Annual Gay Naturist Gatherings
The 1990s saw the beginning of annual gay naturist gatherings on a large scale. GNI held the its first gathering under its new name in 1992. The annual GNI Gathering, held each August in rural eastern Pennsylvania, remains the largest gay naturist gathering, attracting about 800 gay naturists. The second largest gathering, the CMEN Gathering, is sponsored by California Men Enjoying Naturism and is held each September in Malibu, California. First held in 1999, CMEN now draws about 500 attendees. Three other gatherings attract a few hundred attendees each. The IMEN Gathering, held each July in rural eastern Maryland, began in 1995. The East Coast Gathering, sponsored by the Philadelphia Area Naked Guys, is held each May in rural eastern Maryland. The Midwest Male Naturist Gathering began in 1993 and is held in rural eastern Kansas each June. Key West's Bone Island Bare It All Weekend is held each July and December, attracting between 300 and 500 men.
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Famous quotes containing the words annual and/or gay:
“...there was the annual Fourth of July picketing at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. ...I thought it was ridiculous to have to go there in a skirt. But I did it anyway because it was something that might possibly have an effect. I remember walking around in my little white blouse and skirt and tourists standing there eating their ice cream cones and watching us like the zoo had opened.”
—Martha Shelley, U.S. author and social activist. As quoted in Making History, part 3, by Eric Marcus (1992)
“San Francisco is where gay fantasies come true, and the problem the city presents is whether, after all, we wanted these particular dreams to be fulfilled—or would we have preferred others? Did we know what price these dreams would exact? Did we anticipate the ways in which, vivid and continuous, they would unsuit us for the business of daily life? Or should our notion of daily life itself be transformed?”
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