Let’s Talk About Gay Sex and Drugs: What happened last time

‘Let’s Talk About Gay Sex & Drugs’ is an open-communication forum for anyone to come and speak about how they perceive sexual issues and drug use among the gay male community. Everyone who wants to speak gets five minutes upon the stage, but no one gets more than five minutes.

No judgement, please. It’s an event designed for freedom of speech and to listen to one another’s voices. Each voice is as valid as the next, and speak in whichever format you feel most comfortable with, from spoken word poetics to political polemics.

Here are some extracts from our last event in June:

Dominic Davies, Therapist:

“Intense, intimate and passionate sober sex is, I believe, entirely possible. It may not have the intensity of being super-high masturbating to porn at a Sex Party with four guys on Grindr, one obsessively polishing the bathroom mirror and another passed out in a G-hole, but I am hopeful there could be some amazing experiences ahead if you want to explore what sober intimacy and sexual energy can do.”

Luke Sippel, That’s Hot 2 (www.facebook.com/thatshottwo):

“I came home form work and looked in the mirror, I couldn’t recognise myself. Not only was the Hep C treatment knocking me down, but I was also covered in a disgusting rash and a huge welting wound on my lip – I looked like a wreck. I fell onto the bed and cried, this couldn’t go on any more.

 So I had to quit chem-sex. I don’t want to get diseases any more and if I stay doing chem-sex, this is exactly what will happen. I have cleared my Hep C and I don’t want it back. I have discovered a new life and I love it. Chem-sex is a huge problem in the gay community and is getting bigger…

It’s time to start changing the way we think and behave. Not only to improve our own lives but also build a better gay community again.”

Fantastic Mr Fux (@fantasticfux on Twitter):

“I retrieve the glass pipe that’s burrowed within the duvet on the bed. He hands me a lighter and I greet the circumference of the glass with its flame. I watch the smoke swirl around inside the pipe. As it begins to rise I purse my lips and inhale the contents.

‘Get away from the window! People can see!’ he barks again.

‘We’re surrounded by trees. No one can see,’ I say as my mouth returns to the pipe.

After one final almighty draw of breath I hold the smoke in my lungs and hand the pipe back to him. I exhale and feel my blood in heavy waves flowing all around my body. I lay back as the rush grips me. My body and mind feel like a comet speeding into the ether.

‘What are you looking at now? There’s something out there isn’t there?’

‘There’s nothing out there. You’re so fucking paranoid.’

All my thoughts turn to sex again.

Fernando Mariano, ACT UP London (pictured above):

“Why are we still accepting to be treated as lab pigs to drug dealers – who clearly use us to try out new substances and new chem crossings before sending it out to the big world?

For me, particularly, the solution for this problem resides in governmental drug control. The government should regulate drug consumption, stopping the dealers to use our community as chem experiments and case studies for new chems such as Meth.

But that is only what I think, and what I fight for.”

Nyasha Paragon Langley, Spoken Word Poet

You only live once? No you’re wrong 
You only die once, you live everyday


But that means nothing because you’re 
Only living for the next bump, fuck and run, 
No you’re not shocked or stunned,
as it’s been going on for so long.
Yeah you smile strong
so no one asks what’s wrong.
A vocabulary filled with bb and how hung,
Habitual damn fucking:
Your habit of sniffing your mask on.

 While you tell yourself: ‘It’s all better now, it’s all Better’,
Eyes scream: ‘pray for me, anybody pray for me’.
A shot for the pain, and slam for the shame,
I’m gonna be who I am,
Yeah at least I think I’m who I am.

The next Let’s Talk About Gay Sex & Drugs takes place on Monday, July 14 at central London’s Manbar (79 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0NE) from 6-8pm.