Hey Gav,
with this in mind, the potential for using an online tool like google maps may be the way to go. I've seen some fascinating projects using that including an active stencil graffiti map and also a breakdown of who is spending money on the 2 main political parties here in the US. Just some food for thought...

1) Hmm... "gay" site? As in website? I think that the two that i utilize the most is bisexual.org (which i visit, maybe once a month, maybe less) and www.qzap.org which I started and currently maintain. If you are asking about geographic space, i would say any number of QLBTG or feminist bookstores across the US.

2) the alternative queer spaces that are most important to me are the ones that I carry with me, or the ones created by friends and family. Often included in these spaces is home-made vegetarian food, moderate (but almost never excessive) use of alcohol or marijuana, and a multitude of music and art forms.

3) I guess the lost space that I miss the most is the Pride type celebrations that happened because of activists and community members, not beer companies. I think the last type of event i attended like this was Gay Shame in SF in 2001.

4) Queeruption 2001. Hands down. In working on the organizing of that, I made some of the most amazing friendships and relationships. I learned so much. The boy love in my life and i met there, and have since gone on to start QZAP, have shared music and food and gardening. Queeruption in BCN was pretty interesting to me as well, but unfortunately I couldn't get as involved as I would have liked.

Thanks for this, Gav. I look forward to hearing other folx answers, too...

xoM

Hey there,

Thanks for facilitationg this little trip down mammary lane for me. I love these sorts of questions!

(1) 2 local male strip bars

(2) the ones that happen only momentarily between me and an/other gay ma/e/n, like the other day when I met a guy and we were at his place and I noticed he had an 8x10 publicity photo of a local diva on his wall and I asked about it and a lovely story followed (thanks, Milo, for reminding me of this)

(3) the retreats apparently led by the founder (?) of The Advocate magazine...sorry I don't remember names and places offhand, but it's in the book "The Long Road to Freedom: The Advocate History of the Gay and Lesbian Movement"

(4) a performance I did with a (mostly) female-identified lesbian and a FTM tg at a Holiday Party 3 years ago where we lipsynched and did interpretive choreography to Eartha Kitt's version of "Santa Baby" all while wearing read and blue fun fur...it was deliciously subversive, even though it was the party of an LGBT organization where we were all volunteering, and it was a time where I truly felt like myself

i'll answer #3:

i grew up in Minneapolis, MN where there briefly formed an anarchist community center named Emma Center. while it quickly came and went, the notion that this storefront existed with a meeting area, infoshop, and a basement for shows was amazing. interestingly enough, it was the queer folks who really put their back into running the place, and when they burned out, the place went to hell in a purse and closed down not too terribly long afterward.

and so it is that i try to bring that energy to the projects i've been involved in since that time ... that people working together can create interesting safe spaces...