From the courtyard of the luxury resort complex The Brass Key Guesthouse in Provincetown, Mass., I dutifully took mental notes of the inviting view that greeted me when I arrived on a Saturday in mid September: a hot tub where an army of gay pilots in town for Gay Pilots Association Weekend congregated like moths to a flame.
The iconic sight of barely clothed gays—one that is the promise of Ptown in the summer, when speedos and unicorn floats are inexhaustible—was short lived when I excitedly dipped into the hot tub on Sunday. Those gays were gone. Ptown was becoming, believe it or not, less gay. (Mind you, “less gay” in Ptown is still relatively very gay).
Summer’s end in Ptown is when the queens take off their makeup and go home, one resort guest told me, referring to tourists and also performers who hold court at various establishments throughout town but leave after peak season.