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

* 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! * On this week's show we're talking to Lil Miss Hot Mess, who is as fun to talk to as her name is to say! Coming up in the San Francisco scene, Lil Miss got started at the legendary T-Shack,...

* 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! * This week we are talking all about L-O-V-E love... And, yeah, I know, this isn't the content that you're used to from me, so I totally understand if you feel a bit confused and queasy righ...

As much as this show celebrates queer spaces and ‘the scene’, i think there’s also always been a bit of a recognition that it's not perfect — it can be exhausting trying to fit in, trying to find people that you like, and trying to just be.  But, sometimes... just sometimes... you find the space where you feel that you're meant to be and it can feel like coming home.  This week we are jo...

Most of the spaces that we talk about on this show closed because they were no longer making a profit or the owner just decided that they wanted a change... But, we've never talked about a space that stopped existing because it was knocked down by a TORNADO!  Until now, that is... This week's guest is singer-songwriter Dylan Rice, who grew up in Salt Lake City, and used to go to The Sun Taver...

* 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! * Are you still friends with the people that you used to go clubbing with? Do you keep in touch with them, or just facebook stalk them late at night when the image of their face pops in to y...

I learn so much doing this podcast, and getting the insight in to the scene in different countries and cities has been so illuminating to me.  As you probably know one of my favourite things to talk about - one of the things that fascinates me most - is the evolution of language, and concepts and how they're applied and how they're enforced within different communities. And, one of the most f...

Normally when I sit down to talk to my guests we have a bit of chit-chat to break the ice and ease us in before we get going.  But, occasionally, the chit-chat turns in to something very interesting and I have to scrabble to press record whilst making sure we don't lose the rhythm of the conversation. Which is what you will find with the start of this week's episode, where Mike, one half of t...

If you love episodes where I gasp a lot, you're going to love this week's show! Now, I know you're not going to believe me when I say this, but the whole concept of cruising in bathrooms is totally foreign to me, and something that I thought it was high time I got a little lesson on.  So, luckily for me, Mat Hawley, from Mat Tales Podcast, dropped by to talk me through the basics.  And,...

* 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! * One of the things I love doing most about this show is, obviously, getting the chance to learn about different people's experiences and circumstances.  But, within that, there's often...

* 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! * Picture it. It's 1989.  Maud's, one of the only lesbian bars in San Francisco, is about to close down permanently.  And, in its last few days a plucky film crew sets up to docume...

* 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! *  You know how when you were a baby gay and you had to someone pluck up every single shred of courage within you in order to make that first visit to your local queer bar, and how you...

*Before we dive in to this week's episode - did you know that I also write a weekly newsletter? I'd love to spend a little time in your inbox! If you want some queer shit once a week sign up here - https://tinyurl.com/lostspacespod * One of the perverse things about doing this podcast is that when I'm talking to a potential guest and they say that all of the bars that were ever significant in thei...

*Before we dive in to this week's episode - did you know that I also write a weekly newsletter? I'd love to spend a little time in your inbox! If you want some queer shit once a week sign up here - https://tinyurl.com/lostspacespod * So, you're new to a city... You know no-one... The job you moved for has since disappeared, and you've got to start from scratch... Where do you go to meet people? Ho...

*Before we dive in to this week's episode - did you know that I also write a weekly newsletter? I'd love to spend a little time in your inbox! If you want some queer shit once a week sign up here - https://tinyurl.com/lostspacespod * It's no secret that there's an addiction issue in the queer community, with those identifying as LGBTQ+ more likely to experience an addiction.  And there are di...

*Before we dive in to this week's episode - did you know that I also write a weekly newsletter? I'd love to spend a little time in your inbox! If you want some queer shit once a week sign up here - https://tinyurl.com/lostspacespod * This week we're doing something a little different - we're not going to a bar, a club, or even a community group. We're embracing summer and headed to a lost queer be...

*Before we dive in to this week's episode - did you know that I also write a weekly newsletter? I'd love to spend a little time in your inbox! If you want some queer shit once a week sign up here - https://tinyurl.com/lostspacespod * Coming out later in life brings a whole different set of challenges and questions about identity, community and where you fit in to all of that.  This week I was...

*Before we dive in to this week's episode - did you know that I also write a weekly newsletter? I'd love to spend a little time in your inbox! If you want some queer shit once a week sign up here - https://tinyurl.com/lostspacespod * So, my American guests often talk about go-go dancing as though it's this super common thing, and I always feel a bit too dumb to ask too many follow up questions. Bu...

Cast your mind back to the year 1999 - we were all worried about the Y2K bug, there's this new cartoon called Spongebob Squarepants, and the queer folk punk duo Bitch and Animal release their debut album 'What's That Smell?'. One of the songs on the album, 'Drag King Bar', documents the band's misadventures at a night called Club Casanova, which was a weekly drag king night held at Velvet in New Y...

Sweet, sweet love....  Usually on this show when a guest brings up affairs of the heart i’m like ‘ugh, let’s move on…’, but this week I didn't. Maybe it’s the summer weather, maybe I’m mellowing in my old age, but this time i leant right in and learnt all about a significant relationship in social justice singer-songwriter Crys Matthew’s life. And, that relationship would not have happened we...

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 Beir...

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 Daw...

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 fi...

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...

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 f...

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...