Queen of clubs: NYC nightlife legend Susanne Bartsch pumps up Pride with a big bash — and a new book
Susanne Bartsch, the legendary club queen who has presided over generations of queer party boys — and other children of the counterculture — in the City That Never Sleeps.“You know, I’m not gay, but I love the community, and I’ve always felt that they need support because they seemed to be treated differently than the heteros,” Bartsch told The Post. “And I didn’t like that.
People are people. ”Bartsch’s longtime love affair with the LGBTQ community — which has gone from the AIDS crisis in the ’80s to the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” era of today — continues on Saturday night, when her Boom!
Pride bash will pump up NYC Pride Weekend atop the Standard, High Line in the Meatpacking District.“You know, the gays are just more fun,” said Bartsch. “They know how to party.”After moving to New York — where she has lived in the storied Chelsea Hotel since 1981 — Bartsch found her tribe in the gay underground.“I wasn’t consciously planning to be like, ‘Oh, let me, like, go and be into the gay community,’ ” she said. “It was just me.
I like color, like excitement … To me, the creativity in the gay community is bigger than anything. They’re so incredibly inspiring, from the drag queen to the big gay [muscle] boy.”But while Bartsch’s new book “Bartschland: Tales of New York Nightlife” shares the snaps and stories behind many a fabulous function, she is also taking a platform-heeled stand as the fiercest ally the gay scene has ever seen.“My philosophy of life, my understanding of what’s right, is that everybody should be able to be what they want to be, and should not be criticized for it.
