Have you ever had that experience when you’re walking down the street and you notice someone staring at you? A hundred thoughts race through your head and then you realise your fly is down or there’s a piece of toilet paper hanging off the sole of your shoe. But no matter what it is, there is always that first thought, “What the hell are they looking at?”

I’m sure most of you have seen Priscilla Queen of the Desert. One scene I always remember is where they’re walking down the street of some random country town and all eyes follow them with confused expressions. But our favourite drag queens continue to walk down the street full of pride, not caring. I’m sure we’ve all felt like that at some point.

Recently, I’ve shared a similar experience. My mate and I are definitely queers of the Brisbane city variety, and we’ve never denied it. A few days after a 16 hr long road trip to Townsville we were definitely suffering cabin fever and withdrawals from the gay man’s ultimate pass time, shopping. So we did what anyone would do in our situation, we hit the shopping mall.

By about the tenth stare I turned to my mate and asked ‘Have they never seen a poof before?’ my mate just laughed it off and said ‘It’s Townsville.’ It then dawned on me; the city life is very much different, right down to the way people dress. But what I found even funnier is the fact you add being gay into the equation and you stick out way worse than any sore thumb, even amongst Townsville’s gay population. We got some stares from them too, or maybe they were just undressing us with their eyes.

See, this is the thing that amazes me about being gay: the diversity. You have your numerous different scenes, but that’s nothing compared to the different breeds we come in. See I’d class myself as part of the city breed, my boyfriend on the other hand is of the country breed, but then you have the gay population here and they’re a different breed all together. I’m not making pre-judgements, because I haven’t even hit the local gay pub yet. But the fact is up here, the differences between the “breeds” are very much evident in just the way they dress and even walk.

Without sounding harsh it’s a very different lifestyle up here. How do I put this? It’s a lot “rougher” and “straighter". I’ll be honest, I am very much used to the city life, where the reality is the gay population dominates the Valley [Brisbane's Fortitude Valley] quite openly. Up here, the gay scene is somewhat hidden, spread out and very much segregated into little groups.

I know I’ve only been here for a short while, but it’s really made me think how much people take for granted. I’ve gone to a few of the shopping malls and I’m yet to see two men holding each other’s hands. Something as simple as public forms of affection between two guys that we take for granted in a city, are taboo here it seems.

I might be making misjudgements, these are just my observations being an outsider to Townsville. But I will say I am curious about this new breed of homosexuals that I am experiencing. How do they interact? Where do they hang out? Is there some secret Townsville gay code that I am yet to discover? If anyone has any answers to this please drop me a line, I’d be keen to hear your thoughts.

One thing I learnt when I first moved to Brisbane is this: the only way I’m going get any answers and understanding is to find where a large number of 'them' congregate. So I think my first step will be a visit to Townsville’s one and only gay bar. Until then, catch ya on the flipside.

- QIT.

Photo: Richard Gifford (via Flickr)