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

You know how I always get overexcited when I learn a new word or phrase on this show?  Well, this week I was lucky enough to learn some gay Arabic terms when I sat down to talk to Intesar Toufic about growing up gay in Lebanon.  Intesar is an author, stand-up comedian, and patrona of a multinational phone-sex ring. He first started going to Acid, a club that was found in the capital Beirut, when he was in university and had just started to meet other people like him. We talk all about community and what it means to belong at the same time as not belonging, how the club operated in a country where it's illegal to be gay, and - what could possibly be my new favourite saying - the malice of gays. Do you have any memories of Acid, 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 Intesar by following him on Twitter (https://www.twitter.com/ClassyBoomBoom) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/scandalousArab)... AND, go have a read of an excerpt from Toufi's book 'The Glorious Prince'  https://newsmutproject.tumblr.com/post/631935496605630464/intesar-toufic-on-excerpt-from-the-glorious/amp

Mitzi MacIntosh is the drag persona of the artist Graeme Browning (oh, yeah, and she also happens to be queer Sydney royalty). Graeme moved to Sydney, from Canberra, in the late 80s and quickly established himself as a powerhouse performer, full of the typical down-to-Earth Australian wit and adorned with the most fantastic costumes. It was in the Imperial Hotel, which at the time was owned by Dawn O'Donnell, that Mitzi got the opportunity to really create big, bold exciting drag shows with her contemporaries and that's when she fell in love with this space. This is a really fun episode. We talk all about how Graeme met his husband (at The Imperial, no less!), the power he found in community, and we also get a little educational - teaching you Aussie slang like root and thongs... Do you have any memories of The Imperial Hotel, 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 Mitzi by following them on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Mitzi_Macintosh)

The golden age of cruising... No one has quite pinpointed the exact years of this magical era, but the 70s were definitely a part of it. It was post-Stonewall, so there was a new kind of hope and enthusiasm, and it was pre-AIDs and HIV, which meant there was less shame attached to sex.  And, it was at the tail end of the 70s that this week's guest, the award winning filmmaker Glenn Gaylord first moved to LA from Ohio. At this point he was too young to go to the clubs, but too horny to stay home, and so he found himself gravitating towards the gay bookshop Drake's. There was tonnes of cruising that happened inside Drake's, but there was also a LOT that happened on the streets surrounding the business... Like, a lot a lot... like, hard to believe how much sex was happening. But, don't take my word for it! Let's hear from Glenn.  Do you have any memories of Drake's, 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 Glenn by following him on IG (https://www.instagram.com/glebborama/), or on Twitter (https://twitter.com/glenngaylord)

This thing about fancying straight people... like, I don't get it... is it because they're unobtainable? Is it because we're socialised in a heteronormative society that conditions us to see more value in straightness? Is it because we just really hate ourselves?  I don't know... But, luckily I have recovering straight-luster-afterer Mark Perez, co-host of the Star Wars appreciating Pink Milk podcast, to help fill me in.   We talk all about Club St. John, a bar in San Jose, California, that Mark started going to in the early 90s. Expect to hear about trashy 80s soap operas, how exhausting it is to pretend to be someone you're not, and those pesky straight people...  Do you have any memories of Club St John, 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 Mark by following him on Twitter (https://twitter.com/iameldiablito). And, if you love Star Wars, then you're going to the love the Pink Milk podcast, which you can find wherever you stream podcasts. 

A few episodes ago I spoke to the wonderful singer/songwriter Chris Pureka (and, if you haven't heard that chat yet go back and give it a wee listen - I'll still be here when you get back!).  After we spoke Chris suggested that I get in touch with their friend, the artist Samantha Nye. Samantha's work is all about a fantasy history and a fantasy future of queer/lesbian pleasure utopias made from references of 1960s pop culture, and so she has lots to say about the importance of spaces in forming and expressing your identity.  And, she's taking us back to the late 90s, when Samantha was a little baby-dyke and had just been invited to her first lesbian bar by someone she spoke to in an AOL chatroom (could anything be more late-90s than that?).  We talk about representation, the difference between the gay scene and the lesbian scene, and a special surprise that Samantha got from her dad in a mystery lesbian bar that we need your help finding!   So, listen on to find out more...  Do you have any memories of Partners, or clubbing from your own queer scene that you want to share? Do you have any idea what the bar in Dania Beach is? 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 Samantha and her wonderful art at https://samanthanye.com/, or follow her on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/samantha_nye_studio/).

So, gentrification is a bit of a dirty word around here, and you'll no doubt have heard me talk to at least one of my guests about how gentrification pushes out the queers and the misfits from areas where they once thrived. One of the places in the world that has been totally transformed by gentrification is King's Cross in Sydney, Australia. When I was growing up as a little queer boy in Adelaide, King's Cross was known as a place of debauchery and sin, most famous for the strip bars and prostitution. Now the place has been completely transformed, full of yummy mummies and expensive coffee shops.  Back in the 90s this week's guest, (with also happens to be Australia's first lady of striptease), Imogen Kelly, first started stripping at Stripperama, one of the clubs on the main strip. She's written a book about those times, and we caught up to discuss what King's Cross was like in those days, living during the HIV and heroin epidemic, police corruption, and the woman she fell in love with.... Do you have any memories of Stripperama, 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 Imogen by visiting www.imogenkelly.com.au, or following her on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/theimogenkelly).

Usually on this show we talk to someone about a very specific time in their life when they went to a particular venue. What we don't do that often is look at the same venue at different time periods, and reflect on the journey and the growth that the person experienced in the intervening years...  But, today, James O'Hagan, writer, activist and co-host of the Drag Race recap podcast Sissy That Pod visits to tell us all about two periods in his life going to Break for the Border, a bar in Ireland's capital, Dublin. We hear about his first attempts at going out as a scared wee thing in his early 20s, and then coming back in his late 20s to have a totally different experience (and outlook on life).  Oooh, also, if you like odd little analogies that are inserted seemingly randomly in to conversations then you're going to love this conversation!  Do you have any memories of Break for the Border, 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 James by following him on IG (https://www.instagram.com/jameso_hagan/), listening to Sissy that Pod wherever you find podcasts, or following Sissy that Pod on IG (https://www.instagram.com/sissythatpod/)

Have you every had that experience of being 'fresh meat'?  When you walk in to a bar and receive all the attention of everyone who is in there?  Well, this week's chat threw me back in time to the (admittedly very few) occasions when that's happened to me, and how glorious and all-powerful I felt in those moments!  And, who reminded me of those heady days? Well, it's Bryan, the co-host of Pink Milk Podcast, a show that views Star Wars (and its many properties) through a queer lens.  Bryan currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with his husband Tom and three kids. But, when he was a plucky (and some might say naive) 18-year old, Bryan packed up all his things and moved from to Austin, Texas, which was kind of an elaborate plan to avoid coming out.  We talk all about the first club that he went to there, The Forum, and, along the way we discuss the perils of heteronormativity, tip-toeing around your parents, and the pluckiness of youth....  Do you have any memories of The Forum, 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 Bryan and his podcast Pink Milk on Twitter (https://twitter.com/ServingPinkMilk) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/servingpinkmilk/)

Very early on in the life of this podcast I had Boogaloo Stu on to talk about the cult London club night Shinky Shonky. And, in lots of ways, that was the episode that helped show me that the concept of Lost Spaces was going to work because suddenly people who used to go to Shinky Shonky were talking about the episode on social media and celebrating all of the good times that they had there.  So, I wanted to bring Stu back on the show to talk about the final years of the night, when it had moved from central London to The Oak Bar in Stoke Newington, North London. I also wanted to find out why the night eventually ended. I had lofty ideas that the conversation would be about how scenes evolve and change, and how things go from being in fashion to out of fashion... but, Stu couldn't quite remember any of the details of that time, so it's more of a fun chat of some of the adventures and misadventures that happened because of the night, and what the ingredients were that made the night so special.  There's also a really interesting conversation about what constitutes 'drag' in 2022. Is Boogaloo Stu, a man dressed as another man, with a big blonde quiff and a polyester thong, drag? Or is it just a man in a wig and unhygienic underwear?  These, and other cutting edge questions, are asked, and not quite answered on this week's show! Do you have any memories of Shinky Shonky, 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 Boogaloo Stu by visiting his website www.boogaloostu.co.uk, or follow him on Instagram (www.instagram.com/boogaloostu) 

There's a really interesting conversation in this week's episode about the 'we're all in this together' mentality that queers in small towns have, supporting queer spaces even if they don't particularly enjoy the music or the events held there.   And, to show us the way is singer/songwriter Chris Pureka, who took time from promoting their new EP, The Longest Year, to talk all about Diva's, the only queer bar in the small college town of Northampton, Massachusetts. In our chat we talk all about post-university uncertainty, the loss of mass-cultural milestones, and how truly terrible they think that the original The L Word tv show was... Do you have any memories of Diva's, 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 Chris at https://www.chrispureka.com/ or follow them on Twitter (https://twitter.com/chrispureka) or Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/chrispureka/)