Love Letter to Lube

Where would we be without modern lube? Crisco? Methinks Crisco belongs in the kitchen with Pam. Plus it eats through condoms! KY Jelly? Its like dipping your junk in rubber cement. Jergens? Maybe if you are twelve and need some alone time. No thanks, not when the wonders of sexual science have blessed us with silicone delights of Eros Bodyglide, Swiss Navy, and ID Millenium.

It might take a good scrubbing in the shower to get off, but silicone lube goes and goes and goes, and is REALLY great for reducing your risk of tearing your rectum when engaging in bum fun. Thanks lube, for making sex slippery-er and safer.

Enjoy these Lube factoids from our Bar-B-Queer:

(Correction: As one of our readers pointed out, the manufacturer of Elbow Grease removed the ingredient Nonoxynol-9 from its product line in 2002 at the request of the CDC.) Those last two are a bit controversial. Care to comment?

Bar-B-Queer Pics!

Enjoy some pics from our 2nd Annual Village/QUAC Bar-B-Queer! Over 150 attended and a good time was had by all. You can see the rest of the photos here.

Photos by David Daniels and John Wood. Thanks to everyone who volunteered! You can see the rest of the photos here.

Gay Men and Public Parks

What do Memory Grove, Sugarhouse Park, and Fairmont Park all have in common? They've all been the subjects of local news stories on cruising, usually during sweeps weeks in the spring or fall.

So who cruises the parks? Ask any of the police officers of the GLBT Public Safety committee and they will tell you that the majority of guys caught with their pants down are married, and often Mormon. They see cruising parks as their only option if they want to stay in the closet.

There are several gay groups in town that are reclaiming the parks as a place where gay men can have fun without getting arrested. Utah Pride is the ultimate example, encouraging participants to come out of the closet and celebrate their sexuality, instead of feeling guilty about it. Flag Football, Pride Softball, Ultimate Frisbee, and other gay sports groups meet at the parks weekly and often draw a crowd of spectators.

This past Sunday, QUAC and The Village held our 2nd annual Bar-B-Queer at Fairmont Park. For the volunteer planning group here at the Village, the purpose was two-fold: strengthen the community by bringing a diverse group of guys together, and promote open discussion about safer sex.

Lube was the theme. We hung lube-themed posters all over the bowery and gave away big bottles of lube (thanks ID Glide for donating it all!) to everyone who participated in lube wrestling. A couple of the volunteers acted out a humorous safer sex skit. We tried to take back the park in a fun, safe and sexy way.

There has been some controversy surrounding our methods. Some people have said that lube wrestling is not an event that the Utah AIDS Foundation should be sponsoring, and that its not an appropriate activity for a public space. What do you think? Did we succeed in encouraging safer sex, or was the message lost in the lube? Are public events like the Pride parade and Bar-B-Queer giving gays a bad name or helping us to reclaim the parks from closeted cruising?

Lube Wrestling!

Sign up for lube wrestling and win a giant bottle of lube! Everyone's a winner! E-mail Jeremiah.