École des Bro-ArtsTBRU was both a lot of fun and also highly cursed
They organized a trip to Great Wolf Lodge, a water park in Dallas. Maybe sixty bears on two buses. Got all the way to the lodge and they send us to some random back entrance instead of through the main doors. Then we mill around for 15 minutes and the coordinator informs us that the aquatic director has declared that speedos are not permitted, as this is a "family friendly" resort. We can only wear board shorts. Guess what a bunch of us are wearing. 🙃
So I, having only brought a speedo, book a cab 22 miles back to the hotel. Some of our group stay and decide to see what happens. I heard later that day that Great Wolf security accosted one of us for wearing a square-cut bathing suit, told us if this continued they would eject our entire group, and threatened to call the cops for our "vulgar" outfits.
Huge Fedi report energy 🤣
The following day a group of eight of us, all gays, were walking home from a dance when a car pulled up and started yelling at us while we were waiting for the crosswalk. When we crossed the street the driver peeled out, busted the red, and tried to hit us. He spun around at the end of the block as we ran for cover, gunned it, and came zooming back for a second pass. Came within a couple feet of hitting us both times. JFC.
He zooms away. We're all shaken, but just a couple blocks from the hotel, so we keep walking. A few minutes later, crossing the street to the hotel, we hear squealing tires and honking. Dude comes barreling round the corner and tries to hit us again, splitting the group in two.
A tense standoff ensues as he halts in the middle of the street, shouting at us. "Where do you work at, dressed like that?" Nobody's taking the bait; we're behind trees, trying not to escalate.
Looks like he's got a T-shirt wrapped around his head; just eyes peeking out. Start worrying about him pulling a gun. As the first half of our group makes it closer to the hotel he accelerates and swerves to hit them--I shout "move!" and we cross the street and make it to cover. He pulls a U-turn and comes back for yet another pass. We run and make it to the hotel. Took a long while to calm down from that. Especially rough on A, poor guy.
Anyway, what the hell, Dallas.
This feels so trivial compared to the vehicular homicide attempt, but it's also been eating at me: The hotel Wi-Fi blocks Scruff, but not Grindr. Huh?
The *most* cursed aspect of the run was definitely the after-party we went to in the conference basement of a downtown hotel, which felt as if someone had taken a videogame level editor, opened up a 1998 hotel conference center, and copy-pasted a corrupt file of a circuit party on top of it: clipping errors, lighting anomalies, NPC pathing struggles and all. Walking into that party sober at 1 AM was one of the most unreal experiences of my entire life. I refuse to describe it in detail, except:
Good stuff: literally everything else. Had a blast wandering the market, got some shockingly good snickerdoodles from a local bakery and asked the handsome bubbas at Dirty South Leathers to make me a harness & jock. Hot dogs and cheap beers (some recycled) at Hidden Door. Dancing late into the night at S4. Making out with huge beefcakes 🥰🫠.
I feel like there's a consistent friendliness to TBRU's crowds: people always seem to be having a good time and open to sharing it with you.
Came back to the hotel at 4 AM, arm in arm with the pup, and the hotel lobby was just resounding with song. One of the bears had taken over the piano and another was conducting a crowd of 40 in show tunes. Ran into boy J there and the three of us stood arm in arm, belting out the final number, "Defying Gravity". The conductor and his buddy knew all the choreography--the two of them clutching on to a rolled up sheet of paper as their shared "broom". What a fantastic evening. 🥹
Steve@aphyr I need to go to Austin and visit origin family, whom I haven't seen in person since before COVID. Even less motivated now to give my money to Texas tourism anything.
Upsize Ry 💪✨@aphyr Glad to hear nobody was hurt despite some serious threats & obvious homophobia
💖
Your Winged Bull bro@aphyr that car part sounds awful. I think this would've tainted my experience..are you alright?
Coda@aphyr What if we experienced liminality in the kiddie pool ball pit 🥺 👉👈
okie
Michal Migurski 🍉@aphyr Fucking yikes, sorry you had to endure this
Dame Faggy Smith@aphyr Ya there's a reason I left my hometown... Sorry that happened to you
ocnurb@aphyr fucking hell, glad you're all intact but that's a lot to deal with.
toddbuddy@aphyr just happy it didn’t get worse. Texas politics pretty much gives them the ok to hate us.
GareBear@aphyr glad you’re OK that must’ve been terrifying.
Hearing the joy and all the singing in the hotel lobby sounds like one of those happy memories that sticks with you.
PunnO)))@aphyr Jesus fucking christ. I'm glad you're all physically okay. People fucking suck.
ben @ nite 🌙@aphyr
That's awful. These dudes are always cowards, too, which just makes it so much worse. 😔
That's awful. These dudes are always cowards, too, which just makes it so much worse. 😔
ytetic@aphyr TBRU should consider relocating. To Denmark maybe.
Chris Petrilli@aphyr fucking hell. I’m glad you and everyone else are OK.
AspiringDom [Cubed]@aphyr jesus christ!! Im glad your all ok - people can be terrible 😩
Also heard about the speedo issue - why wasn’t that mentioned before bus boarding?? Thats lame
And finally - I cant believe I missed you at TBRU?!?!
post-Gundam cryptography@aphyr holy shit. glad you're all okay.
JockNut 💪🐺
@aphyr I hope that guy crashes his car
Ricebox@aphyr holy fuck hope everything is ok there :o
PupTrash@aphyr fucking hell, thank goodness homophobia doesn't exist anymore though!!
But really, glad you guys are okay, that's terrifying
Dodge!@aphyr geez, that's awful. Sorry y'all had to deal with that :-/
Jason Petersen (he)@aphyr this, otoh, is plainly fucking horrifying, what the fuck.
I’m imagining this person in a dodge charger. Don’t tell me if I’m wrong let me live in my biases. Unfathomable behavior to me, the circle of hell where homophobia and cager culture collide. Threatening pedestrians with a vehicle is sickening.
MIKinkster@aphyr This is one of many reasons I simply refuse to travel to MAGA-led states. There is just entirely too much crazy-ass shit that they not only allow but effectively encourage. I don't feel safe there. And that doesn't even factor in the possibility that if I'm open about my sexuality, anyplace could refuse to serve me, including an ER doc. Just no. Plus, I don't want my hard-earned to go toward supporting that kind of BS. if it's not at least a purple state, I stay away.
Rich@aphyr I'm so sorry.
Minister of Peace@aphyr Strike 1....
@aphyr
I heard about that, but through a few permutations—that sucks :(
I really wonder at the "no speedos" rule… but there's not a lot to do about it now.
Peter Burkholder@aphyr
>aquatic director has declared that speedos are not permitted, as this is a "family friendly" resort.
What bullshit!
@aphyr ok as someone who’s been to one of these places with my kid (pluses: cheap, nearby, he likes wolves and packs, but also: Colorado Springs, super conservative, blech) it was a menagerie of weird conservative types. Something like a quarter of the people I came across had an AR-15 silhouette on their shirt or hat (so many hats)
I’m a boring straight guy but I was walking around feeling vaguely ill at ease, wondering who was carrying, etc.
@aphyr you should of course be allowed wherever but this feels like a real weird culture clash on the part of the booker.
Maybe it was because I was in the springs but I think that environment was probably the most normative (sexually, gender, family structure, roles) I have been in in quite some time.
Otoh the idea of 60 bears showing up in speedos in front of all of these people would be funny, their culture’s threat of violence removed
@aphyr "family-friendly" = no queers allowed. Fucking dog whistles.
AuxilioAb@aphyr wtf?!? I'm so glad you're safe. That is so insane
@AuxilioAb me too, that could have ended so poorly in so many ways.
i’m The Spinch, Baby!@aphyr did they enforce any sort of gender requirements on presentation like their website’s terms/rules said they would?
@furioursus Didn't really hear anything about that, but it's a huge event, so ???
@aphyr gotcha. The CoC/Terms said that the event would be for men *only* and I know they’ve ruffled feathers before. I’m glad to hear at least from your vantage, it was a non-issue.
@furioursus Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a men's event