London's gay scene in crisis
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By Paul Burston. Illustration Barry Falls
Posted: Tue Nov 27 2007 -
The hedonism of London's gay community has taken a self-destructive turn, with hardcore drug use and unsafe sex leading to levels of death and disease unseen since the '80s. Worse still, no one is talking about it. Time Out reports on the biggest threat to the scene in 20 years
Something scary is happening on the gay scene. Doctors know it. Club promoters know it. Clubbers know it, too. But nobody is talking about it, at least not openly. Twenty-five years after Aids was first identified, much has changed in the fight against the disease. A generation has grown up with the message that safer sex saves lives. So why are new infection rates so alarmingly high? And why do some gay men seem so hell-bent on destroying themselves? On Friday, the day before World Aids Day, the Royal Vauxhall Tavern is hosting a night called 'The Biggest Suicide Cult in History'. Strong words, and no less than you'd expect from the man responsible, performance artist David Hoyle. But the flyer goes even further. 'All over Vauxhall they are fucking without condoms', it reads. 'All over Vauxhall they are dancing till Tuesday morning. All over Vauxhall they are taking G, K, C, V and E [that's GHB, ketamine, cocaine, Viagra and ecstasy]. All over Vauxhall they are dying.'
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'I truly believe that a lot of gay men would prefer to be dead,' says Hoyle. 'They clearly have deep-seated self-esteem issues and they go out seeking oblivion because, deep down, they don't believe their lives are worth living.' Hoyle is an outspoken critic of the commercial gay scene, and his words are clearly designed to provoke a reaction. But you don't have to look too far on the scene to find people behaving in a manner you might describe as 'self-destructive'. In the past eight years, the number of gay men with HIV in the UK has almost doubled. Partly this is due to an increase in the numbers coming forward for testing since the advent of lifesaving combination therapy. But partly it's due to a rise in unsafe sex or 'barebacking'. Dr Sean Cummings of Freedomhealth is a leading expert on gay male sexual health, and has warned for years of a second epidemic. Today he confirms that sexual health clinics 'have reached crisis point with rocketing rates of new STD diagnoses'. And where there's syphilis and gonorrhoea, HIV often follows.
'I get offered a lot of unsafe sex,' says Simon Casson, promoter of Duckie. 'I'm completely open about my HIV positive status, and I meet a lot of men who want me to fuck them without condoms. I used to go to gay sex clubs and saunas and there was always a lot of unsafe sex. People in those environments tend to be off their faces on drink and drugs. Why else would a gay sauna in Vauxhall be open for 24 hours, unless people were on drugs? I think there is a significant constituency of gay men in London who use a lot of drugs and who are into unsafe sex. It's actually not that socially taboo. It's quite accepted. Just look at all the men advertising for bareback sex on Gaydar.' Alternatively, walk into any gay sex shop and the evidence is all around you. Bareback porn is outselling all other forms of gay adult entertainment. And I don't mean the 'pre-condom classics' made in the days before Aids and reissued by studios like Falcon. I mean films produced now, often in the UK.
For years, the focus was on eroticising safer sex. Now it seems the reverse is true. Barebacking is portrayed as just another gay lifestyle choice, like living in a loft-style apartment or shopping at IKEA. Surely this must be having some effect on people's behaviour? As one gay porn producer wrote in a letter to the gay weekly Boyz recently: 'Porn does influence the kind of sex you have in reality, and bareback porn contradicts all the good work on HIV prevention being carried out by health promotion charities.'
Incidentally, it was in Boyz that I also read about the British gay porn actor who contracted HIV on a porn shoot. Which begs the question: how many gay men will get off watching the film in which he became infected? And how many will imitate that behaviour the next time they have sex? Several younger gay men I've spoken to in the past few months have argued that HIV is no big deal. They've heard about combination therapy, they've seen the ads with muscular men climbing mountains and they've jumped to the conclusion that life on anti-retrovirals is one long picnic. There are even the fatalistic few for whom contracting HIV is seen as some sort of rite of passage, or a stepping stone towards having lots of unprotected sex without having to think about the consequences.
Then of course there's the other kind of 'combination therapy', the cocktail of recreational drugs in common usage on the gay club scene. Ecstasy has given way to a combination of drugs including coke, crystal meth and GHB. Clubs in Vauxhall even have 'recovery rooms' where people are left to 'sleep off' the effects of GHB – assuming of course that they don't develop breathing difficulties or have a cardiac arrest. Several prominent gay DJs have told me that 'GHB is killing the scene in Vauxhall'. It's killing the customers too. Earlier this year, there were reports of three deaths related to GHB at a well-known after-hours club. A barman I know has had seven friends die from GHB in the past 12 months. And to echo that famous Aids warning from the '80s, that's just the tip of the iceberg.
'GHB is a nasty, poisonous drug which is killing gay men on a regular basis', explains Dr Cummings. 'We've had a number of deaths of our patients resulting from use of the drug, either together with other drugs or alone . Death often occurs during or immediately post-sex and so the victims are found in humiliating circumstances. The scenarios are usually awfully upsetting for all concerned, especially partners and family members. Coroners will frequently be coy to spare the feelings of loved ones [by recording accidental death], but this has the inadvertent effect of concealing the likely real numbers. There is nothing glamorous about finding a young man dead in a harness, having fallen, struck his head, inhaled his own vomit and suffocated.'
'I understand the connection between sex and drugs,' confesses Casson. 'I experimented in that area for years, and I ended up HIV positive. Do I regret it? Yes I do. The gay world told me that it was okay to live like that. It's not. You can't go out clubbing for three or four days at a time, necking every drug you can lay your hands on, and not expect something bad to happen to you. Gay men tend to meet each other in drink-fuelled, drug-fuelled environments, and it's killing us. People are dying and there needs to be a wake-up call.'
In the early '80s, before Aids really hit Britain, there was a hi-NRG song played each week at Heaven called 'So Many Men (So Little Time)'. What few of us knew then was how prophetic these words would be. Twenty-five years on, how many men must contract HIV or die from drug overdoses before we change our behaviour? How long before we call time on a lifestyle that's killing us?
'The Biggest Suicide Cult in History' is at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern on Friday.- Add your comment to this feature
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23 comments
I must admit I find my self very alienated from the gay life in general. Many may say I have not lived, or need to get a life, but certainly this dangerous lifestyle is NOT my thing.
I do desire a social life and sexual fun, but I'm so deprived because I take the more "middle" ground away from the senseless extremes.
There is really no hope of any sort of control, reasoning or policing of any sort where the need for morality doesn't even apply.
So, is there such a thing called a "safe gay life" you can actually enjoy, and be fulfilled, as the charities encourage us to lead, anybody? Is there anybody who WANTS to live such a life?
It is very worrying that so many gay men are neurotic about growing old. You can adjust and live a very contented life but not if you are living in fear. If you want help in adjusting I would suggest starting off by reading Gay and Gray by Raymond Berger if you can get hold of a copy
i,m looking forward to being an old queenie fart down here in miss brighton.....SO I TAKE THE STEPS THAT ARE GONNA GET ME THERE. and that means NO DRUGS NO UNSAFE SEX LOVEING MYSELF AND INVESTING IN MY HEALTH AND ...FUTURE..LISTEN THE SCENE DOSENT LIKE A FAIREY AFTER SHES 40 I KNOW THAT AND I PROPABLEY WILL BE SINGLE WELL THERES NOT A LOT WE CAN DO ABOUT THAT. but there is an alternative to self destruction,makeing ...REAL....life long freandships .TRYING TO GET A NICE HOME AND SOME CASH COMEIN IN. BEING FREE OF FUCKING ADDICTIONS.. LIFE IS WORTH LIVEING ITS HARD SOMETIMES ..BUT ITS WORTH IT.......BE SAFE PEOPLE...DXXXX
I have tried this lifestyle, minus the sauna's etc. I have experimented with most drugs and done the who clubbing thing. I moved to london to be with my boyfriend and we went out constantly... Looking back i blame constant clubbing, drugs and come downs the real reason for our break up... I look at all the men on the scene in these area's looking for happiness and a relationship and the reality of this is they will not find it hanging out in these places, taking drugs, and its impossible to have a relationship at all when your even doing the club clean. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, and glad to say i will not end up 35 proping the bar up, and also dying a lonely old man, with serious mental problems.... People do not realise this but taking MDMA for example stops the re-uptake of seritonin..Yeah it feels great to start, but give it what 3 or 4 years, you will have knackered the receptors and you will feel NO PLEASURE in anything you do, and there fore would be paranoid and obsessed, just like my ex who is 10 years older than me, been on the scene too long, has been badly burned, he introduced me to GHB the second time we met, i was living in devon at the time, so a country boy, and i look at him and his failed relationships and know its him, but he is telling me i need help!! Anyway, rant over, i agree with it all, Vauxhall is a mess and eventually it will com to a grinding holt of G overdoses and people fucking on club dancefloors. Sick.
SG, your comment that "not everyone is high on drugs" in Saunas.......having visited a certain Vauxhall venue recently and it REEKING of Crystal Meth being smoked I wonder how accurate you are. I suspect that the majority at the weekends are on drugs.
However thats what many Gay men choose to do...Why is it so wrong.?..sorry but we are not Heterosexuals who are here to breed the next generation. we do not have the responsibilities to bear ..If lifes all a big party then so what...I say bring it on !!!
I think the articles and some of the comments are excessively negative . Lets celebrate the fact the we have freedom to define our lives as we choose and can throw off the shackles of convention and if we wish opt to have brief and exciting journeys on this planet.
Good article, but some of the insinuations here are just ridiculous. Saunas are open all night because people don't want to have to shuffle out of there late at night and would prefer to spend the night and sleep, not necessarily because everyone there is high on drugs.
I just wanted to thank Mike Darwin for the time he clearly took in formulating and expressing his view; though parts I do not entirely agree with, I think people would benefit greatly from reading his words carefully. Cheers, Mike
Brilliant article which as much as it pains me to say, i think is very accurate. This spurious pursuit of 'pleasure' seems more to be a desperate flight from despair, that fails, as icarus plunges into the abyss. gay men need to grow up, and take a long hard and honest look at their lives if they are to really aknowledge their inherent self destructiveness..
Enjoy life as when we reach our 50's it changes and you will miss so much it.
We can never go back and those memories can haunt you as well.
mmmmm.. what's better an intense short hedonistic life or ending up in an old peoples home with a tube stuffed up your dick pissing into a plastic bag..being fed baby food and having to have your arse wiped.....answers on a postcard please
I want to applaud Simon for his honesty and Paul for writing this article. I want to add is that as Simon has demonstrated it so easy to fall into what can ultimately be self-destructive behavior. The gay scene reflects what a lot of gay men want or it wouldn't be the way it is. It is not imposed on us. We have choice. Homophobia, self-hate may inform people's decisions, but what is really useful is for people to have the confidence to make choices for themselves. I really think moral panic and blaming the "scene" is useless and irrelevant. Its such mundane but vital things as education and information about details but also a sense of community that are going to help things - and maybe Paul, Simon, and David are provoking people to think a bit more?
The comments from Mike Darwin are really amazing but like lots of intelligent people it has lead him down faulty paths. The whole cryo stuff or example, moreover why are u so consumed with sex anyways? Dude get a grip your thinkn is taking the path from innovation to falling off the cliff.
As a young gay man, I concur wholeheartedly with this article.
I have consistently found the gay scene to be an extremely fickle and dangerous place where promiscuity, drug use and unsafe sex are all actively encouraged and have become almost prerequisite to the gay lifestyle.
In addition to this there is a massive emphasis on youth and beauty. One must seemingly conform to a very narrow guideline - extremely slim, boyish, under 30, expensively dressed, excessively tanned - to be considered attractive.
There is also an overwhelming pressure to pidgeonhole oneself and to become involved in a bizarre culture of stereotypes where ones relationships - or, more likely, conquests - are determined by build, musical preference or even general attire.
In my experience, the scene destroys people - and some people destroy themselves in anticipation of the scene. I have lost many good friends to the scene, watching them transform from genuine, down to earth people into preening, elitist caricatures of themselves.
I feel there is a war, of sorts, going on within the gay community. In one corner there seem to be level-headed gay people who wish to gain respect and dignity for their community, campaigning for civil partnerships and the such like. In the other corner stand the promiscuous, drug-abusing hedonists who serve only to reinforce the negative stereotypes that their counterparts are fighting to hard to eradicate.
In 2006 a fantastic documentary - Trouble With Gay Men, presented by Simon Fanshawe - discussed this situation. He interviewed a gay sauna owner who told him that gay men are supposed to be promiscuous, and that any man who wants to settle down into a relationship should get an operation.
As Fanshawe says, "We have fought discrimination and prejudice only to wreck ourselves with drugs and wild sex - and it's so ironic because there's never been a better time to be a gay man."
Six months on this is still true. I am very glad Timeout has had the courage to publish this article and facilitate this debate... although perhaps everyone is too much in recovery to leave more than 9 comments in six months??
What worries me are the lack of alternatives and the absence of any response from gay community organisations. At the Lesbian and Gay Film Festival I was appalled to watch the representative from GMFA deny there was a particular problem with unsafe sex and other such practices.
A failure to look at ourselves as a community will cost lives. And I have already lost too many friends - either through suicide or to AIDS and I'm only in my 30s. We have to be resilient and adapt/change.
One point to Dom Reynard - quadrupled numbers in 'straight populations' is a bit of a false comparison. An increase in a small number is always going to be a big percentage: e.g. going from 1 to 4 infections is a 400% increase. The other reason it's different is that these infections are *mostly* coming in from people settling in the UK from countries with severe epidemics. These numbers make the gay community look less worrying and responsible. They divert funds from community building projects and other sources of support.
It may be that things are not too different to how they were in the 70s... but we do need to acknowledge how things are now. I remember a st8 flatmate who went to Trade years ago, only to leave early after finding people blowing each other on the dance floor... doing lines of coke on the sinks in the toilets... right next to two guys fucking, bareback, at the next basin. Not too different to some of the clubs I've been to a few years later...
This article is several months old now, but I just stumbled on it so will add my own tuppence worth. The focus on youth in gay culture is destructive.
In my experience, at the grand age of 31, I find myself driven to have as much sex as possible now because I'm told, again and again in various ways by gay men, that my time as a desirable man is fast drawing to a close.
I'm told, in a manner apparently intended to be complimentary, that I "could pass for 25". In other words: "even though you're fast becoming too old to be attractive, if the light is just right, you could still pass for a sexual being". I've been told by younger guys that "at least I have the experience to be good in bed" (translation - "you can make up for those wrinkles by being more sensitive to my needs, in a way that a younger person wouldn't have to").
The worst part is, I know this is only the beginning. 31 is young, I am still fit and relatively fresh-faced. What's it going to be like when I'm 40, 50, 60 and beyond? I'm not ready to become a non-sexual being. So I visit saunas and other venues several times a week, often motivated by the thought that I might only have a few more years of this left, before I'm completely spat out by the gay system.