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

So, I have something to admit. I have not been dancing in a really long time. And, when I say dancing I mean sweaty, throbbing, disgustingly sticky kind of dancing. And, I kind of miss it... I got a nice reminder of how important it used to be in my life when I caught up with Alex Marcus, the Podcast Director of The Pop Break, a digital pop culture and entertainment online magazine, for this week&...

It seems hard to believe, but in the early days of the internet there were these things called internet cafes, where you would go, pay some money, and then have access to a computer with the internet for a set period of time. And this was at a time when the internet wasn't on every phone and every TV and every watch. In fact, lots of families didn't even have computers in their houses... W...

I'm often guilty of romanticising small town queer bars, but I just think there's something really magical about everyone being in the same space and not segregating and splitting off in to different sub-communities like leather and lesbian and bears (oh my!)... But, there are also downsides to this... being in a small city or town can get in the way of you having the freedom to explore wh...

So, you've probably picked up from listening to this show that I have mixed feelings when it comes to the concept of 'representation'. I still can't quite articulate why I'm a bit iffy about it, but I think it's something about the commodification of the term. Like, yes, I agree that it's important, but it seems to have been hijacked and monetised by people, which I thi...

Ok, be totally honest with me - have you ever hooked up with a work colleague? Or, actually, the question I'm more interested in is - have you ever known about a work-place hook up that hasn't ended catastrophically? Well, if you haven't guessed already by the way I framed those questions - this week we are finding out all about a doomed hook up that our guest, Twitch streamer extraord...

This podcast started at the end of 2019, and had been running for a few months when... well, you remember what happened in 2020, right? And, for the longest time... I kind of wanted this show to make no mention of the pandemic or Covid-19 or any of the shit going on in the world. I wanted it to be an escape, and an opportunity to think about something else for the people that were listening. But,...

This week it's our first ever trip to Japan! And we're not going to just any old bar, we're going to a hostess club...  Hostess (and host) clubs are fairly unique to Japan, so if you've not heard of them before the long and short of it is that they are a type of cabaret bar that provides entertainment, but also employs people to provide attentive conversation and a little bit of flirting to t...

So, you may have heard the joke before that watching Drag Race in a bar is the gays equivalent of watching football or rugby in a bar. And, yes, ok, it's a basic, basic stereotype...but... well... maybe there's a smidgen of truth in it? (Just a smidgen, mind you...!) This week I'm joined by the comic book legend Sina Grace, who has written and/or drawn queer superheroes like Ice-Man, and his own R...

You know, it's been a while since we've had a really rambly, all-over-the-shop conversation on this show.... and, the reason that I mention this fact is because this week we've got ourselves a rambly, all-over-the-shop conversation... But that's not a bad thing!  In fact, I loved this conversation that I had with John, who is the man behind the drag character Taylor Trash.  Taylor is the...

So, if you've ever listened to this show and thought to yourself 'queer clubbing is not as good as all these people seem to be remembering' then:  Firstly, maybe this show isn't for you....  Secondly, you'll be glad you stuck it out because this week we're doing something different! Yup, we're complaining about how rubbish queer clubbing is! And, who is joining me to be a big ol' grump?...

So, one of the things about drag that i'm really fascinated by is the decision-making process behind crafting a drag character...  Because, to me, deciding on who your drag character is - what they like, how they talk, how they present to the world - is a big commitment... almost like a marriage maybe?  And, by that I mean you are committing to another person (or, ok, character) that wil...

When you’ve never been to a leather bar it’s easy to view them as seedy and debaucherous and a little scary... and, yeah, ok, they are all of those things - but they’re also surprisingly quite wholesome!  Well, maybe not wholesome, but they definitely offer a more down-to-earth and judgement-free alternative to the more mainstream queer spaces that you often find in big cities… And one of the...

This week I learnt a new word, and that word is.... thelephobia... which, if you didn't know already, is the fear of nipples... And why is that important? Well, it just so happens that this week's guest, Dr Joshua Lobb - who is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Wollongong (and our first ever doctor on this show!) - happens to have a fear of nipples. But, not just any...

If you love a good ol' fashioned leaving-my-hometown-to-find-myself story, then this week we've got a doozy. Naomi Mourra, (who happens to be Sydney’s only Lebanese, lesbian, ex-Jehovah’s Witness, comedian), first came to London in the late 90s when she was trying to reconcile the thoughts she was feeling about women-folk with the teachings of her religion. And, it was in London that she got to ex...

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...

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 M...

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 th...

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 ni...

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 sce...

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...

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...

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 brainst...

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...

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 w...

* This episode is sponsored by Spaces, the new group chat app for queer communities - find out more at https://www.queerspaces.com/ (and, come join the Lost Queer Spaces Space after you've set up your profile! * In the three years of this show we've never sat down to talk to someone who actually owned and operated a queer space. But, that's all changing today, as we get to pick the brain of Keaton...