Celebrating Father's Day At A Gay-And-Lesbian Bar (Part 1): A Nevin Barich Blog Experience

Nevdogg Note: This Sunday is Father's Day, and my dad -- lifetime hetrosexual Bob Barich -- wishes to go to a gay-and-lesbian bar for Father's Day. Now, while we at nevdogg.blogspot.com love the gay-and-lesbian community and are full proponents for the rights of all people regardless of their sexual preference...we just had to write about this. :-)

The following is Part 1 of a two-part series.

Tuesday, June 10, 4:45 p.m.

It's five days before Father's Day, and I'm on the phone with dear old Dad, asking to see what he wants to do on his special Hallmark holiday:

Dad: There's this really great place not too far from me.

Nev: All right.

Dad: They have good food there.

Nev: Sounds good.

Dad: I like the food.

Nev: Gotcha.

Dad: I only want to go there because of the food.

Nev: Um...OK.

Dad: Just the food!!

Nev: All right, all right!!

Dad: Read nothing into this.

Yeah, that conversation was...normal.

The next day, I decided to go onto the Internet to find out more about this place that has such "good food." So I did a Google search for this place in West Hollywood called The Abbey:

And found out it was a gay-and-lesbian bar.

Now, in today's politically correct society, it might be advised that I stop here.

But here's my thinking:

I have gay friends. I have gay relatives. I have come across several members of the gay community over the course of my life. Some of them were nice. Some of them were among the coolest people I've ever met. Some of them were downright annoying. In short, other than the fact that they like the same sex, they are no different from me.

In other words, civil action groups: I like gays.

That said, be honest with yourself as I ask you this:

If your father said he wanted to go to a gay-and-lesbian bar on Father's Day because he liked the food, would you pause for a couple of seconds and move your eyebrows upward?

Just a little?

Hmm?

......

The Web site had a picture of pink pillows, for crying out loud!!

So anyways, not long after finding out that The Abbey was "the perfect place for a gay to take a straight person to," according to the L.A. Times, I called my dad and left him the following message:

Just tell me one thing: You're not gonna, like, come out of the closet on Sunday, are you? Because if you are, then can you come out to the Valley and tell me at a McDonald's? Because a Big Mac would lessen the shock.

My dad called me back and assured me that he wasn't coming out of the closet, that he simply wanted to go to The Abbey because it had great food, and that this was a perfectly normal place that all sorts of people -- of all races and sexual preferences -- frequent on a regular basis.

He then proceeded to tell me the following story:

We were there a few weeks ago with some friends and sitting at the table next to us was this drag queen. He had everything: The hair, the makeup, the dress, the fake (breasts). All dolled up. And he was looking at me the whole time, really staring at me. Anyways, about halfway through the meal, I got up to go to the bathroom, which is all the way in the back of the place. When I got back to the table, my friends told me that when I got up and walked past the drag queen, he turned around and stared at my (butt) the whole way. We all laughed. I guess I still got it.

Yep.

This Father's Day will be normal as normal as can be.

And now for this week's:

SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE

I was driving to work the other day when I heard the following on the radio:

Be caller number 10 and you can win tickets to see New Kids On The Block.

I don't think anything more needs to be said.

(Support gay rights. Then visit nevdogg.blogspot.com. It doesn't have to be in that order.)

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