WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BEING GAY AT A GAY CLUB?

After the Avant Garde Exhibition, which I posted about earlier, my friends and I went to Soho for a night on the town; starting off with dinner and warm sake at Wong Kei Chinese restaurant, Trash Palace for B52's and a chat, then lastly to Ghetto, a well known gay/lesbian club.

I was introduced to Ghetto on my 18th birthday and it has been one of my favourite gay/lesbian clubs (actually clubs period!) since that crazy first night. Well I went there last night, after not having gone in months, and there was probably a 25% gay crowd. It was swarming with pairs of wannabe lesbian best-buddies (wearing horrible, trashy outfits), bumping and grinding and giving each other intimate, drunken lapdances, licking each other's faces and kissing unlike any lesbian couple I've ever seen kiss before, showering each other in alcopop and scaring away the gays. Even I was scared!

I am not a lesbian; although I may have fleeting lesbian tendencies from time to time (something I'd like to call being 19), and I know that Ghetto is open to all sexual orientations, but I guess the place is just finally played out. I know the usual eclectic, stylish, happily party-going close-knit G-A-Y(keyword) crowd and this was not them. It was very upsetting to me and my gay friend, who still managed to weed out a gay guy to smooch at the end of the night. I know, I'm sorta hypocritical, but as a frequent Ghetto goer, I guess I thought of myself as an exception *wince*. But it was just so strange having to see my female cousin have a girl whispering in her ear on the dancefloor, then upon trying to get in on the scoop, finding out that the girl was asking about our male friend, saying that she thought he was cute.

And I had never thought of it this way before, but it made me realise that the straights had taken over the place. And the gays had finally gotten tired of us. I had never imagined that I might have been one of the ones to contribute to the trend of showing up at a gay club straight. What if it's my fault that these wannabe's have all flocked there? I wonder where the gays have gone to seek refuge? We treat them like attractions, and they're probably tired of performing (except Chris Crock). They are probably looking for a place where they can just be themselves, among themselves. I admit, sometimes I get a little over-excited about my gay friends and feel as though they are accessories. It is the trend to have a gay pal. And for the record, I am sorry for that.

Nevertheless, I had a smashing time, especially when they played all my favourite Britney songs, and will still continue to groove at Ghetto. After all, it's not Ghetto's fault; it's probably mine.