A Dream Queer Scene

I have a dream of a scene…..

The tarmac of St James’ Street is gone and in its place is luscious green grass, trickling fountains of crystal clear water, trees, shrubs and flowers. People come from afar to hang out here because this is the friendliest, quirkiest and most original scene in the land.

The Red Roaster Café spills its tables and chairs out onto the greenery. No longer a narrow space it has expanded into the adjacent buildings on either side and is open until the early hours of the morning. Gentle music tracks pulse into the air interspersed between the sound of recorded birdsong, random chapters of audio books and cult comedy show clips.

Opposite is the queer bookshop- Bent Books- a private library club (non-members pay a quid entry fee to peruse) where readers settle down to a good queer book with a nice cup of hot chocolate by a roaring open log fire. This is a book heaven with sections on queer studies, LGBT fiction, poetry, biography and spirituality. It’s a great place to drop by and just bump into friends or make random connections with fellow-readers. There’s a good-sized meeting room here for queer book groups to discuss their book of the month. Upstairs there’s a spacious air-conditioned lounging area and luscious roof garden. Clusters of people are drinking mint tea and exhaling green-blue smoke inhaled from communal hookahs- relaxing, giggling, enjoying the art of conversation. It’s early Saturday evening and this is where we come before the Club.

The club is called -not Envy or Revenge or Spite or Hatred- but ‘Club D.U.B. [Dressing Up Box]’. Here is a club where we play with cross-dressing and dance. Here the gender binary gets a chance to be deconstructed. As you go in there’s an enormous changing area. There are clothes rails creaking under the strain of hundreds of sequined dresses and fur coats. There are Tina Turner wigs and high heels for the blokes and false beards, tweed suits and hard hats for the women- all items for sale or hire. Once dragged up the music is pumping and the dancing’s grinding. Trans is the order of the night: men and FTMs meet men/ FTMs, women and MTFs meet women/ MTFs and all the combinations in between. Men and women are even getting it on! There’s ironic femme frolicking and butch posing. In this fabulous space people are drawn to each other by animal chemistry and not because they exist within a perceived gender/sexuality box.

After the club we head to the No Talent Cabaret Bar. A drink buys the obligation to put on a 3 minute turn. Some sing, some recite poetry, some dance, some sit surreal-ly and stare. All offerings are met with tumultuous applause.

Next day we head back to the street. Next to the cabaret bar there’s the Tantric Massage Temple with massage rooms where folk can spend time growing deeper in intimacy with each other. Throughout the day there are group Tantric massage classes and meditations. In one of the group rooms queer folk are holding hands and sharing what is in their hearts. These heart circles mean we can bravely grow in emotional strength by declaring our vulnerability. We are loved and accepted by the circle because of the strength of this vulnerability.

Here there is no attitude and no bitchy-queenery. People smile, are interested in each other, are prepared to give each other the time of day.

Hmm-well I did say it was a dream....

So until the Brighton scene gets a bit closer to this I’ll need to keep going to Faerie Gatherings. The next Albion Faerie Gathering will celebrate Imbolic at Featherstone Castle in Northumberland 27 January-6 February 2012

http://albionfaeries.co.uk/featherstone2012.htm

So skip Christmas this year, book your holidays for late January and turn some dreams into reality!