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<\/a><\/p>\nOn Friday night\u2014the first night of NYC\u2019s historic World Pride weekend\u2014the city\u2019s glitterati will gather for a black-tie gala at Rockefeller Center\u2019s iconic Rainbow Room.<\/p>\n
Hosted by BD Wong<\/a>, Kate Walsh, and Born This Way Foundation president and co-founder Cynthia Germanotta, the affair known as the Love Above All Ball<\/a> will benefit Gaga and her mamma\u2019s philanthropic org and feature fabulous live<\/a> performances by Betty Who and Marina, among others.<\/p>\n Warming the crowd up with a sexy, optimistic disco set will be Casey Spooner. The singer-musician-performer-DJ is looking forward to a jam-packed pride weekend<\/a> that will include a lot of drag, a lot of marching and a lot of music.<\/p>\n Ahead of Friday night\u2019s glam event, Queerty<\/em> chatted with Spooner about the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the state of Pride and the importance of working with organizations like the Born This Way Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Oh, and did we mention he\u2019s planning to run for president?<\/p>\n Talk to me about the Born This Way Foundation. What\u2019s your understanding of what they do?<\/strong> You\u2019re DJing the Love Above All Ball on Friday night. What are you going to play? What\u2019s the vibe? <\/strong> What\u2019s your personal WorldPride soundtrack right now? <\/strong> Are you particularly excited to see any of the other acts at the Love Above All Ball?<\/strong> How are you feeling about pride this year?<\/strong> Already?<\/strong> I definitely got offers for several Pride campaigns that I turned down because I thought the offers were\u2026hypocritical. It\u2019s all about visibility, but the rates were very low. And I was very uncertain how the financing actually impacted the community. Last night I DJed a benefit for the Queer March that\u2019s happening, retracing the original steps of the first Pride March. So, I\u2019ve been focused a little more on the philanthropic and the underground.<\/p>\n You\u2019re doing the Queer March instead of the NYC Pride March. Talk to me about that decision.<\/strong> I don\u2019t want to diminish the main march. I think it\u2019s great. I\u2019ll do both. There\u2019s no reason why you can\u2019t do both. I can show my support for responsible corporations that support the community and I can show my support for grassroots organizations that need more visibility.<\/p>\n It sounds like you try to be really mindful of the pride gigs you take. What\u2019s your criteria? <\/strong> The other thing I\u2019m doing this season is I\u2019ve partnered with Nike. Their collection is all in partnership with the Gilbert Baker Foundation. They\u2019ve gone back to the original Pride flag. I like that they\u2019re educating people on the history of the flag and Gilbert Baker.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s Pride is historic. What does the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riot mean to you?<\/strong> And it\u2019s important right now because of the general political climate, to kind of refresh ourselves on what it means to be politically active, to protest, what it means to go against the status quo. That\u2019s what confusing about this pride. There\u2019s a lot of acceptance and inclusion, but we\u2019re trapped in this capitalistic system. Just because you\u2019re selling something doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s going to have a positive impact on the community.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n So, there was a long wait between FischerSpooner albums. Are we going to have to wait another nine years for your next one? <\/strong> And also, I\u2019m running for president. I\u2019m making my official announcement on the Fourth of July.<\/p>\n Ok. I don\u2019t know how seriously to take you. <\/strong> What\u2019s your platform? <\/strong> Also, we have more and more gay<\/a> candidates, but they have to be desexualized in order to be appealing. I think it\u2019s very important to have a queer candidate who is unabashedly sexual. Especially when we have someone in office who is known for saying, \u201cGrab \u2018em by the pussy<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been thinking about pride resolutions. So every June, we celebrate pride, and then we resolve to accomplice specific things for the LGBTQ community in the year ahead. So, what would your pride resolutions be this year? <\/strong> I would like to find a way to help people who are in these other places in the world find a way to find safety.<\/p>\n \nwww.queerty.com\/dj-casey-spooner-commercialization-pride-20190627?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DJ Casey Spooner is over the commercialization of pride On Friday night\u2014the first night of NYC\u2019s historic World Pride weekend\u2014the city\u2019s glitterati will gather for a black-tie gala at Rockefeller Center\u2019s iconic Rainbow Room. Hosted by BD Wong, Kate Walsh, and Born This Way Foundation president and co-founder Cynthia Germanotta, the affair known as the … Continue reading DJ Casey Spooner is over the commercialization of pride<\/span>
\nWhat I like is their focus on youth and their combination of pop music and philanthropy. It seems like a cool way to help a vulnerable audience. And as I\u2019m getting older, I\u2019m starting to really feel like my audience are my children. So you feel a responsibility for educating and taking care of people.<\/p>\n
\nWell, I\u2019ve been living in Paris and I\u2019ve been listening to a lot of disco. Disco really makes sense in Paris. I want to play that. You know, it\u2019s a black tie gala and I\u2019m playing the early set. I can\u2019t go hard and dark, backroom set immediately. I was raised on disco and I think there\u2019s an inherent optimism and euphoria in it, coming out of the golden age of gays<\/a>. I mean, what a dream: to play a disco set in the Rainbow Room for World Pride? I\u2019ll do it!<\/p>\n
\nI have a disco playlist on Spotify that I listen to a lot. \u201cSpooner Juner.\u201d It\u2019s all my favorite disco tracks I\u2019ve been listening to.<\/p>\n
\nI\u2019ll stick around to see Betty Who and everyone on the roster. I mean, I\u2019m a little bit worried how I\u2019m gonna get through it because Friday I\u2019m gonna do Drag March. Drag March is my favorite march, period. We gather in Tompkins Square Park in drag and then we march to Stonewall. I might have to do it in black tie! I have a fitting today at Prada and I requested a dress, so I may be doing Drag March in Prada. And then I\u2019ll run up to Rainbow Room.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/06\/Casey-Spooner1-PHOTO-CREDIT-EMIL-COHEN-2-535x670.jpeg\")
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\nI\u2019m exhausted. I\u2019m over it.<\/p>\n
\nA little bit. It\u2019s a little aggressive. I\u2019m all for visibility and I\u2019m super excited that everyone\u2019s excited. But I have to say, the commercialization of queer culture has been fatiguing. To go to Target and Lysterine has a rainbow on it, every shampoo has a rainbow on it. Everyone\u2019s shoveling rainbows!<\/p>\n
\nI\u2019ve been working a lot with Rise and Resist. They\u2019re a lot of the people from the original ACTUP. I just love everything that Rise and Resist does. So, they reached out to me and said they\u2019re doing the Queer March, and basically, I\u2019ll consistently do anything Rise and Resist asks me to do.<\/p>\n
\nI just try to focus on things that are philanthropic and benefit-based. It\u2019s got to have a good aesthetic, and it\u2019s gotta have a good political intention, whether it\u2019s a foundation or someone who needs support. I\u2019m DJing a party called Barba on Saturday at Three Dollar Bill. It\u2019s a queer techno party from Australia. I like the queerness of it, I like that it\u2019s not sort of trapped in a toxic masculinity.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/06\/IMG_3331.jpg-536x670.jpg\")
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\nI mean, it\u2019s amazing. I think what\u2019s most important is educating people on what actually happened: what that event was and how it was started by the trans<\/a> community and people of color. I mean, I\u2019m still discovering more information about that moment.<\/p>\n
\nWarren is very particular, and he prides himself on his slowness. Also, we are both artists who don\u2019t work only in music. So a lot of times I\u2019m moving between different projects. Right now I\u2019m working on a film. I can\u2019t even remember everything I\u2019m working on. But I don\u2019t think it\u2019ll be a decade. I\u2019m pushing to do a few more singles. People don\u2019t make albums anymore\u2014which is kind of unfortunate. But to make a great album you have to have a lot of time or a lot of money. But I\u2019m getting ready to release two singles this summer under my own name. We\u2019re preparing that now.<\/p>\n
\nWell, there\u2019s a history of artists running for president. That\u2019s part of the tour also, I\u2019m trying to tie that into the presidential campaign.<\/p>\n
\nThe thing that I\u2019m trying to reconcile is the conflict between capitalism and democracy. It relates to campaign finance and immigration. We keep voting these people into office who want to run the government like a business but they\u2019re not thinking about how that impacts people on a very human level. There has to be a paradigm shift in terms of how money and democracy interact.<\/p>\n
\nI had this crazy experience where I went to a gay<\/a> bathhouse in Paris. I met this guy<\/a>, we had sexual relations and then we started talking. He was from Kurdistan. Someone had drugged him and filmed him having sex<\/a> and they were threatening to release the video<\/a> on Facebook and send it to his family. If his family saw that, they would be morally obligated to murder him. So, he had to leave his job, his family, his home. He had to take all the money and everything he could carry and just leave.<\/p>\n<\/a>
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