Gay Bars to Bachelorettes: Take That Tiara and Shove It!

Fed up with the frattish antics (oh, and, total sociocultural cluelessness) of roving packs of penis-straw wielding, binge-drinking, go-go boy groping bridesmaids, some gay bars are banning bachelorette parties. Historically, straight women have sought out gay clubs to live out their "housewives gone wild" fantasies for a few reasons: they want to feel safe getting irresponsibly intoxicated, they want to dance furiously to vintage Madonna, and they want to giggle like seventh graders about male anatomy -- something they assume gay men can relate to.

But, as Dawn Turner Trice reports in the Chicago Tribune, it's not just getting old, it's getting insensitive, as the battle for marriage equality grows more heated and complex. "The women are a hoot," says Geno Zaharakis, the owner of the Chicago bar Cocktail, which has a posted "no bachelorette parties" policy. "But because not everybody can get married, watching them celebrate, it's such a slap in the face. Prop 8 just reopened the wound." And some think if you're gonna dance the dance, you should be ready to walk the walk. "We appreciate that these women...want to party with us," says Jens Hussey. "But...are [these women] willing to march with us or raise money with us or work to change somebody's attitude to help us get equal rights?"

-- JESSANNE COLLINS