Hello Darlings! It feels slightly ridiculous to start talking about the end of summer when it is still approximately 1,000 degrees outside, but Labor Day is somehow already coming up. So consider this your reminder to squeeze every last rooftop, outdoor movie, dance floor, late night and questionable decision out of summer while we still can.

My Sunny Valentine: Dating Shorts with Hinge takes over Green-Wood Cemetery on Wednesday, August 19 for a free outdoor screening of six queer shorts about dating, desire, bad decisions and the strange business of trying to connect with another person in New York. There’s also a DJ set, storytelling, a filmmaker Q&A, plus a free drink and popcorn.

JUST ANNOUNCED

• Downtown legend Murray Hill is bringing Showbiz! to Joe’s Pub on Saturday, 11/21, celebrating the release of his debut memoir Showbiz! My Life as a Middle-Aged Man. You may know him from HBO’s Somebody Somewhere, CBS’s Elsbeth, or King of Drag, but this is Murray in his natural habitat: live in New York, and reminding everyone why NBC named him one of the most influential drag performers of the modern era.

• If you like catching a show before everyone else starts talking about it, PRISM: A Festival of New Queer Musicals is bringing a full week of brand-new LGBTQ+ musical theater to The Brick from Tuesday, 9/8 through Sunday, 9/13. The festival is devoted specifically to new queer voices and stories, so you can basically spend six days scouting the next Oh, Mary! before it becomes impossible to get a ticket.

• Tove Lo is taking over Under the K Bridge on Saturday, 9/19, for Estrus Tour with COBRAH and Mallrat joining her for what may be one of the most aggressively queer-coded bills of the fall.

LABOR GAY WEEKEND 🌈

Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer, so obviously the correct response is to cram as much gay New York as possible into one long weekend.

• 9/4 - RIZO: SERVING CULT @ JOES PUB

• 9/4 - THE FEMMES - GAY PROM @ CMON EVERYBODY

• 9/4 - SECRET RIVALRY @ 3 DOLLAR BILL

• 9/6 - HORSEMEAT DISCO @ KNOCKDOWN CENTER

• 9/6 - STAMINA: QUEER CARIBBEAN FESTIVAL @ LITTLEFIELD

THIS WEEKEND

LOCALS ONLY

• NYC may get gay bathhouses again. New York lawmakers introduced legislation on 8/5 that would overturn the city’s 1985 ban on commercial sex venues, a rule originally enacted during the AIDS crisis and still restricting bathhouses today. If it passes, it could reopen a part of queer nightlife that has effectively been legislated out of existence for four decades.

• Brooklyn Community Pride Center’s monthly TGNC Swim Night gives trans and gender-nonconforming New Yorkers a private, affirming place to swim, with all-gender changing rooms, the pool closed to the public during the event, and a simple rule: wear whatever swimwear feels right for you. The night also includes a social hour before swimming, making it as much about community and comfort as getting in the water.

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