Ty Mitchell Comes Clean About Going To Fire Island on July 4th!
The model shared an essay about the confession but it was met with criticisms from its confused readers.
Despite the pandemic which caused left and right cancellations of LGBT events, including the most anticipated yearly celebration we all know as Pride, there are some who are just, unstoppable. You may have heard about how gay men stormed Fire Island on Independence Day which drew flak on social media.
One of those attendees was porn star Ty Mitchell who actually came clean about the sitch through an essay he wrote for BuzzFeed. His essay entitled “To Survive A Pandemic, We Need To Make Room For Pleasure” did not sit well with BuzzFeed readers.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0o3JJzhiLw/
In the write-up, which some think could have been an opportunity for the model to highlight the dangers of social gatherings in time of pandemic, Ty instead sort of justified his and other party-goers’ decision to flock to Fire Island on the 4th night of July.
“This absence of a local case surge was somewhat irrelevant to the criticism leveled against the partygoers, which is that they presumably did not care about the effects in the first place. Photos and videos circulating around social media depicted Fire Island as a mess of drug-addled disregard for social distancing, in spite of successful efforts to normalize mask-wearing along the boardwalk and restructure food and grocery establishments outdoors. This footage so thoroughly echoed images of pandemic denialists in conservative communities that onlookers seemed to view them as one and the same.
But here’s the thing: They’re not.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0RlwnxBZ20/
Readers also pointed out that even “In Fire Island, where events and parties are otherwise organized very clearly, norms around ethically socializing hadn’t been firmly established until very recently,”, it could have not been an excuse for people to hold a mass gathering when the pandemic is all over the news plus scientists know so little about the Novel Corona Virus because it’s, you know, just newly-discovered.
The model even went so far as to interlacing his essay with Fire Island‘s history to defend the Independence Day gathering.
“In Fire Island I have learned how once you locate the parts of the past to which you belong, history is a rich and pleasant feeling, not just an assemblage of facts. Navigating the Pines in a pandemic only sharpened that feeling, given its role as a vital refuge for gay people at the height of the ongoing AIDS epidemic. It was there that many queer people possessed the space and openness to cultivate networks for education, care, and grief among ourselves to survive HIV/AIDS (or live out our final days of it.) And in this way, it provided a kind of laboratory for crafting modes of pleasure and intimacy within new parameters of risk. Even though COVID-19 differs greatly from HIV, the task of defying disease rings out with a particular, historical vibration in Fire Island.”
You can read the whole essay here and see for yourself.
But what can you say about Ty Mitchell’s take on that particular social gathering? Do you think he’s rational? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!
