The three of us went in amongst the numbers and each ordered a Coke after waiting twenty minutes in a line.
"Fifteen," I replied without a second thought. Someone yelled out "it's Newsboy!", which excited me hugely, although I was far too shy to reply or even look at the person who validated my hairstyle.Ī lesbian was taking money on a table outside, a large area before the bar was roped off and filled with drunk guys and girl, and drag queens. My stomach churned and my heart fluttered. We got to Edward Street which led to Ruby Ruby's, and already I could see gaggles of gays congregating. We had never attempted to drive so far before, especially since the car wasn't warranted and AJ was only on a learners - that just made it more exciting. The three of us rustled together $10 for gas, which was plenty back in 1998. Of course I didn't look as good as he did, but it was close!ĪJ's 1983 Honda Civic hatchback said it was out of petrol - it always did though, the gauge didn't work. I was obsessed with Newsboy (Jeremy Wells) so that day I got Becky to bleach my hair and then spike it up, just like his. AJ and I had come out to each other a few months before. I had recently told Becky I was gay and she got the bright idea to sneak into town when Mum went to bed. I drove into town from Wainui with my cousin Becky and best friend AJ. The first time I went to a gay bar was when I was 15, and it was New Year's Eve. The Empire today is a very different place, but I occasionally go in for a drink just to remember. "I'm only 17 - don't tell my parents!" He let me go, of course - why bother processing all the paperwork? The cop was actually quite friendly and sensible "I should warn you Sir that if you cannot prove your age with correct ID I will be required to take you to the Station and book you" "Twenty-one" I answered in a high quavering treble. One night they did a raid, not uncommon at all in those days, and one cop asked me my age. I managed to get there a few times, and then it became the first bar I was thrown out of by the Police. Everyone seemed so sophisticated, so grown up. I found it all fascinating, and a little scary. The barman winked at me indulgently when I went in and ordered a drink - I was 17 but looked about 15 I think. I seem to remember Beardsley prints and bright green walls, and the garden bar. Then it was a gay pub, at least part of the time. The same Empire Hotel that sits across from TVNZ today. So one night, with a couple of older friends from Gay Lib, I went to The Empire. I was in my first year at Uni, a member of Gay Liberation, and making friends.
I'd been going to saunas since I was 16, and even though I'd asked a few guys, no one wanted to take me to Backstage, the club behind the Town Hall where, so it seemed to me, everything wonderful about being gay happened. Ponsonby and the Inner City still were pretty run-down, not as 'nice' as today, rowdier, fun, rough around the edges. The drinking age in those days was 20? 21? I'm not sure. The boundaries of the self loosened.Eight LGBT Kiwis remember the first time they ever ventured into a gay drinking hotspot. The act of entering a darkened space, dancing to amplified music and becoming part of an undulating crowd - often for hours on end, often under the influence of perception-enhancing substances - disturbed the everyday consciousness of participants, including those who identified as straight. participants played a pivotal role, shaping a culture with a queer potential open to anyone who ventured into its vortex.
The age-old convention that social dance should revolve exclusively around straight couples imploded. Two key party spaces - the Loft and the Sanctuary - positioned New York City at the epicenter of the new phenomenon as countercultural revelers flung themselves into a dynamic, participatory and expressive ritual that made Woodstock seem conservative. Constrained and faddish during the 1960s, D.J.-led dance culture discovered its kinetic, kaleidoscopic potential in the space of a few transformational months in early 1970.