 Without fail there is
always that man in his late forties resting at the end of the bar slowly
sipping his drink and reminiscing of the past as the gay scene continues to
change around him.
I moved to Brisbane in
2005, a time before Britney had shaved her head and had to rely on extensions
for her long blonde golden locks; before Anthony Callea had come out of the
closet; Paris was yet to be imprisoned; the celebrity baby-bump craze was still
yet to expand; and Howard continued to stonewall on gay rights.
Some would remember
that it was during this time that the plastics ran the beat with their high
school superficiality; when emos were still confined to the US; Madonna was
making the comeback of all comebacks; JT brought sexy back and lesbians really
didn’t embrace the clubs in the numbers they do now.
I turned 26 the other
week, and I guess around these birthday periods we always get somewhat
contemplative and reflective.
We surprise ourselves
with how far we’ve come, kinda like the Matchbox 20 song. But not only are we
surprised at our own growth, but also at how much around us has changed,
especially the gay scene that surrounds us.
One Sunday not that
long ago, my best mate and I were ripping it up on the dance floor at Fluffy,
when to both our surprise and slight mortification, we saw a twink who looked barely twelve years old
flaunting it on a podium.
Just like the plastics
were replaced with the emos, we realized the new batch of gay critters are the
“lost boy look-a-likes with daddy’s credit cards”.
It is just one of the
many parts of the gay scene that is going through change. This kind of change
is not something that I fear, because I’ve faced this before.
I look at being gay
like this: we’ve never had a guidebook of rules and regulations to abide by, so
for me it’s like this big blank canvas that we can just slap on colours of our
choosing, and we can keep adding to it.
It is for this reason
that within the ever changing gay scene I can still walk about recognised.
We live in ever
changing times, and we as individuals can choose to remain the same or continue
to grow. The forms we choose are completely up to us.
So keep slapping the
paint on, forming whatever beautiful artwork you can become.
We are our own great
paintings in the making and we can choose to be become one that collects dust
or be one that continues to grow and change into something of great beauty.
 |
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
