Gay

We're stuck in some motor inn on the main road of Ballarat and so were only required to fill out a Personal Form.  Ripped off, we only got to answer questions
 about ethnic background, education, employment, and whether or not I did unpaid domestic work (yes, I did tidy up my hotel room that day when I slept in 'til lunch...)  There was that optional question about religion and, not wanting to seem all 2001 and put "Jedi", I just went for the "no religion" option.  Possibly the hardest questions were about how many hours I worked last week (how long was that flight to Hobart again?) and where was I living five years ago (what's the post code for Menora again?) but, besides that, it was disappointingly straightforward.

JPB back home had a more interesting experience:  what is the status of our relationship?  Just eight days shy of our first-date one-year anniversary, his suggestion was to have me down as "rent boy".  Cheeky.  Anyway, it didn't seem enough to cross the "de facto" box; although a simple cross-reference to an earlier question would uncover just as much, it seemed more appropriate to exploit the "other" box to state clearly: "same-sex defacto".  Sure, this is tainted slightly by the notion that such a relationship is an "other".  But what else is there to do?  Apparently there is no questions specifically about orientation so this is it.

In any case, its better than "rent boy": my limit is only five hours a week of domestic work...

On second thoughts, I think we should have just went for de facto.  A computer better understands a marked box than handwritten letters.  Oh well, better luck next time.

Technorati Tags: Census, Gay, JPB, relationship status

I was enjoying a very late breakfast at the Cairns Art Gallery when behind me I heard that familiar vocal inflection that is the calling card of you run-of-the-mill poofter. It was no surprise; Cairns is by far the gayest place we've visited on this tour. Though Darwin, Canberra and Townsville also have gay venues (though, in Darwin's case, gay friendly, the local poofter bar being overrun by straights out for a more alternative night out when I went out) the gays here seem more visible, if not quite as out as Oxford Street. Not that I'm necessarily interested in a place just because of the visibility of its queens, it's just an observation.

A totally unrelated observation is that Cairns seems to be quite a body-conscious kind of place. There's more of a display of flesh and half-nakedness than other places that we've visited. And people here tend to scrub up better than your average Northern Australian Joe.

Anyway, on this totally lazy Sunday off, I got up at lunchtime, caught the bus to town and wandered around for a bit. It was overcast, a contrast to the traditional view of this place as a sunny tropical tourist town, but pleasantly mild. The tide was out and the bay was stripped back to reveal the muddy bog that it is. The prevalence of palm trees and a mountainous backdrop reminds me of Maui, the large hotel chains of the Esplanade are more like O'ahu though not quite as Honolulu chaotic. It is completely unlike its dusty fraternal twin Townsville just down the road, which I think I prefer more as a place to visit; Cairns is just a bit too tourist-oriented for me to like very much. Still, it's good enough for a few piccies!

Technorati Tags: Queensland, Cairns, Gay, Photos

No amount of pink stripes and headings can disguise the fact that this blog has not been very gay lately. That thought occurred to me as I'm reading the various blog posts collected at Pinkboard and through all the whingeing and carrying on about rehabilitation, and touring around the country, all I've got in the last three months that suggests same-sex orientation is a cursory mention of the mystery man JPB and some random comment from an ex-housemate.

Well anyway here goes nothing: I AM GAY.

I'm so happy (gay, even) to hear that Kylie's touring again. I think that my ticket is for her first performance back, which will be amazing to go to. I was sitting in a cafe in Toowoomba and they were playing Kylie's Showgirl DVD and I was watching her perform Red Blooded Woman thinking "wow this is so gay".

The movie channels at the hotels that we've stayed at have all been playing Brokeback Mountain.

I'm glad I got that off my chest.

Tags: gay blog Kylie Minogue brokeback mountain.

PS I know that QP did a similar kind of post yesterday but at the very least he was being QueerActivist. I've just been a dancer (and, no, I've met enough straight male dancers, you can't just make any kinds of assumptions!).

You're just too good to be true...
Can't take my eyes off you!

I love the fact that you can access the internet from a Gaybar. What will they think of next? Anyway, I'm pretty drunk, they're playing pretty gay tunes, all us dancers are having a gay old time. I'm pretty exhausted from the show, though, so may go home soon. Meanwhile, the show is going well, everyone's experimenting with their hair for the show, it's all pretty exciting.

None of this makes any sense and it's not supposed to. Have fun!

Post-parade Oxford Street had just deteriorated into the inevitable chaotic pedestrian thoroughfare; the once-orderly barricades now lie haphazardly fragmented across the road. I had just met a guy and had just gotten into a brief argument about apostrophes. About an hour later I was offloading the contents of my stomach at JPB’s house, I think it was about midnight but who can be sure?

I don’t know how the topic of apostrophes came up, though I’m pretty sure I brought it up. Anyway, two against one and it was no longer Chris’s [café] but just Chris’. I had mentioned I was reading Lynne Truss’s, sorry, Lynne Truss’ (yeah, right!) book Eats, Shoots & Leaves (funny book, by the way) and apparently I should know better. Well good on me, I do! Lynne backs me up, as well as the Apostrophe Protection Society, Fowler’s Modern English Usage, the editors of the Sydney Morning Herald… Truss does suggest that people have gotten into very heated discussions about the placement of the little mark but to have one on the street after the Mardi Gras parade?

No matter. JPB and I watched the parade from the fifteenth floor, looking down over the street. To see it from that height made me feel excited about the whole thing, after being quite unenthusiastic about it all. It was amazing to see the street so crowded with people. Pity it was too far away to make out the floats in any details but it didn’t matter: I had my main guy with me and we were drinking lovely wine having just eaten a lovely dinner. I didn’t bring my new camera, knowing that I was going to get a bit messy; I didn’t want to risk it so I grabbed the host’s camera and took pictures for him. Must get copies of those pictures!

Tags: Sydney Gay And Lesbian Mardi Gras, Punctuation.

JPB and I had just finished a fantastic meal at The Cellar in the Hunter Valley. I had taken him up there for his birthday and the dinner was a delightful way to finish off a fun day of wine tasting. Up until that point, it had been a perfect day.

So the last thing we were expecting was a wine glass to be thrown at us.

At the very least, I've had a very eventful holiday season. Though for the second time in about two weeks I found myself dusting off bits of glass. Most of the offending projectile landed in JPB's lap. Both of us weren't hurt, I was a bit rattled by the experience and needed to go home and have a good night sleep but JPB seemed quite unperturbed.

One of the guys at the next table stood up, yelled "Why do I have to sit here and watch this all night?", and stormed off. Alot of commotion on the next table and an embarrassed young lady came up to us to check if we were alright; she apologised and offered to take care of our bill while the rest of her party took off. I was quite stunned and couldn't say a word. The lovely wait staff efficiently took care of us, making sure we were okay and whisking us to an empty table to clean up the mess. JPB and I aren't even sure what was thrown at us, it could have been a glass or a bottle, but everything was cleaned up so quickly. Before we knew it the neighouring party had left, the table had been cleaned up and the other restaurant patrons were focussed back on their own tables. Though our bill was paid, on our departure JPB offered a significant tip to thank the girls for their help. Nothing was said on the entire trip back to our guest house.

The entire night I hadn't paid any attention to anyone else but JPB and even though JPB had been directly facing the guy the whole night and saw him stand up to throw the glass, it all came out of nowhere for him as well. We don't think they would be local people because, well, it's the Hunter Valley, you'd expect the locals to be used to poof couples visiting for the lovely food and wine. JPB and I had been on a bus tour the whole day, we had been to a number of wineries, we had been affectionate the entire time and up until then no one around us seemed to have a problem.

It was such a shame. It could have been a perfect day.

Tags: Gay, Hunter Valley, The Cellar, restaurant, homophobia.

With JPB and I separated by a few thousand kilometres, there's not very much "gay" happening at the moment. I'm on the phone to Sydney pretty much every night and I did catch up with FagInTheBush but that's about it. Talking. Oh, and telling JPB that I love him and I miss him and JPB being worried about me when I told him about the blowout.

I set up my parent's audiovisual centre a couple of days ago and used Kylie's Showgirl dvd to test it out. Okay so this is not necessarily a "gay" thing but you can't deny that Red Blooded Woman is dripping wet with homo, none of the male dancers seem at all concerned about Kylie and instead would rather flex their muscles at each other. mmm... muscles... Oh, and there's that Pet Shop Boys collaboration with Kylie about some guy who's In Denial.

And on the news I saw Elton John and partner (sorry, dude, for not knowing your name) get "together". Not officially "married", to be sure, but at least recognised and with legal rights to... something... well anyway it was a bit of a shock to hear Tony Blair comment on it, saying that he proud that Britain is taking this step forward, allowing gay civil partnerships to occur. Good on you. Had you not sent troops to Iraq you'd be my favourite pollie.

Tags: Gay, News, Northern Territory, Civil Union, Gay Marriage, Elton John.

Update: Watching more news. Dad grunted disapprovingly and I chirped that it was a good thing. Elton John and partner are currently the face of gay marriage (even though they aren't really married). Lots of talk about the estimated combined annual income of all the poofs in Great Britain and I'm thinking "what's that got to do with love?" Maybe it's because Mr and Mr Elton John aren't really married, which is about love (apparently), they're just "unified civilly", which is more about tax. Oh well, baby steps...

We were looking down on the homosexuals again. When I arrived, the gang were playing with lighters. Luckily I brought along my camera!

tags: Fire.