P-Town

Yesterday, I co-chaperoned a student trip to Provincetown. For those of you that may not know, Provincetown is a resort town on the far tip of Cape Cod, and is home primarily to rich people, gay and lesbian couples, and their dogs.

I’d never been to P-town before, and based on stories I’ve heard and pictures I’ve seen, I was totally expecting to open the van door and be surrounded by thousands of tanned and toned shirtless hedonistic gay men frolicking on the beach. Not so much the case though. Actually, P-town was just this cute little town by the beach with lots of shops, restaurants, bed and breakfast type inns, tons of older gay and lesbian couples, and a handful of foreign tourists that appeared confused and probably got on the wrong tour bus by accident.

I had a really nice time and ate at some really great restaurants (I LOVE lobster!!), went shopping, relaxed on the beach, and even got winked at a few times. But for some reason, as I walked around there, I felt strangely out of place. There are so many stereotypes of gay men, both good and bad: neat, organized, fashionable, etc… And as I spent the day in P-town, I saw all of them. The thing is though, that as a gay or bi or whatever-my-sexual-orientation-du-jour-is man, I don’t really fit into any of them. I’m just this messy, laid back, lazy guy that can barely dress himself and couldn’t dance to save his life. Of course, stereotypes are just stereotypes, and everyone is different. But it was interesting that I felt like such an outsider in a community that I theoretically should have felt right at home in.