A more ambiguous society
2007
“When two men went into a toilet cubicle in the eighties or nineties, in public, you would automatically assume they were gay, and the average man in the street would not do that. Now, the average man does do that, him and his friend go in together, they don’t mind being accused, or even referred to as gay, because they use that facility to take their drugs, their ‘charlie’ or their ketamine, all the stuff they’re doing, and that has amazed me in the club scene over the last ten years where I see healthy heterosexual young men almost impersonating gay people going into the cubicle together. It’s basically so they can take their drugs, sometimes not just two of them, reference will be made when they come out, ‘Oh yeah, get you’ and they blow kisses and these are heterosexual guys who don’t mind people referring to them as gay. Police can raid the cubicles as much as they like, because gay people don’t have to go into them any more, but society changes, so now it’s the heterosexuals doing it for Class A drugs. We are impersonated in the queue of a gay club, you’ll see straight guys, dressed like us, holding hands, doing lots of things, and so do girls, just to get in. They don’t want sex with us but they want what we’ve got socially. They call it ambience, and we know it’s camp, and camp is not about being effeminate, it’s our ability to chill and enjoy ourselves and relax. Walk into a lesbian bar on a Saturday night and its heavy lesbians and the common denominator is that everyone is drinking lots of beer and the laughter is in every corner of the room, everyone is enjoying themselves. You walk in to an outrageously gay bar and all these effeminate trendy men and hairdressers, and the same denominator is everyone is enjoying themselves and laughing and having a good time. It may only be a façade, but if you walk into a straight bar, the ambience is not there, the camp is not there. My only regret is that we have not passed on that ability, we haven’t passed the camp on to the kids. We’re letting it die and we should be held accountable. “
Contributed by: Bill Gavan, 56