September 2004

Well, it's been another one of those months. All quiet on the eastern front.

Apart from a DVD night and a BBQ at Jimi's the only event of the month was a Ruby Party at fARQ.

Ruby was actually quite an interesting party. Gordon completely transformed the club by bringing in his usual number of props and decorations. I don't think the place had seen anything like it.

Unfortunately, he only ran the main dance floor and left the downstairs dance floor as a sort of chill-out area. There was probably only about 20 people downstairs at any one time, which meant the entire capacity of the club was upstairs on the main dance floor. This made for a very crowded club.

I only hung around for a couple of hours. After my third cigarette burn I'd had enough and headed home. I simply don't understand why people feel they need to smoke on the dance floor while they are throwing their arms around wildly. I very nearly thumped the last guy that burned me, which is how I knew it was time to leave.

Editorial: Gentle reader, there's something that's been bothering me and seeing that it is such a quiet month, I thought I'd mention it.
Drugs do not make people have unsafe sex.
There's a statement that will probably make me very unpopular around the traps. There - I'll say it again:
Drugs do not make people have unsafe sex.
Why do I proclaim such a bold statement? Easy. Because I simply do not believe it. I admit, it sounds a bit like the gun lobby's argument: Guns do not kill people - people kill people. My belief is that the people who have unsafe sex while under the influence of drugs wanted to do it anyway. Drugs are an easy excuse to justify that decision.
Do we say that drugs make people dance. Drugs do not make you dance - you wanted to dance and the drugs removed your inhibitions to allow you to do it.
On what do I base this somewhat bold statement that goes against everything that we are being told by the authorities? Personal experience.
My personal experience of spending for 2½ days a week for 3 years talking to hundreds of different guys about sex, safe sex and drugs, while working in the field for the AIDS Council of New South Wales. (ACON).
And my personal experience of being completely drug-fucked - barely able to open my eyes or walk and still having the sense of mind to check that the guy that I was with had a condom and was using it.
I think I've tried sex on just about every drug that is available now - certainly every drug that is popular on the gay scene. Never has it crossed my mind that I should consider the vaguest possibility of putting my life at risk by not using a condom. I've even had to say "No" when neither of us was prepared with condoms and lube.
Drugs do not make people have unsafe sex - people make people have unsafe sex.
Maybe people are just using drugs as an easy excuse rather than just saying, "I wanted to have unsafe sex because it feels good". Maybe I'm completely off track. Maybe it does happen sometimes. Feel free to disagree.