Tucson gay happy hour to throw anniversary party

When a group of friends in Tucson’s gay community met up for a drink, selfies were sweeping the nation, and Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” was on every radio station.

“We decided to start a monthly happy hour, and the idea was, instead of going to the gay bars that existed in town, we’d go to a new place every month,” said Pete King, G3 founding member and event organizer.

“G3 was sort of born out of that desire to get out into the broader community, appeal to a wider audience and basically mainstream the gay community.”

Two and a half presidents later (pick one to halve), G3 has hosted more than 100 events at over 50 venues, and on Friday, June 16, the community will celebrate 10 years of monthly happy hours and gatherings. The event will take place at Playground Bar and Lounge, where G3 has recently made its permanent home.

The anniversary is special for King, who first found his sense of community in San Francisco in the early ’80s. For a recently out gay man living at “ground zero” of the AIDS epidemic, unity was more than a buzzword, and survival meant sticking together.

“Sometimes we would do two or three fundraisers a week at little gay bars in San Francisco, where we’d be auctioning off stuff and doing raffles, plus providing practical care to guys who were sick,” King said.

“We’d go over and wash their clothes and their dishes, or we’d walk their dog, whatever we could, because it was a full-on crisis.

“And during that time, I started to do more and more events. I started doing walkathons and street fairs, and pride in Oakland.”

When King moved to Tucson in 2008 to care for his mother, he met the city’s distinctive mellow, live-and-let-live understanding of diversity.

“What I find in Tucson is that it’s a very relaxed acceptance,” he said. “It’s a tolerance that basically says, ‘I don’t care.’ People in Tucson don’t care where you went to school or what your family name is. It’s just a very laid back, tolerant, accepting place.

“And it’s different because it’s not a militant type of acceptance; it’s a very laissez-faire sort of acceptance, and I find that to be kind of refreshing.

“Having said that,” King hastened to add, “the cultural and social opportunities for the communities in Tucson could be much better.”

The organizer, who advocates for a tight-knit and active queer community, has seen the culture begin to dwindle in the last decade due to a perceived lack of need.

“There used to be about 12 gay bars back in the heyday,” King said. “When I moved here, there were about six. Now about three.

“What I worry about is that, with all the acceptance and integration that we are experiencing, queer culture is a little bit under threat because there’s a perception that we don’t need each other as much, that we don’t need safe spaces as much, and that gay people will just fit in everywhere.

“And it worries me that our unique sort of cultural heritage, with our music and our language and our togetherness and our sense of family, could become less and less economically viable, and it could be a real change.”

G3 strives to bring this back. To accomplish this, the event fosters an inclusive environment that appeals to the young and old.

“I think that what G3 has been able to accomplish, the niche that we’ve built here, is that we provide a place once a month for people to gather and socialize in a way that’s not just a bar.

“We promote a very chatty, laidback kind of experience where you can just come and meet up with friends and meet new people, but you don’t have that sort of late-night pressure of going to a bar, per se.”

The happy hour community welcomes all, regardless of sexual preference, orientation or gender, and is always drawing new faces with its creative get togethers. G3 keeps it fresh every month with various themes and events, whether it be a Cinco de Mayo happy hour or a holiday show.

The upcoming anniversary will be a Met Gala-themed “white party,” featuring DJs and other live performances. Attendees are encouraged to come dressed in white.

“There’s a tradition in the gay community of ‘white parties,’” King said.

“We’re teaming up with some local designers and drag queens to do a riff of the Met Gala. So, we’re expecting some elaborate gowns and some very theatrical entrances by people at the party. But whether you’re in a tank top and tennis shorts or an elaborate getup, it’s really just meant to be fun.”

While the party will commemorate a decade of good times, King doesn’t linger on memory lane for too long. He makes sure to look down the other road, the one that points ahead.

“The thing that I worry about the most presently are the political threats that are being targeted toward gender-nonconforming people, whether they’re in drag or transgender or nonbinary, and I think that it needs to be taken very seriously,” he said.

“We’ve had a number of shootings at gay clubs, trans people are murdered and abused regularly in this country, and it seems to be a political ploy by the right to use us as some type of lightning rod, whether it’s banning books or banning drag queens. So I would say that we still have a long, long road ahead of us when it comes to acceptance and tolerance and justice and equality.”

G3 Anniversary Party

WHEN: 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, June 16

WHERE: Playground Bar and Lounge, 278 E Congress Street, Tucson

COST: $9 to get in, first drink is on them; 21 and older

INFO: tucsong3.com

This article appears in Jun 15-21, 2023.