In The Shadows- partial darkness or obscurity within a part of space from which rays from a source of light are cut off by an interposed opaque body…On a sunny day, practically everything casts a shadow — including you.
Look closely, “This Is Me”, standing as I face the Cape Cod Bay, from the patio of the Boatslip Beach Club, an LBGT establishment, in Provincetown, and if you look closely into the shadows of the water you will notice a flag or two, billowing, which just happen the contain the colors of the rainbow LGBT Flag. I am at the Boatslip’s Tea Dance a ritual held all summer long, beginning at 4 pm. “…I am not a stranger to the dark Hide away, they say,' Cause we don't want your broken parts…” (’This Is Me/Justin Paul/Benj Pasek)
As has become the custom, it seems that Bridal Party’s find the Gays to be a novelty and two contingents of Bridesmaid, along with their best friend Bride, strolled the Tea Dance, wearing one wearing orange colored baseball caps announcing on the back, I am here to get drunk, and on the front, she is the bride…of course, the bride had just the opposite, on the back was I am the bride and on the front was I want to get drunk. The second gaggle of girls took the more elegant route and wore their pink old prom dresses and with sashes stating we are going to have some fun. I used to give a fuck, but this day, I was no longer INVISIBLE, I was no longer a shadow, for these young women I was the Opening Act!
It is early in the season for P-Town, so there is a greater integration of tourists, enjoying the sun, the sand, the arts, the eclectic, eccentric and the energy any place, within a place of beauty and wonder located. Even in a seeming location at the end of the world! So as is usual the Gay Tea Dance, welcomed, which it does year round the plethora of people who also want to shout “This Is Me”“…But I won't let them break me down to dust I know that there's a place for us For we are glorious…”
“…When the sharpest words wanna cut me down I'm gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out I'm gonna send a flood Gonna drown them out…” No longer will I hide in the shadows become invisible, NOT as a Gay Man, NOT as An American Citizen, NOT because Christian Crusaders fear their own yearnings for a homosexual relationship and NOT because of the GIANT misconception that the GOD they pretend to believe in has the human condition of HATE! “THIS IS ME!”
