The Queerties 2012: Remembering the Launch Party at Industry Bar in New York

The winners in the first ever Queerty awards, The Queerties 2012, have finally been revealed! We teamed up with BuzzFeed to give you the winners.

Much like the AMA’s, there were no major upsets as divas like Ms. Hillary Clinton and Ms. Willam Belli snatched the coveted titles after the quarter-million votes were tallied. Willam, unlike Clinton, ran a very successful social media campaign, Tweeting and posting on Facebook urging voters to get her good every day. She was nominated in two categories this year actually, so we now like to refer to her as the Julianne Moore of Queerty.

Speaking of successful social media campaigns, Tyler Oakley won both of his categories, which leaves the Internet’s sweetheart with nothing else to win but Celebrity Apprentice? It was great to see nominees spreading the word about the campaign, which I think was all fueled by a very boozy (thanks Absolut!) kick-off event at New York’s Industry Bar. Remember that? I still can’t believe we salvaged all the iPads…

Tyler and his twink-posse were there! Also in attendance: Sam Lansky (Idolator), Alex Goldschmidt (Karpel Group), Calvin Stowell (DoSomething.org), photographer Justin Violini, promoters Sasha Seven and Brian Rafferty, Bryan Moylan (formerly Gawker), Ben Harvey (Six Pack), Nathan Manske (I’m From Driftwood), Alex Hughes (HomoLife), Maty Chavez, Wil Gumucio, writer Jeffrey Hartinger, the fabulous Claudio Maddox, Dan Macsai (Time), Stacey Llambe (BuzzFeed), Kurt Soller (NY Mag), T. Kyle (RealityTVGifs), NOT Jonathan Bender :P

Check out all the pics by JJ Keyes:

Vote Your Heart Out: Is ‘Hard French’ the Best Party in San Francisco?

GayCities and Coors Light are in the final stages of promoting a three-month voting contest to determine which events, sports teams and personalities deserve to be declared the “coldest…” (brrrrain freeze).

In San Francisco, Hunky Jesus in Dolores Park, DJ Haute Toddy, The Fog rugby team and Cookie Dough have already been voted as the winners. When it came to selecting nominees for the Night Out category, we knew the contest wouldn’t be taken seriously by GayCities members unless we included the perennial powerhouse of a party, Hard French.

The other nominees include Heklina’s Trannyshack, Juanita More’s Beat Pig, Bearracuda and I Love Cochina Tonga’s. The Stanley Frank/Ambrosia Salad/DJ Taco Tuesday bastard newcomer underdog is nominated solely because anyone trying to make the Lookout cool deserves the equivalent of a Nobel Peace Prize. And if it had been entirely up to me (ok, it kind of was…), I would have also nominated Cockfight and Honey Soundsystem.

Voting closes Tuesday at midnight, so go and vote your hearts out. (Don’t live in SF? The contest is also going on in LA, San Diego, Columbus and Dallas, check it out).

I don’t know these people.

Devil worshippers.

GayCities has had a torrid love affair with Hard French ever since we sponsored the party’s first foray in New York City with director John Cameron Mitchell.

[Photos: Shots in the City]

BOY TOYS TALK BACK: What is the most iconic gay party ever?

Once Upon a Time at Disney Prom

One of my other favorite parties during San Francisco Pride season was the Disney Prom that happened at the Rickshaw Stop. From drag Ariels to steamy Aladdins to fierce Maleficents to twinkalicious Peter Pans, it was great to see the crowd really bringing their childhood fantasies to the adult realm. Denys and I decided to forgo Disney’s iconic fairy tale canon when looking for costume inspiration and instead went for more contemporary look from the animation studio’s Pixar era (as pictured above).

Check out some photos from the photo booth.

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Thailand Travelogue: Nature Element-Themed Rooms at Hotel Sofitel and Night Out in Silom Soi, Bangkok’s Gay District

Earlier this year the Tourism Authority of Thailand invited me to come visit the country and create our first ever Asian guide for GayCities. The phenomenal travel connoisseur Carlos Melia took me, YouTuber Davey Wavey and colleagues from Pink Triangle Press, Passport magazine and dot429 around Bangkok, Chiang Mai and the Golden Triangle region showing us the shiniest gems Thailand has to offer. The following travelogue retraces highlights from my third day there.

Hotel Sofitel So Bangkok

We made it back to Bangkok just in time to grab some drinks at the new Hotel Sofitel. The bar off the main lobby was very yuppie chic, with a lounge DJ and a spectacular view of Bangkok over Lumpini Park.

The hotel accommodations were designed around five different themes, inspired by the Thai nature elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Each element was tackled by a different local Thai designer.

The metal bedroom.

Carlos takes in the wood room.

The wood restroom.

The earth-themed room took a more colorful, somewhat left of field inspiration from jungle imagery.

The earth restroom. The fire element was represented through the onsite restaurant while the water–themed room was still under construction when he did the site inspection.

The Sofitel pool looked perfect for a midnight swim. And in Bangkok, it doesn’t even have to be heated for it to be enjoyable.

Ruen Urai Restaurant

For dinner we went to the gay-owned Ruen Urai, housed in a converted Thai mansion and next to the Rose Hotel. The restaurant was located in Patpong, Bangkok’s gritty kinky nightlife district, which was perfect because that night we had planned to go out on the town and hit up some gay bars in Silom Soi.

Silom Soi

The Silom Soi block is a clusterfuck of gay bars, clubs and eye candy. Located right across the street from each other, popular patio bars Telephone (above) and The Balcony cater to you Thai and western men indulging in some cheap drinks and scene-watching.

After pre-gaming, we walked to the gay nightlife complex located on Silom Soi 2. After walking past some janky metal detectors, we went right into DJ Station. With the pop music blaring and the cute boys galore, DJ Station is the Bangkok equivalent of Badlands (SF), Roscoe’s (Chicago) or the Ritz (New York).

Before headed into DJ Station, we were warned about respecting people’s privacy and not take photos using flash. However, every group of guys I approached to take pictures of where more than willing to pose for me, reveling in the fact that they were being photographed. I think there is a generational shift happening in the gay community in Bangkok, where the older crowd is still very protective of their lifestyle, while the young gays are out and about, wanting to flaunt their lives to the max. These photos eventually ended up on Queerty.

After DJ Station, we went to G.O.D. or Guys on Display or Guys on Drugs, depending whom you’re with. But there my camera was strictly forbidden.

Excerpt: Exactly What He Means

It’s starting to get really hot in the dungy Parisian club, and I can feel my shirt sticking to my sweaty back. The boys and I go over to the bar to order another round. He turns to me and says something in French, something he knows I won’t understand. The sentence is too complex, and the vocabulary is nothing they’d teach me in college. But maybe it’s his body language, how he got closer to me with every syllable uttered, or his facial expressions, how his eyebrows rose with excitement after certain words, or his eyes, how he looked at me and then down at my jeans. I may not understand what he says, but I know exactly what he means.

Excerpt, Confessions of a Boy Toy

Photo: Gerard Estadella