What Is Gay Life Like Where You Live?

[TetRefine]

What kind of "gay life" does your area offer. Does it have lots of gay clubs, bars, bath-houses, stores, and groups catering to gay people, or is it virtually nonexistent where you are? 

[Ashi]

My gay life is non-existent.  The city I live in does have gay clubs, bars, stores that are listed as gay owned and probably the rest of your list (not sure about bath houses..., but I never checked).  I read it was the gay hub before SF took over, then receeded afer SF took over as the gay hub of the area, but now I do see a little resurgence.  It has a gay video bar in downtown, not sure what that is....  I never really like going to downtown after dark.  The few gay people I knew back in one of my old jobs prefer to go to SF (or the City, as most people here prefer to call it).  SJ is just more of a bedroom society....  But you can always go to SF for fun activities.  There are gay parades and festivals in SF, too.  And AIDS walk and Bay-to-Breakers that are not gay specific athletic events, but certainly of interest to some.  And then there is Folsom Street Fair and Baker Beach....

[Never Surrender]

For home, not a lot. I live in a town in England, with a population of approximately 25,000, in a Conservative majority area. Although i cant imagine being attacked for being LGBT, you wouldnt want to walk down the street in drag either as im sure the curtains would start twitching! As far as i know we dont have any gay bars, etc. - we dont even have a sex/erotic shop! That said, its also quite an 'old' area for the most part so i cant imagine there being a big party scene here anyway. I would guess that those who were attracted to that sort of scene would go to one of the bigger cities surrounding the area, as within an hour or hour and a half you have places like Manchester, Stoke on Trent, Liverpool, Sheffield, Nottingham, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Leeds, etc.

 

At uni, i think its nearly the same. I go to university in a town which has a population of approximately 10-15,000 'natives' and about 6-10,000 students, so it really is quite small (trying to avoid people you have previously played 'scrabble' with is absolutely horrendously impossible!). It doesnt have any specific gay venues, but its meant to be one of the most liberal and gay friendly universities in Britain.. as a whole, Aber is a pretty tolerant place to be and fairly non-judgemental (although there are always going to be exceptions to the rule), so being gay is seen as nothing newsworthy at all. The LGBT society is pretty strong, but they tend to roll through the normal bars, pubs, clubs (i think we have like 3 clubs now ) and socialise like the rest of the student population - house parties, nights out and bonfires on the beach. It also doesnt have a sex shop LOL

Edited June 27, 2014 by Never Surrender

[Irritable1]

San Francisco suburb, extremely family-oriented. There are, I think, a couple/three lesbian-based families in the school district, who appear to be exactly as boring as the rest of us  No bathhouses, sadly--that would really liven up the PTA. Oh well.

 

Edit: maybe it's a function of age, but I know a bunch of out gay people at work, and we're all in pretty much the same long-term monogamous situation, with or without kids and/or mortgages, or trying to get there. Clubs and bars, forget about it. We all want to get home early for some family-related reason.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Irritable1

[Arpeggio]

They have nooses for us. 

 

(Not really, but there's not really a gay life where I live.)

Edited June 27, 2014 by Arpeggio

[Graeme]

Where I live doesn't have a gay 'life' as described (though the local secondary school has rather prominent posters against homophobia and saying that being gay is okay).

 

Where I work (when I'm in the office) isn't far from the heart of Melbourne's gay 'life'. I heard the area described once on the radio as the 'Pink Mile'. There are bars, nightclubs, at least a couple of 'sex-on-premises' places (one's a sauna -- I got propositioned once when I walking past it. The guy wanted $20 to give me a blow job), and I've (occasionally) seen gay couples walking down the street holding hands. I go to the local supermarket on Friday nights after work before heading off and there are often pairs of guys there that I'm pretty sure are gay couples. There was a gay and lesbian bookstore there, but it recently moved to somewhere else in Melbourne (I haven't bothered trying to find where). There's also a couple of adult-only stores selling 'adult' products (including porn) that cater for both straight and gay customers. The local store selling 'mainstream' DVDs and Blu-Rays has a section for "Queer" movies/TV Shows. Overall, the area is very gay friendly.

[wildone]

My city is kind of strange when it comes to Canada. We don't have a homophobia or bashing problem, but it is like being out and segregated isn't really that important to the gay community.

 

We have one gay bar (well two if you count the one attached to the bath house) but used to have more until the owners of the one main bar started calling the fire department and liquor control board when they noticed a steep decline in their customers on the weekends.

 

You can find sex shops on about every fourth block, well maybe not that many We used to have a large gay specific sex shop, Priape, which closed as well as the other ones in Canada when they were not allowed to sell poppers anymore by the government. They claim it was a staple for sales and profit.

 

Where I said it isn't a big deal to be out and segregated, what I mean is that you find gay couples everywhere in the city. Be it at bars, restaurants, movies, whatever. Just don't need to be a 'gay' establishment.

[C J]

No gay life stuff around here, and I don't mind because nobody cares that I'm gay, so life is the same for everyone. 

[FrenchCanadian]

Montreal is very gay friendly; in the village there's a couple of clubs, bars, sex shops/video stores and clinics. Of course there's also many saunas in and outside the village.

 

In the summer, Ste-Catherine Street in the village closes for traffic, public art and terraces are installed making it a nice place to walk around and stop for coffee and lunch.

[Andy78]

London!  What more do I need to say?

 

Can't walk for five minutes without tripping over a sex shop, knocking shop, bath house, sauna, gay club, gay pub, gay bar or just your everyday run of the mill rentboy

[rustle]

Austin, TX - a liberal college town in the middle of the buckle of the Bible Belt.

 

There are persistent rumors of Gov. Rick Perry getting drunken blow jobs from rent boys, and numerous state legislators have been spotted at this or that gay bar. There are a few bars here, I guess, although mostly, gay clientele is being absorbed into the mainstream. The adult novelty shops usually have a gay section for the vids, but the other stuff is divided up according to the plumbing of the intended users. I'm not aware of any gay bookstores, but many independent stores have a gay interest section.

 

A lesbian couple lived 3 doors down, but they split the sheets. People on our block wave, smile, and talk to us whenever we're out. They love our dogs, and they're envious of our new garage door.

 

Most gay clubs and bars I've been in have been kinda skanky. That's a big reason I haven't been to one in years. If I wanna get dirty, I'll go camping or paddling. Never had any interest in a bath house. Don't know, don't care.

 

We went to a full moon howl at Barton Springs Pool with some straight friends several months ago. There was a group of rowdy gay boys having a good time on the other side, and John said, "Maybe we ought to go sit in the gay section." Dave replied, "You ARE in the gay section." (Even though John is happily married, we always tease him about being just a little TOO curious.)

[C J]

London!  What more do I need to say?

 

Can't walk for five minutes without tripping over a sex shop, knocking shop, bath house, sauna, gay club, gay pub, gay bar or just your everyday run of the mill rentboy

 

What is a knocking shop? 

[Andy78]

What is a knocking shop? 

 

It's a slang term for a brothel

[TetRefine]

It's a slang term for a brothel

 

I was wondering what that meant too.

 

For Philadelphia, there is a pretty stable gay life here like any big city. Theres a neighborhood here referred to as the Gayborhood, although thats not its official name, because most of the city's gay life is centered there. Although its now an expensive, gentrified urban neighborhood and no longer the gay ghetto it was 15-20 years ago. Regardless, much of the city's gay life is centered here, and there are many gay bars, clubs, restaurants, several bathhouses, and gay-themed businesses. They even have little rainbow flag markers attached below all the street signs in the neighborhood. Not many gays live here anymore though, as the younger ones have been priced out and the older ones have moved to other neighborhoods or the 'burbs. Our new neighborhood that I'm moving too in a couple days is apparently becoming the new gay ghetto in the city.

 

Edited June 28, 2014 by TetRefine

[methodwriter85]

   My sister used to promote raves, and I remember Shampoo was the big gay party club in Philly at the time.

 

   There's no real gay life in northern Delaware...you have to go to Rehomo Beach, and there it tends to be more focused on middle-aged gay men and lesbians who have families.

Edited June 29, 2014 by methodwriter85

[JamesSavik]

Rural Mississippi... Gay life... LOL.

 

We had a Pride Parade but it scared the chickens and they put a stop to it.

 

  

[Gene Splicer PHD]

Rehomo beach lol

[Former Member]

I live in London also. My scene is East London - a little more off the beaten path but the clubs have a lot more to offer than the superficial 'look at me but don't talk to me' vibe you get at some of the mainstream clubs in Central. 

 

But then the whole city is like a world unto itself, and I don't think there's anywhere else (aside from New York, maybe) that has more variety from one district to the next. It really is a unique place to live.

[TetRefine]

   My sister used to promote raves, and I remember Shampoo was the big gay party club in Philly at the time.

 

Its not even called Shampoo anymore, but changed it's name to Voyeur. I think that was around 2009, before I moved down here. It's the only after-hours gay club in the city, but I've never actually been there before. 

[scotty94]

Not much in the immediate area here where I live in greater Manchester, but just a quick forty minute bus ride in to town and I'm dropped off in front of a street rammed with gay bars and venues an amazing place right in the centre of Manchester called canal street. Chock-full of every sexual orientation you can think off come to Manchester and experience the gay life in the best way possible. 

[Andy78]

Definitely one of my favourite places

 

[Caz Pedroso]

I'm in Hastings in the UK.

 

When I saw this topic I started looking around. I found one Gay bar and a LGBT Group. Other than that I believe the university centre and collage have a LGBT group too.

 

Unfortunately there is a minority in Hastings that are not very tolerant of anyone who is different.  I myself used to get insults about my weight thrown at me, so i dread to think what would be hurled a gay couple. That being said the majority of people are nice.

 

BTW what is a bath house? Haven't heard that term before. 

[Andy78]

BTW what is a bath house? Haven't heard that term before. 

 

Colloquially, it's just another term for a sauna.

 

Strictly speaking, it's more like a Turkish hammam with sex.

[blake_logan]

Colloquially, it's just another term for a sauna.

 

Strictly speaking, it's more like a Turkish hammam with sex.

 

OK.  I give.... 

 

What's a Turkish hammam????

[wildone]

LOL,

 

Without the fancy names, a bath house is a area that has showers, a hot tub, maybe a pool, a porn watching room, and individual rooms you can rent by the night/hour. Most walk around in towels  (or not) and hook up and return to a individual room.

 

I have never been, but a friends b/f worked at the one in town here for a while. Basically a brothel that you pay to get in, but you don't pay for the sex.