTok travel is real, sometimes mundane, and yet, fascinating. There’s no façade. Couplets of sandhill cranes in an Idaho farmer’s field, a trans teen in a cartoon T-shirt at a Berlin subway stop, an Indigenous dancer lip-syncing in a desert landscape. The kids of TikTok, and increasingly the rest of us, miss this most in our daily lives: the realness and connection with the world outside our own homes and communities. The dream shots of unattainable places only the privileged few get to experience aren’t a draw for this audience. TikTok calls out overtourism (something that social influencers on other apps helped fuel), pushing for sustainable and ethical tourism. Locals showing off their city get more engagement than colonizing jetsetters trotting the globe. It’s about bite-sized authenticity in an air brushed world. TikTokers frequently simply tell us about their worlds in 30 second bits. A creator on TikTok might get 12 views on a video about their boyfriend, 200 on a video of him riding with his head out of the car window, and 3.5 million with him showing off his favorite taqueria in the Arroyo Grande valley. It’s real and in the era of pandemic lockdowns and travel restrictions, it’s our world as we long to see it again.
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CONTINUED FROM 27 this transition,” she insists. “It’s much easier. On an expedition like this…you can just make a decision: I’m just going to rest. But when you’re going through a transition… you cannot just press pause.” Grétarsdóttir also gained a new purpose on her voyage, and is poised to embark on a not her, e ven more c h a l le n g i n g e x p e d it ion sparked by what she saw on her trip around Iceland. “I got noticing all the trash on the beaches and in the water. In a way it changed me. I’m buying less stuff now because I don’t need it.” Her nex t advent ure involves kayaking around the whole of Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark) to draw attention to plastic pollution. “The sheer amount of trash around Iceland was my wakeup call to do something,” Grétarsdóttir says. The new expedition will also be filmed, and this time she’ll have a traveling companion — Irish kayaker Ciara Harrington — but will once again be going against the current. Follow Veiga Grétarsdóttir @ _againstthecurrent_
DIY Adventure
How to get your own taste of Iceland’s majestic bird cliffs By Donald Padgett Iceland is a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts, albeit those not opposed to wet and colder climes. In the most sparsely populated country in Europe, one never has to travel far to find solitude. And while there’s probably a tour operator for every sport or activity that might interest a visitor to Iceland, there’s really no need to fear a DIY experience that lets you experience the Nordic island country on your own. One of the more spectacular destinations in a country known for its breathtaking natural beauty , Látrabjarg in the Westfjords, is more familiar to most as the seabird cliffs of Iceland. Rising at points to over 1,400 feet, the Látrabjarg is home to millions of seabirds nesting along its eight-mile-length. It’s also puffin paradise, that cute little bird with a brightly colored beak and bright orange legs. No need for a package tour to walk along the cliffs snapping pics. Another DIY option is kayaking, although you may haVe trouble choosing which type of kayaking is best for you. If you’re in good condition, you can paddle along the unforgiving sea. However, less challenging locales are just as rewarding. There are plenty of rivers and placid, iceberg-filled, azure or turquoise lagoons to explore. Breiðafjörður Bay is a particularly rewarding destination, with its backdrop of mountains and glaciers. It even has its own shipwreck. If you’re unsure of going completely DIY in a kayak, though, rest assured there are plenty of reputable tour operators who provide small group and private bookings that will keep you clear of the crowd. There’s also one sport that’s uniquely Icelandic: Spranga. It’s the Icelandic version of a rope swing, albeit from one hanging off the side of a cliff. However, we don’t recommend doing this one yourself.
COURTESY ZEITGEIST FILMS; ANDREW PEACOCK/GETTY IMAGES (PUFFINS)
me,” for being trans. “But now I live in this small town and it’s the best place for me to be in the world.” Part of what changed was Grétarsdóttir herself. She stopped worrying so much about what other people would think. But the people of Iceland changed too. When Grétarsdóttir starts off on her expedition, a handful of people gather at the shore to see her off. Her parents, a few friends, the filmmaker. Her return draws a crowd of more than a hundred who cheer her arrival. In her absence, she has become something of a national hero. Iceland TV news anchors have tracked her progress for the past three months. “It was over whelming,” Grétarsdóttir recalls. “I did not expect this. I didn’t know how to act. All these people hugging me, giving me a kiss and flowers and champagne and everything! It was more than I expected.” In some ways, Grétarsdóttir still discounts her feat. For her, transitioning was far more difficult than paddling for 100-plus days and crossing the distance from New York to Oklahoma. “Going around Iceland was easier than going through
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NAVIGATION
Can a Vacation Change the World? VACAYA’s gay co-founders on how LGBTQ+ travelers — and their stories — are uplifting their destinations. By Jacob Anderson-Minshall
W
ABOVE Antartica travelers LEFT VACAYA founders Patrick Gunn (left) and Randle Roper
from Polari, a centuries-old language used by the gay subculture to discreetly communicate.” And of course, “vacay” is a casual mainstream term for vacation. To create the right environment for these experiences, VACAYA charters entire ships and resorts, giving travelers the freedom to express themselves authentically. “For one magical week, our community gets to be the majority and live life out loud in the blissful utopia VACAYA creates,” Gunn says. “That single change from being an always-minority to a
COURTESY VACAYA
hen Patrick Gunn and Randle Roper founded VACAYA they were hoping to find a “sweet spot – a great ‘in between’” that blended just the right amount of the “liberating, empowering, and fun aspects of all-gay travel” with the variety of activities, destinations, and types of people found with more mainstream vacation travel. Roper says VACAYA is the first vacation or cruise company to really cater to “the entire LGBTQIA+ community.” He argues the queer community “sort of segments ourselves into our tribes. And we’ve been holding that model for about, gosh, Olivia [Cruises has] been around almost 50 years. They were all lesbian, then RSVP came along in 1985 as all gay, Atlantis in 1991 as all gay, and R Family Vacation kind of came into the mix to cater to the families with Rosie O’Donnell and Kelly Carpenter. They have a wonderful model, and they do cater to LGBT folks. But we are adults only.” Don’t get the wrong impression though, VACAYA isn’t that kind of adults-only. “While everyone loves a good time, there’s more to a memorable vacation than just parties,” Gunn says. “We also recognized the trend with Millennials that they didn’t require an experience to be exclusively gay men to be a viable option. They wanted to travel with their friends, no matter whether their friends were gay, straight, bi, questioning — or fell anywhere else on the spectrum.” The travel company’s name itself blends elements from gay and straight worlds, Gunn explains. “‘VACAYA’ is a word
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sudden-majority can have a profoundly positive real-world effect on individuals. And in those moments of bravery when an individual is feeling safe within our traveling group, some choose to share their authenticity with the communities we visit, which helps change the world – one story and connection at a time.” Those stories, and the change they engender are a part of VACAYA’s mission, Roper says, “We have an internal model that we’re just starting to put out there that we’d like to leave the places better off than when we arrived. The way we do that is by each of us telling our stories. We all have such incredible stories to share with the world. So when we come to these places, it’s about connecting with the workers, it’s connecting with the locals.” At a resort vacation in Costa Rica, VACAYA gave guests an opportunity to connect with the local LGBTQ+ community in San Jose, which is a chance to visit a very different environment than that the Pacific remote resort, which Roper describes as “more wilderness for lack of a better way to describe it, with the dry forest and the rain forest. It’s going to be a really great combination.” As the vacationers travel the fivehour ride between the resort and the city, guides have also arranged for local LGBTQ+ craftsmen to share their wares and their stories. “Which I just love,” Roper says. “Because it gives people a chance to really, really connect. And every time you connect with someone, it just breaks down those walls that are built around ourselves.” That broadening of minds can also ripple outward, Gunn says. “LGBTQ+ travelers have the potential to impact the lives of thousands and thousands of locals in the destinations we visit along with hospitality workers and their families. One example is VACAYA’s own ReachOUT program where our mission is to ensure we’re giving back more to the communities we visit than what’s being taken away. Partnering with local organizations, we offer our guests an opportunity during their vacation to give back — either with a bit of sweat equity or financially. Helping to make the world a better place for others is likely to be the best thing our guests can do to counter the pain of 2020 for themselves.” Gunn adds that he believes “that by understanding a place and its people, we can better share our stories and that little by little, sharing our stories can change
LEFT Provincetown’s Summer Jamboree BELOW The Seychelle Islands trip will take travelers to the archipelago just north of Madagascar and offers an add-on African safari excursion
the world.” This is, he argues, why LGBTQ+ travelers should visit a wide variety of destinations around the world, rather than boycotting those that might not be entirely welcoming to queer tourists. But t hat doesn’t mea n VAC AYA picks unwelcoming locations for their vacations. For example, Roper points out that “Costa Rica really is leading away in regard to LGBT+ inclusivity here in Latin America. I mean, it was really an easy choice for us.” VAC AYA is a lso embracing t he industr y’s move toward more ecoconscious travel. “Our guests believe we can change the world… [and they] care deeply about the environment,” Gunn says. “That’s why we aligned with PONANT cruises for our expedition adventures to places like Iceland and Antarctica. PONANT prides itself on a constant respect for the environment, from the design of their yachts and procedures to low-impact shore visits.” The company has won numerous awards as for its proactive approach to embracing social and environmental responsibility. “There is no doubt VACAYA and our guests leave a lasting impression in
places we visit,” Gunn adds, pointing to the company’s collaboration with Project Backpack. “One of the most devastating consequences of living in poverty is the impact it has on a child’s educat ion. To a n under pr iv ileged student in places like Roatán, Barbuda, or Mexico, being able to start the school year with brand new school supplies is critical to their ability to learn and grow. For the past two years, VACAYA brought P rojec t Back pack to our Mexico Resort experience…[giving] guests the opportunity to collect and deliver these supplies to schools in the ports we visit.” Gunn argues that travel is an important part of many LGBTQ+ people’s lives. “Travel is our guests’ favorite way to get inspired and become better global citizens of our beautiful world,” he says. “While our guests love the nonstop entertainment and parties we provide, they’re also looking for experiences that resonate on a deeper emotional level: vacations to a wider range of destinations, more personalized, and more attuned to local culture, inspiring our community toward a path of self-discovery.”
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NOURISH
At the Ocean’s Edge
How a city boy found new life on Cape Cod where the land sinks into the sea. By Taylor Henderson
PHOTO CREDIT
H
ave you taken some time for yourself lately? It’s been tough to relax this year, but self-care, rejuvenation, and simply celebrating the gift of being alive has become more important than ever. If it’s been a minute, it might be time to plan a retreat to Ocean Edge Resort.
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OPPOSITE: SHUTTERSTOCK; THIS PAGE: COURTESY TAYLOR HENDERSON (TOP); COURTESY OCEAN EDGE (REST)
to someone who has never stepped foot on anything more expansive than a boozy putt-putt course. The resort has your back, offering private lessons with a PGA professional, whether you want to take your first swing or fine tune your skills. After wards, walk on over to the Beach House Spa for a deeply relaxing pampering session. While filling out the initial forms to meet with my massage therapist, I noticed an option to select my pronouns, which made me feel even more at ease. My parents are from Louisiana and Texas so they know a thing or two about seafood, but the Cape’s selections are This luxurious resort offers a unique escape from civilization into the heart of Cape Cod, where there are 300 acres of beaches and tidal pools. Just a 45-minute drive away from gay mecca Provincetown, Ocean Edge Resort & Golf Club resides in the charming coastal city Brewster, Massachusetts, where and it boasts eight of those beaches. I’m always a bit anxious when traveling as a Black gay man from the South, so it was comforting to see Pride flags on churches alongside “Black Lives Matter” written on the town’s marquee. Check out a bicycle at the resort and start your morning off with a breezy ride around the town. Make sure to swing through local spots like the Brewster Store for some charming knickknacks and stop by Apt for a deliciously light brunch. There’s a peaceful trail from which to explore much of the 429-acre resort which features five on-site pools, its own private beaches, and access to kayaking and paddle boarding Escape humanity and commune with nature on a Hyannis Whale Watcher Cruise. The 130-foot three-level Whale Watcher powers about an hour out into the open ocean. Watching the land recede to barely a sliver was a little terrifying for a city boy like me, but also admittedly exhilarating. Our naturalist guides pointed out seals as we passed but the excitement was palpable when someone, finally, caught sight of two whales. There’s really nothing quite like the majesty of Humpback whales, and they came so close to the boat that on the lower levels it felt like we could almost reach out and touch them. I named the two thick queens Cardi and Megan, an unofficial designation to be sure, but one that made me feel even closer to these marine mammals. Back on land, Ocean Edge’s private 18hole golf course sounded quite intimidating
beach the resort had set a fire pit into the sand, complete with s’more fixings and skewers. As I sipped one of The Beach Bar’s delicious signature cocktails, I looked out over the water. The High Tide cocktail was the perfect compliment to the setting, with complex notes of peanut butter and ginger whiskeys with pineapple. A smorgasbord of oranges and blues painted across the sky as the sun set over the Atlantic Ocean. I couldn’t help but smile. After the year we’ve all had it feels good to celebrate endings, even if it’s just the gentle close of another day here at the land’s end. It feels like new beginnings.
beautifully fresh and uniquely New England. You absolutely must order a lobster roll at Ocean Edge’s little hideaway restaurant, Linx Tavern. Packed with flavor and so very fresh! Check the tide tables because when it goes out, you’ll want to explore Brewster Flats, one of North America’s largest tidal flats, and just a short stroll down the beach from Ocean Edge. We were lucky enough to go on an Oyster Bed Tour with the wizened guide Bud, who has been in the oyster business for decades, yet his enthusiasm hasn’t faded. Thousands of oysters are farmed on this section of the Flats just a few hundred feet from the bay. Bud shucks fresh oysters for the guests who want to try farm to mouth. Seafood doesn’t get fresher. We circled back around to the same spot just seven hours later to discover the oysters we visited that afternoon were now covered by 10 feet of water. On the OUTTRAVELER.COM 75
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ROAD MAP
The Secret Lives of RVing Lesbians A solo traveler finds companionship — and Jell-O wrestling — while camping with other lesbians. By Kathy Belge
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T H R E E Y E A R S A G O , when I bought the 20-year-old American Cruiser camper van I call Squeaky, I imagined visits to National Parks, driving through redwood forests, soaking in hot springs, and camping by idyllic lakes and rivers. I never thought I’d be sitting in a hot, dusty field with 200 other lesbians cheering on pairs of practically naked Jell-O wrestlers, stickily throwing each other around, all for the prize of a Home Depot gift card.
Follow Kathy Belge’s adventures at TravelsWithSqueaky.com
COURTESY KATHY BELGE (ALL)
Camp host Kathy Belge with her van Squeaky, and some of the women who’ve livened up her summer
But this summer there we were, letting out all of our pent-up post-lockdown energy, whooping it up, and having a grand time at the eighth PDX Lesbian Network Campout at Milo McIver State Park near Portland, Oregon. After missing a year due to lockdowns, organizer Danielle del Prado was able to commandeer the entire state park campground for a long weekend of lesbian festivities. Each of the campsites hosted an event; activities as diverse as a river float, cornhole tournament, rock painting, kayaking, wine tasting, open mic, and, of course, Jell-O wresting. Each night was capped off with a dance. The dozen or so families with kids had their own activities. Spending the weekend with 250 other lesbians was a great change of pace from my usual solo travels. When the pandemic halted my 9-month cross-country plans last year, I found a solution closer to home. I volunteered for two months at Oregon State Parks as a campground host, which turned out to be a job I fell in love with. I spent a month each at two different beautiful Oregon state parks, assisting campers, selling firewood, and picking up trash. I explored and hiked on my days off. It was a great way to meet new people, stay active and be relatively safe outdoors and social distanced. Besides, sticking around Oregon really isn’t a consolation prize. I live in a beautiful place. I love traveling solo (with my dog Olive), but as an extrovert, I have to find ways to connect. Over the winter, I found my community on various Facebook groups, but due to travel restrictions, hadn’t met many of them. In May 2021, fully
vaccinated and with a campground host assignment near Bend, I invited some gals from a lesbian camping group to come out for a weekend. Thirteen RSVPed yes. I joked with my friend that it was half sporty dykes and half radical queers, the perfect intersection of my own identity. It had been so long since I’d gathered with other lesbians, I was smiling the whole weekend, despite the cold, rain, and even a bit of snow. We drank whiskey, visited around campfires, hiked, and played cornhole. There was immediately the sense of comfort and ease that being around kindred community brings. I’ve met a lot of other lesbians on the road — after all, we do love camping. Usually, we just share a knowing nod or quick hello. One day when I noticed some Instagram-famous queers were camping not too far from me, I got bold: I invited myself to their campsite. We awkwardly chatted and I gave them a copy of my book (Queer: The Ultimate LGBT Guide for Teens). Still, one of my favorite encounters was when an older straight couple invited me to their campfire to meet their daughter and her wife. I loved that they traveled and camped with their adult daughter, that they adored her and her wife, and that they recognized me as a fellow queer who might have something in common with them. We did and now we follow along on each other’s travels on social media, planning to maybe meet up again someday down the road.
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WANDERLUST
How one lesbian is transforming Detroit’s nightlife for queer women.
CHELCEA STOWERS
By Jacob Anderson-Minshall
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Chelcea Stowers (left) is the founder of Lesbian Social, which produces pop-up events for women in the city of Detroit. A freelance lifestyle photographer and event curator, she started Lesbian Social in 2017 because she felt there weren’t enough spaces for queer women to connect. From a single pool party, the events have grown and now serve more than 700 women in the Detroit area. Out Traveler recently spoke to Stowers about how these parties build community and her dreams for the future of LGBTQ+ Detroit. How did Lesbian Social Start? I hosted a pop-up pool party with a friend and everyone asked me to host another event for women. After connecting with a mentor in the nightlife industry, he helped me build relationships with club owners and the opportunity was given to me to host an event at a rooftop in downtown Detroit. Why are lesbian parties gaining traction in Detroit? Fresh ideas, content, and word-of-mouth marketing. Lesbian Social only hosts events once a month to keep things fresh and to help build anticipation for what Lesbian Social will do for the next event. After the events, I noticed women talking on social media about how great of a time they had. This built interest for those who didn’t know these types of events were happening around the city. Lesbian Social is also personable. At each event I’m checking in with partygoers, getting feedback on what they like, what they would like to see more of, and overall if they are having a good time. Lesbian Social is providing more visibility to a community of women that exists in the city that many may not have known existed. I do believe the Lesbian Social platform on Instagram is helping bring women together from all over, whether it’s them resharing event posts, creating polls to interact with followers, and just being a source for information. What is a typical Lesbian Social party like? I always say after an event that I feel like I just walked out of the bar on the ’90’s TV show Cheers. The women that attend the events celebrate each other. Women are able to be free in expression without a sense of intimidation. You never know who you may spark up a conversation with at our events. My partner, who recently relocated from Charlotte, North Carolina, said she’s never gone to an event where women truly embraced each other in this capacity. There are women of all nationalities that attend the events in Detroit. What would you like to see for Lesbian Social in the near future? My next goal is to make Detroit’s Pride festival even bigger. I want people to travel from out of state to come to the events and get a chance to experience Detroit culture for themselves. The city gets a bad rap but for those who have visited, they love the culture and pride of Detroit. Outside of nightlife events, I look to host events around health and wellness, connecting singles, as well as planning domestic and international group trips because I love to travel. What would you like to see Lesbian Social doing in five years? My main goal is to grow Lesbian Social as a staple in the community for women to come and connect. I would love for Lesbian Social to be a part in building the entertainment and nightlife scene for those in the LGBTQ community. I would also like to work with the City of Detroit in establishing a neighborhood or small district for the community that includes a variety of small businesses.
Follow Chelcea @LesbianSocialDetroit @Just.Chelcea
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DEPARTURES
GETTY IMAGES
Wolf Island, part of Ecuador’s Galápagos National Park, is the tip of an extinct 3,200-foot volcano which last erupted somewhere between 900,000 and 1.6 million years ago. Visitors aren’t allowed to step foot on the actual island, but that’s fine. Travelers are there to dive among Spotted Eagle Rays (seen here), sea turtles, and a bevy of sharks (Hammerheads, Galápagos, Reef sharks, even the occasional Whale shark). Strong currents and potentially dangerous marine life make it a destination for expert divers only. — DP
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T H I S I S M O R E T H A N J U S T A VAC AT I O N
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