Sure, on the morning after the Red Dress Party (after we tried sleeping in past 8:00 to no avail) we all booted up our computers to see who had the early photos and sordid details of their festivities that fateful night. Kudos to Storm Large's fans -- and even her own band members -- who posted lots of fun stuff about the shennanigans. Kudos also to Marty Davis at Just Out, who posted a few great teaser photos of Storm and Chelsea.
Then on Monday, Byron Beck posted a priceless picture with the former First Daughter at willametteweek.com, and described more of our little shin-dig -- a little erroneously, I might add, since he reported that Chelsea partied with "2,000 gay men in red dresses." I've tried pointing out to Byron before that half of the people were women, and maybe a quarter of the men were straight. But I recognize that's not as sexy of a story or as simple of a headline for the queer reporter of the local rag. Anyway, Byron's photo really went viral, appearing on The Advocate, The Huffington Post, and at least two dozen other blogs around the country.
Not to be outdone, Marty Davis shot back with an entire photo album at justout.com, with a handful of splendid photos -- including several fun pictures of our guests schmoozing Chelsea whilst wearing wigs. Next thing you know, KAPOW, it goes big time. 55 more blogs by my count. And tonight? Extra!
Yes, when I say Extra with an exclamation point, I mean the same tabloid show that comes after Entertainment Tonight and features Mark McGrath (how did that happen?) wherein they repeat the same Hollywood gossip we have just heard Mary Hart tell us. Except tonight it was different; tonight they teased us with how, coming up next, Chelsea Clinton parties with drag queens!
Drag Queens? Now wait a minute. Sure, we all put on red dresses for the red dress party. And OK, maybe a few hundred of the guys put on heels. And maybe a few dozen put on wigs. But if you consider that there where nearly 2,000 people there (again, half of whom were women), then 50 guys in wigs, heels, and dresses doth not 2,000 drag queens make. Now, I love me some drag queens, but I do get irritated when the media labels everything in broad strokes, especially when they use the wrong label.
When it came time for the actual segment, Sugar Ray replaced "drag queens" with "cross dressers," which was definitely more accurate for half of our guests, but technically speaking when women wear red dresses, that's not cross dressing. (Perhaps for some, who usually wear only pantsuits.) Why can't they just say "2,000 men and women in red dresses," which is the most accurate statement.
Various internet incarnations of this story have since placed the party in a gay bar, as a drug-fest rave, as a queer pageant, and in Portland, Maine. But really, I need to stop going around and trying to correct everyone. It's gotten too big. And who cares, right? The most important thing is... um. I forget. What is the most important thing?
You can view the Extra video here.
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1 comment:
Still waiting for a photo of that hat.
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