Lost Spaces: Memories from Gay Bars, Lesbian Clubs, and LGBTQ+ Parties

So, when you are an army brat you get to move around a lot. You get to see lots of different parts of the world, or lots of different parts of the country that you're in.  This is kind of a gift, but also kind of not a gift....  Because, you don't always feel grounded and like you belong. But, it's also easier to pick up and change scenes because you have so much experience of it already.  But, how do you know when the time is right to settle down?  Like. what sign do you need to be sure? Well, for this week's guest, the co-host of the With a Gay Twist podcast Mason Dixon, it was when he went ahead and fell in love!  And, where did he meet the apple of his eye? Well, it was at 140 Alex, a bar in Rochester, New York, and he is going to tell us all about it.   We talk all about being the outcast, packing up your drag gear (and your dreams!), and, I get some advice on what to do with your shirt after you've taken it off to shimmy on the dancefloor...  Do you have any memories of 140 Alex, or clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Find out more about Mason by listening to the With a Gay Twist podcast, or visiting their website https://www.withagaytwist.com/

You know how sometimes you go in to a space, and you instantly feel at home? Like, none of that awkwardness whilst you get your bearings - everyone is friendly and open and you feel totally comfortable. And, when you find those places you want to make sure that you go back time and again and soak up those good vibes. Right? RIGHT? Well, not so much for this week's guest, the award winning writer Marlee Jane Ward, who went to Sydney's Club Kooky only the once after being taken there when she first moved to the city way back in 2001.  Why did she not go back? Well, you'll have to listen to the episode to find out! We talk all about how to be unapologetically yourself, running away from home without a plan, and Y2K fashions... Do you have any memories of Club Kooky, or clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Find out more about Marlee by visiting her website https://www.marleejaneward.com/ , and, if you enjoy a bit of dystopian fiction check out her young adult award-winning Orphancorp Series.

We've talked on this show before about the pressure (whether real or imagined) that you can feel when your sibling or someone else in your family comes out before you. In past examples on this show we've only ever been talking about one person in the family... but, on today's episode we're finding out from children's author Will Kostakis what it's like being one of three gay brothers... and, by the sounds of it, they all had different journeys (i hate myself for using that word. sorry). Snd, that's not all we talk about. we have a really interesting conversation about using writing to process and understand your world, getting comfortable in your own skin, and standing in the shadows of the corner of the queer bar hoping beyond hope that no one notices you... . Do you have any memories of The Midnight Shift, or clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Find out more about Will by visiting his website https://willkostakis.com/, or follow him on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/willkostakis/) or Twitter (https://twitter.com/willkostakis)

If you've ever lost yourself, found yourself, shaken off your inhibitions, and/or forged community on a dancefloor, then I think you're going to enjoy this week's episode.  I was lucky enough to talk to Trevor Campbell, the host of the You Made Me Queer podcast, about Toronto's lost space The Gladstone, and it's mid-week dance party Hump Day Bump where Trevor was found cutting a rug many a night in the 00s.  We talk all about accepting the freak you are, figuring out when to put aside your dreams, and weird-things-that-people-say-that-they-think-are-compliments-but-which-just-completely-fuck-with-your-head... ugh. Do you have any memories of The Gladstone, or clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Find out more about Trevor by listening to the You Made me Queer podcast, wherever you find podcasts, or giving him a wee follow on https://www.instagram.com/youmademequeer and https://twitter.com/youmademequeer

This week we are joined by C.J. Johnson from the true crime podcast, Beyond the Rainbow, who is taking us to the Lavender Heights area of Sacramento, California, to visit the lesbian bar The Buffalo Club.  And, along the way we find out about CJ's coming out, her lesbian grandma, and her weakness for blondes.... Do you have any memories of The Buffalo Club, or clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Find out more about CJ by listening to the Beyond the Rainbow podcast, wherever you find podcasts, or visiting her website https://beyondtherainbowpodcast.com/

So, we've done bars, we've done clubs, we've done bookshops and youth groups and websites... but, in all the time we've been doing this show we've never ever featured a queer squat... but all of that is about to change! In the early 00s today's guest, the sex, lust & flirt trainer Joey Juschka, moved to London to help set up a queer squat. And, if you've ever wondered about the how and why of squatting then I think you'll learn a lot from this chat. But, on top of that, and i think the thing that was most interesting for me here, if you've ever lived in a share house and understand the strange dynamics that are constantly at play then I think this is going to resonate.  Do you have any memories about a queer space that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Find out more about Joey by visiting their website - https://joeyjuschka.com/

Do you like to go out and get properly, properly messy? Do you have a go-to place where you can just let loose and have a rollicking good time without fear of judgement or reprimand? If you answered yes then I think you might enjoy hearing about this week's bar, Badlands, which was in the heart of San Francisco's Castro district. Although our guest, Neil Higgins (from FMKLit Podcast) only went to the bar once he certainly knows a thing or two about getting messy.  We talk about finding where it is that you fit in, how to respond to handsome men crying on the footpath, and crappy cartoons from the 80s! Do you have any memories of Badlands, or clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) And, also, make sure you listen to Neil's show FMKLit, where every episode Neil and his co-host Claire read two romance books; one queer and one straight. Then they play fuck, marry, kill with the characters. They can also be found on facebook - https://www.facebook.com/fmklitpod/

This week's guest, comedian Arielle Isaac Norman, may have only gone to her lost space 'Bout Time II', a handful of times in her life, but that doesn't mean she wasn't impacted when she discovered that the bar closed at the start of the pandemic in 2020 of all that she had lost. We start off talking about when Arielle moved to Austin (which is where the bar was), in 2015, and then go in to brainstorming drag king names, being a serial relationship hopper, and I get some tips on how to initiate a threesome on the dancefloor... Do you have any memories of Bout Time II, or clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Find out more about Arielle  by following her on Twitter (https://twitter.com/DemiBinarielle) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ellendegenderless/) or listen to her podcast Gender Fluids.

This week's space has no name... All we know is that it was a rest-stop between the cities of Salt Lake City and Provo, in Utah, USA.  And, well, if you know anything about cruising then you've probably already guessed that it was a cruising spot, but, without overly intellectualising it, cruising spots are so much more than just cruising spots. And, in a very homophobic part of the USA this was one of the only places where queer men could go and feel that they could express a part of themselves that they had suppressed... And, who went there? Well, it is former Rupaul's Drag Race contestant Tempest DuJour, who grew up in Utah and in the Mormon faith, and had the space as an outlet whilst she was grappling with her sexuality and identity. We talk all about her experiences with the Mormon church, coming out at 30 and.... a rascal of a man who had cherry smelling balls.... Do you have any memories of clubbing from your local queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Find out more about Tempest by following her on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/tempestdujour/)

It's equal parts thrilling and terrifying to uproot your life and plonk it back down in a brand new country and I have such admiration for anyone who does it...  This week's guest, Ben, did this when he left the US in the 2010s to start life again in Bangkok, Thailand as a language teacher. He ended up spending 9 years there before moving back to the US recently.  And, in that time, he went through a wonderful learning curve that was backdropped by the city's queer scene.  He was kind enough to sit down with us and share a few of his stories, which include navigating the dating scene, going googly eyed for one or two strangers, and meeting the love of his life....  Do you have any memories of Telephone Bar, or clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Well, if you have please get in touch - I want to create the biggest online record of people's memories and stories - go to www.lostspacespodcast.com and find the section 'Share a Lost Space' and tell me what you got up to! Bonus points for embarrassing photos! You can also find me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lostspacespod), Instagram (www.instagram.com/lostspacespod) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lostspacespod) Find out more about Ben by following him on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/language.fan)