Last month, I had the privilege of attending Club Butt, Butt Magazine’s release party at The Eagle NYC. It was one of the best parties I’ve ever been to at the famed bar, which also happens to be featured in the Summer 2023 edition of Fag Rag NYC.
What made it so good? It was very “I-T-G-I-R-L, you know I am that girl” heavy. It was Brooklyn-heavy. Some of the go-go’s were thick, some of them were trans, all of them were cunt. A fantastic DJ lineup featured Kevin Aviance, Roza Terenzi, Mike Servito, and Mexican Jihad. It felt like one of those quintessentially New York parties that people will refer to for a long time. The kind of parties that I would get invited to while I was bored off of my ass while living in Puerto Vallarta and having major NYC nightlife fomo. God, I’m so happy to be home.
During the party, there was a moment when I was standing near a guy I didn’t know. He was cute, looked to be in his early thirties, and sipping on his vodka tonic, as the boys do. A short, young woman with long, blonde hair, glasses, and a blazer proceeded to whisk by us. The guy looked at me, rolled his eyes, and said, “Uh, what is she doing here,” which I assumed indicated his disdain for women at the Eagle.
I looked back at him and said, “Well, first of all, that’s Chelsea Manning.”
”Who is that?”
”You know! Chelsea Manning. WikiLeaks. Iraq War. Whistleblower.”
”Yeah, I have no idea who that is.”
”The trans woman who exposed our country’s war crimes to the world!”
<blank stare>
”Well, that’s who that is,” I said. “And women can be here.”
Feeling froggy, I looked at him, waiting to see if he wanted to take this conversation further. He tilted his head to the side in a way that made me wonder if his brain cells met the limit of what they could compute for the day, especially if there wasn’t a penis involved in the equation. He then raised his eyebrows, gave the most minimal nod of agreement, and said, “She sounds like someone I should learn about.”
I smiled, giggled, and said, “You should,” before turning back around to the group of people I was with, exhausted by that interaction.