The Disappearing Park Slope Barnes & Noble Gay and Lesbian Section

(Left) The former location of the Gay & Lesbian book section at the Park Slope Barnes & Noble - now home to Essential Cookbooks. (Right, Top and Bottom) The current home of the Gay & Lesbian book section - three shelves buried in the Social Sciences and Law sections. [VIA NineDaves]

Anyone who claims that Park Slope still has a dominant gay population needn’t look any further than the Park Slope Barnes & Noble. At one time, the retailer had a fullly dedicated section for gay and lesbian literature located in a prominent area inside the store. These days, however, customers looking for LGBTQIA books need to travel downstairs and into a back corner where the selection is placed on a few small shelves.

Just like the neighborhood population, the gays are harder and harder to find.

When I was a younger, the gay and lesbian section of any bookstore was my total salvation. I would always hit it up while looking for books that might teach me something about the gay experience. This was all before I had come out, so in many ways, those books were my first glance into the road ahead. I can't begin to say how much they helped me through my journey. 

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Hey, Gay Married People: This Guy Knows How to Do Your Taxes

Photo by Stefano Giovannini / The Brooklyn Paper

When gay marriage was passed in New York State last June, I was one of those people running down the street with my friends, screaming like an asshole.  I was so happy -- I almost couldn’t believe it. I finally had the right to get married; to not just enter into a loving partnership, but a legal partnership with full benefits and blessings. It was a moment I’ll never forget – and one I hope every gay person experiences in their own state one day.

But in all of the joy, I hadn't really thought about all of the new, stressful things that might come along with gay marriage. Like, for instance, doing taxes.

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KLM wants New Yorkers to have Gay Sex on their Airplanes

Attention Gays of Park Slope! KLM, ie "Royal Dutch Airlines," has developed a new high-tech tool to help you get laid on their flights between New York and Amsterdam!  Now, when you go to check in for your flight, you can look at the Facebook or Linked-In profiles of everyone else on the flight, and choose your seatmates based on who you think is hot.  It's kind of like Grindr, except it all happens at 35,000 feet.

Check out the above video that they've put together to market their Meet & Seat service. They make it look kind of romantic, don't they?  The racially-ambiguous muscle boy, Andrew, checks out a couple of different dudes before he decides to sit next to Clyde, a slightly older, but still very hot, business-casual guy.  The two flirt with each other on the plane, while concealing their erections with cupped hands.  Then, when they land in New York, they share a cab to the apartment of whichever of them lives nearest, so they can fuck each other senseless.  I'm guessing that someone also got a blowjob in the airplane bathroom, but KLM doesn't show you that part. SUPER HOT!

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A FiPS Guide To Getting Gay Married In Brooklyn

Photo by Meredith Zinner

If you're gay, you probably haven't spent your whole life planning a dream wedding. Until New York passed the marriage equality bill, many of us never really thought that we'd ever have a real wedding. Before gays and lesbians were granted marriage rights,  my "partner" and I figured we'd just go to Connecticut, find a judge and get hitched quickly and painlessly. But even though it'd have been legal, it didn't feel to us that that was going to be the real deal.  We told our friends and family, "Oh, yeah. Not a big deal. We'll go out to a nice meal next time we see you."

Then the law changed, and that date that we'd set for our wedding became a sort of deadline. Suddenly this marriage was going to be a real thing, you know? The pressure was on! We could no longer go out of state. We had to actually invite people. We had to spend money, throw a fun party, and still figure out how to pay for a needed renovation to our bathroom. We had to find venues and vendors who were available on that kind of short notice. And most importantly, we had to figure out what exactly we wanted this wedding to be.

Assuming  that other gays in Brooklyn are planning weddings and are struggling to figure out exactly how to throw a big party for friends and family without breaking the bank, I'm here to help.

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Don't Ask Don't Tell Is Over!

Photo via San Francisco Sentinel

It's official! Starting today, "Don't Ask Don't Tell" is OVER!

Yay for all of the gay men and women who can FINALLY, TOTALLY be themselves while serving in the military. 'Bout time.