Let's find inspiration in the LGBTQ community of the 1980s who literally fought for their lives through radical and clever activism. We don't give up, we ACT UP!

It's my very first (and probably only) entirely 1980s music party! Woo! A Pride Month 19-GAYTEES dance party!

As part of my 30th anniversary of becoming a DJ, all year I've been making DJ-related things happen that I've always wanted to do. This is one of them - a night of 1980s records I loved and hated (but now enjoy as guilty pleasures) WAY back in the day.

In my mind, the era of "the 80s" is the years of the Ronald Reagan regime (1981-1988), a conservative backlash/rollback reaction to the progressivism of the 1960s/1970s (a little like what we're living through right now).

I grew up in the 80s, and for me they were all about rebellion, irreverence, and rolling our eyes at authority while being "grossed out" at everything that came along with the Reagan-era (greed, excess, superficiality, consumerism, conformity, the Establishment, whitewashing, misogyny, racism, homophobia, Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous, Spuds MacKenzie, etc) This is why I chose to put an anti-establishment (and GAY) character on my poster, PEE WEE HERMAN (a loner & a rebel)!

As much as I am repelled by much of what happened in mainstream culture during the 1980s, strangely a lot of the pop stars were extremely representative of fluidity in gender expression. This is a big reason I can still enjoy the music of that time (genuinely AND ironically). In fact, these days it's bringing me a lot of joy to revisit songs of my childhood.

So, JOIN ME in dancing, singing along, and "partying hardy" to songs you most likely know! Do it irreverently or sincerely - I don't care as long as you're there having fun and bonding with your community.