In 2004 I organized a “gay night” with the New York Mets. It wasn’t easy. When I first approached them, they were very reticent; one team executive even wondered aloud in a meeting with me, “What do we do if a guy dressed as a woman tries to use the women’s restroom?” There was some twisting of arms back then, and I felt I had to let them know that “of course, if you don’t make this happen, I’ll have to call my friends at the New York Daily News and let them know.”
On Monday, Sept. 26, the New York Mets held their second “gay night.” This time it’s the team itself that created and is organizing the event, led by Mets account executive Stu Cohen. They’re reaching out to gay organizations, lowering ticket costs (as well they should, given that they’re out of the playoffs) and hoping this becomes an annual event.
For the most part, there’s no altruism here. Teams have empty seats and need them filled. You’ll never see the New York Jets or Los Angeles Lakers have a “gay night”—why? Because they sell out already! But the fact that the Mets, struggling to sell tickets in September, would turn to the gay community is a sign of how far we’ve come since they worried seven years ago about transgender bathrooms.
“It’s just like Irish Heritage or Jewish Heritage Night,” Cohen told me. “There’s no difference.”
Being treated “just like” every other group. “There’s no difference.” That, my friends, is progress.
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1. Shooty is in the Trust TreeAnd Mike Pi-- Aw, forget it.
Now that's taking the pissing cherub fountain concept too far
Well, what do you do?
George: "Well, neither am I."
What do you do when a guy in men's clothes wants to use the women's restroom?
Well, there is probably no praying that you guessed correctly, that's for sure.
How badly that one could have turned out is still horrifyingly amusing in memory.
It seemed at first to be going down the path that not having a gay night was discriminatory, and then it switched into how some unsuccessful teams (in box office terms) can and do promote gay nights to try to scrounge up some extra ticket buyers (though one does have to wonder if these events actually do increase attendance, at least as compared to games played relatively soon after and relatively soon before).
However, the article also says that there's no need for gay nights if a team is wildly successful and it doesn't have to try hard to sell tickets.
So I guess the point of TFA is that gay nights are not a civil rights / gay rights issue, except when a team is kind of crappy attendance wise, in which case how dare they not try to be creative by selling tickets to the gay community.
If you see a bunch of guys dressed as women trying to use the ladies' room.
Are they wearing Yankees hats?
See what they do when "It's raining men" plays between innings.
How enthusiastically they follow along with "YMCA."
What is "song I'd rather hear at the ballpark than 'God Bless America' for $500, Alex."
Chicks dig the long ball.
Oh, and nobody dressed as a woman, although we had a few trans players (in both directions). Sometimes guys will come out in a tutu or whatever, but that can be deceiving - bad enough to make an out; even worse when it's on a great play by a guy in a ####### tutu.
Having once worked at a nursing school which had men's rooms* only on every other floor ... with one conveniently right outside the office where I worked ... I have some experience with this. Women still felt free to use the men's room and _I_ was supposed to knock to make sure that a woman wasn't in there. I briefly went with the policy of "if you don't want a guy walking in on you while you're in the men's room, maybe use one of the two women's room on this floor" but did give in.** Nevertheless, that was enough to keep almost everybody out of the men's room but me.
I also worked at a place where the men's room on our floor was "one of those bathrooms ... and there's something distasteful about that" but seeing 4 feet in the next stall never kept me from taking a crap.
* which were former women's rooms with no urinals.
** with the knowledge that either they'd be in the stall and all I was gonna do was go into one of the other stalls; or they'd be at the sink.
pretty much every song is the answer to that question.
One of the worse things about boot camp is that the stalls had no doors and they sat across from each other....it's bad enough when 80 people are given 10 minutes to go to the restroom, but having to start and finish the job quickly, while staring at another guy doing the same thing could be a little unnerving.
EDIT: Oh, it's all the way up there at the top of the thread. Coke to the Shooter.
Really?
I'd be impressed if they were former women's rooms with urinals.
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