Scene Queen - moi?

I'm not at all sure why I have a headache this morning, I only had a couple last night! After a lazy day of doing very little I met up with David from work for a drinkie or two. Started in the Star, not one of my usual haunts, but David wanted to check out something or other going on there, so we had one standing in the doorway. Then headed to Charles Street. David was on top form, he hasn't been in that venue for five long years h said and was a little disappointed with the place. I'm not surprised, it has seen better days, the place looks rather grubby messy, tired and well down at heal. But, hey it's got an outside area, which for a smoker is a boon, that is if you can put up with standing in piles of fag ends that litter the floor. Then we headed up to Amsterdam, which is much nicer and a whole lot cleaner. We sat inside and then sat outside on the terrace, under the heat lamps, listening to the sound of Sunday Sundae blasting from Audio next door, it was almost Brighton's version of Thelma and Louise doing the south of France! A right old giggle and then finally we had a nightcap at Legends. It was good to paint the town a nice shade of pink and had a right old giggle.

Saturday night, I was out with Jake and a couple of his buddies from uni, yes, I was the oldest by about 15 years! Something about the oldest swinger in town was mentioned, and indeed Jake said that I was in danger of becoming a scene queen! The cheek of the lad, I'm not a queen and hardly ever out on the scene, but that's the young of today for you. We headed up to Kepmtown village for a drink in a bar, I can't remember the name, but it was a nice little place, then I was marched down to the front where beverages were taken in Amsterdam again, and then back to Legends. It wasn't a massive drinking session, just a little troll to make sure I'm not missing out on scene life! Plus it's been rather nice, having the whole weekend off, which is something I don't often have and plus I was awake, which makes a change!

Living in such a vibrant and accepting town as Brighton it's sometimes very hard to see and believe that not all places are as tolerant as my hometown. Sometimes it's other news from around the world that just thunders home how lucky we are in the town and indeed this country, that our rights's, lives and well being is protected by law. For example, here's just a tiny round up of homophobia and discrimination from around the world:- The President of Samoa banned all gay activity at the recent South Pacific games, straight activity was encouraged. There are 58 laws that need changing for Aussie gay and lesbians to have equality, so far about 25,000 people down under have petitioned John Howard, the PM, in support of those changes. In Texas, a church offered to host a funeral for Cecil Sinclair a navy veteran, but cancelled it at short notice when they saw a photograph of the deceased with his arm around his boyfriend. Staying with the States, the Virginia State School Board has granted access to children as young as 5 years old to PFOX. PFOX is non-profit organization providing outreach, education, and public awareness in support of the ex-gay community and families touched by homosexuality. They believe that 'ex-gays' make the personal decision to leave homosexuality through gender affirming programs, including secular therapy and/or faith based ministries, otherwise known as social pressure and brain washing! They fight to stop equality, they target schools with any kind of gay group, gay activities, gay association or a even school that simply has an open and understanding policy on homosexuality. Now it appears that they've been given the right to leaflet children as young as 5 in Virginia! A Brazilian judge insists that gay players don't belong in soccer and should not be accepted. Two French tourists were arrested in from of the Coliseum in Rome, their crime was, they were kissing! That's just a tiny little itty bit of homophobic news from around the world! I'm so glad I live in a country where we have same sex civil partnerships, where we have an equal age of consent, where it's illegal to discriminate against us because or our sexuality. There are many things wrong with this country, but at least this is one area where we've got it right!

A bit of love now, Nearly 7000 couples smooched late on Saturday in the Bosnian town of Tuzla in a bid to break the world simultaneous kissing record. the crowd kissed for at least ten seconds at 11pm local time with fireworks, a giant TV screen, confetti and heart-shaped red balloons as the backdrop, and yes, they broke the world record!

I hear Darren Hayes, that kooky singer from Savage Garden is playing Brighton Dome this 28th day of September, I'd like to see him, his voice is so sweet, just think of Savage Garden's wondrous hits 'Affirmation' and 'Truly, Madly, Deeply' and it evokes feelings of pleasure. Sadly I'm whoring that night, so I might have to try and pull some strings and get the night, or at least part of the night off. Mika is also playing Brighton in the not too distant future, might have to bag myself a ticket for that gig as well. Oh and also coming out, is the DVD of one of the best gay films ever to come out of Britain in the 80's, the Fruit Machine! It's a wonderful film, part of it set in good old Brighton and stars Robbie Coltrane - in drag!

Anyway, enough rantings from me for now, more soon no doubt, although it's back to work tonight and I'm not looking forward to that, but hey, it pays the bills!