(I couldn’t find the video where the chubby guy finally realizes that the guy in the red robe is a “chubby chaser.”) Just anybody who’s attracted to chubby folks. You don’t have to be gay to be a chubby chaser. The guy in the red robe is a “chubby chaser” or “chaser” for short. As the resident old queer, let me share this video: I only wonder if I will ever feel comfortable enough-physically and emotionally-to do it all again.I smiled when I read this question. Not only because I got to attend parties and the Mardi Gras with thousands of people, but also travel back and stay alive and well just before the pandemic upturned our collective lives. But for queer people, the parties were the only place we find solace, if not absolute acceptance.īut in many ways, I am just lucky.
The whole fallout of the pandemic in 2020 killed parties and events worldwide. But that night, all of it was unimportant. I’ve spent years doubting myself, whether I could ever be celebrated with my gut, my hairy chest and my stretch marks. PDA aside, most queer parties in our country are tame and if you’re chubby, you’re rarely going home with a guy. There’s nothing like this I’ve ever witnessed in India. It was one of those experiences that you don’t quite anticipate having in life, and yet when you go through with it, find yourself changed and having had too much fun. I got back to my Airbnb in the wee hours of the morning terribly hungover but safe thanks to the kindness of another brown bear. I do not know how much of what I said was comprehended by them, but eventually, when we got inside again, I was dancing with them in a bear sandwich. I met an older bear couple who was so intrigued about India that I just stood there talking about what was going down back in the nation.
The many smoke breaks I took in the alley behind the club were perhaps my favourite, because devoid of the loud music and lasers, it was only men of all shapes in their undies talking about life. For a change, I felt like prime meat and I went hobnobbing around with glee. I had more or less lost track of my friend with whom I’d entered the party with. A few Heinekens and Jäger shots later, I kind of lost track of the number of people I’d made out with. Men started buying me drinks, and I let them. I also came to realise the luxury of being one of the four brown boys in the entire party. Booked a year in advance.”Īnd as promised, the night was made of hot bears, leather, booze and our dear old friend, amyl nitrite.
“Every Wednesday before the parade,” Borja said. UnderBEAR is a regular event as a part of the Bear Essentials festival the Harbour City Bears put on that runs alongside the Mardi Gras festival. “But tonight, tonight it’s about us bears.” “All of Grindr will be here tomorrow,” a gay bear at the party exclaimed. “Bears are sexy too, and want dance parties where they can get in their underwear just like their peers in other groups.” This is true because the next night was scheduled to be a underwear party for the muscular gay dudes with gogo dancer bodies.
“I think the bears wanted a party where they felt comfortable without being judged by the greater community,” Joshua Borja, one of the organisers of the UnderBEAR parties, told me later.