Boyfriend 101
Chapter One
CHAPTER 1
getting started
From the early days of Gay Liberation until the early 1980s, the primary place for meeting gay singles was bars. The bar scene was the hub of gay life. In bars, men dished, met new friends, fell in love, and broke up. Every gay traveler carried the Damron Address Book, the bible of gay travel. With the onset of AIDS in the early eighties, the golden age of bars ended. Suddenly, there were vastly more important things to do—ministering to others; taking care of one’s own health—than hanging out in bars. With the decreasing importance of bars in the culture, new ways of relating emerged, as gay men sought alternatives to bars as places to socialize and to shelter themselves from the storm outside.
By the early 1990s, dating patterns for gay men had undergone a profound change. Previously, men met and either fell in love at first sight and became lovers fairly quickly, or had sex and, if it didn’t work out, moved on. One rarely heard—let alone used—the “D” word. It sounded too straight. It took too much time. The expectation of immediately having sex with a man was so ingrained in gay ... read full excerpt from: Boyfriend 101 ebook
