Gay Monopoly — Parker Sisters 1983 Gay Board Game Tee

In 1983, a wonderfully cheeky little company called Fire Island Games released Gay Monopoly: A Celebration of Gay Life!, an outrageous, unauthorized parody of America's favorite board game.

And who was responsible for this magnificent piece of homosexual entertainment?

The Parker Sisters.

A rather fabulous little dig at Parker Brothers, the company behind the original Monopoly.

Produced in West Hollywood, California, the game took the familiar world of buying properties, collecting rent, and bankrupting your friends and gave the whole thing a spectacularly gay makeover.

Gone were Atlantic City landmarks like Baltic Avenue and Marvin Gardens. In their place were legendary gay destinations including Castro Street, Folsom Street, Christopher Street, Provincetown, and Fire Island.

Instead of traditional houses and hotels, players could build Ollie's Bars and bathhouses on their properties. The familiar Chance and Community Chest cards became Manhipulation and Ollie's Sleaze Bag cards, while the game's currency proudly proclaimed "In Gays We Trust."

There were even three-dollar bills.

The game also featured Family Pride cards, introducing players to famous figures from gay history, including Oscar Wilde, Leonardo da Vinci, and other historical personalities the creators were happy to claim for the team.

The box also introduced Ollie Gaytor, a muscular little alligator sporting colorful hankies, a wonderfully naughty reference to the handkerchief code used by gay men to communicate their sexual interests.

The game was funny, outrageous, and unapologetically homosexual, arriving at a time when gay culture was becoming increasingly visible but still faced enormous prejudice.

Its packaging even announced that profits would be donated to AIDS research and support groups, reflecting the growing crisis that was beginning to devastate the community.

Unfortunately, the actual Parker Brothers weren't particularly amused by the Parker Sisters.

The unauthorized parody reportedly attracted legal threats over its resemblance to Monopoly, and the game eventually disappeared from the market.

Today, surviving copies are highly collectible pieces of queer history, appearing in museum collections and occasionally selling for substantial sums.

More than four decades later, Gay Monopoly remains a wonderfully outrageous snapshot of early 1980s gay culture, when humor, sex, politics, and a healthy disrespect for heterosexual conventions could all fit inside one cardboard box.