Late last night in a New York City nightclub, reclusive singer Frank Ocean threw an exclusive party called PrEP+. According to a press release, the party is the first of an invite-only series dedicated to creating safe spaces for queer people to meet and dance. The name is "an homage to what could have been of the 1980s' NYC club scene if the drug PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis)—which can be taken daily to prevent HIV/AIDs for those who are not infected but are at high risk—had been invented in that era.”
But the concept and theme didn't go over quite as well as Ocean thought it would. LGBTQ+ people took to Twitter to express their grievances and, of course, make memes:
For some who lived through the peak of the AIDS crisis, NYC nightclubs were sanctuaries for LGBTQ+ people and the party's revisionist erasure feels disrespectful.
Ocean's missteps were best-driven home by Dr. Steven W. Thrasher, who pointed out you can't separate the vibrancy of 1980s and '90s queer nightlife without the AIDS crisis and that using it as a party theme is distasteful and an ugly capitalistic money-grab at it's worst.
We have four words for Ocean:
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