Thursday, July 24, 2008

The end of the G-A-Y

From TimesOnLine.com on july 24, 2008:
"The London nightclub that welcomed Kylie, Cyndi and Madonna, and provided the venue for countless gay romances, is shutting up shop.

Everyone is so post-gay now, it's probably not the done thing to shed a tear over the last night of G-A-Y at the Astoria in Central London this Saturday. With its simple delight in fluffy disco and boozy, cruisey merriment, G-A-Y seems a dinosaur in the modern landscape of gay indie clubs, mixed clubs and the pansexual, drag-tastic dives of Shoreditch, where the beestung-lipped boy in eyeshadow probably has a girlfriend who's cool with it all.

But sad I am for the passing of G-A-Y. Jeremy Joseph, the club's pixie-like promoter, says it will reopen somewhere else, but it won't be the same - for good and ill, for its fans and detractors, G-A-Y at the Astoria is a gay cultural landmark, and even though it smells of chips and the Astoria has seen better days, the club has a resounding pre-eminence. While Joseph's G-A-Y has been going since 1993, the night began life as Bang! way back in 1976. It's a gay grand-daddy in a tight T-shirt.

As the club's capital-lettered, branded moniker implies, G-A-Y is gay and then some. It doesn't try to be clever or jaded. Instead it serves up, weekly, a cacophonous, fizzing party, the centrepiece of which is a performance by a pop star. Madonna, Kylie, Mariah Carey, Cyndi Lauper, Pink, Enrique Iglesias (and a lot worse - step forward Caprice) have appeared at G-A-Y: Iglesias generously offering up his ass to be fondled. Joseph doesn't think that the G-A-Y brand is outdated: “We've survived longer than any other gay club. Does that sound unsuccessful to you?”

G-A-Y encompasses not just the Saturday-night club but also two Soho bars. Along with Heaven, it is the first, most visible homo port of call not just for foreign visitors but for 16-year-olds coming out. Its young crowd sets it apart: if you are over the age of 25 you feel ancient.

Joseph says that he has decided to ship out because he is fed up with having “the axe of Crossrail hanging over my head”. He still doesn't know if or when the Astoria will be knocked down to make way for London's high-speed rail link, but this week Crossrail received Royal Assent, which Joseph took to be “a message - the time is right to go”.

Joseph says that it is getting harder and harder to show stars around the building when it's in such a bad state. But he'll be emotional on Saturday night, he admits - his energy and ability to get stars to perform at G-A-Y have given the club an enviable profile. Open the tabloids on a Monday morning and there will be a picture of, say, McFly dropping their pants on stage.

The most dramatic appearance was possibly that of Kylie Minogue on stage, post-cancer operation, alongside her sister Dannii. That night I had been out at Ghetto, just behind G-A-Y, and was accosted by two sweet and breathless young guys on the night bus, eager to share the news (and pictures taken on their mobile phones). Over the years, G-A-Y has played a part in mobilising support for significant gay political campaigns, such as Section 28, the age of consent and gays and the military.

Joseph has had many messages from G-A-Yers young and old in the past few days. “It was the first place they went to when they came out - or before they came out; the place they went to be themselves if they were having problems with families or colleagues. I've even had messages such as ‘I met my boyfriend ten years ago at G-A-Y. If you hadn't been there we'd never have met'.”

Joseph won't say where or when the club will reopen. He is being very cagey about what will happen on Saturday night, too. “Lots of acts” will be performing - he says that Kylie and Madonna are unavailable, but is this a decoy?

The evening isn't about the “names”, he says strenuously, or he would publicise them. It's about saying farewell to the club. All will be revealed when the show starts at 1am. Joseph will make a speech - “I've been trying to compose one on the running machine but I keep getting stuck” - and a grand finale (prepare for glitter guns and tears) is planned for 4.15am.

For Joseph - and me, it turns out - the song that best sums up G-A-Y is Kylie's Better the Devil You Know. For the past 15 years he has played it at 12.30am each week.

“It's one of the world's best pop songs,” he says with absolute authority. “When you hear that first ‘Woo-ooohhh-ohhh' in the opening bars, you just know...” And his voice tails off but I know what he means. Jeremy, see you on the dancefloor at 12.30am. "

Thursday, January 24, 2008

A Message From the Owner - Major Announcement About the Future of Faces on Fourth Street

Thank you to everyone who ever visited Faces on Fourth Street over the last 30 years. Thank you to everyone who filled our dance floor until dawn, who drank with us, laughed with us, celebrated with us, fell in love with us, and sometimes cried with us. Faces has been both famous and infamous for 30 years. The last 14 years, I had the privilege of owning a part of our history. While it was often hard work and long hours, I am grateful to everyone who included me and Faces in their lives. I loved throwing the parties. I loved the music. I loved the video stars, recording artists, and DJs that I was able to get to know. I loved the incredibly talented DJs and drag queens from our local community who made Faces their home. I loved the late night decadence. I loved the thousands of wonderful customers who took the time to get to know me and my staff. I loved the conversations over cocktails about everything from politics to sex. You and your friends made the last 14 years one hell of a ride. After we closed at the end of April 2007, I took some time off. I worked to try to pay our old bills, kept the building secure, tried to keep up on St. Louis nightlife, and asked you for your feedback. I read your comments from our on line survey, sharing them with friends, advisors, and family. Considering the fact that we were forced to close because of cash flow issues, your positive comments were a nice surprise. We continue to get emails and IMs asking when we are reopening, frequently begging us to reopen. Some have admitted that they did not realize what they had at Faces until it was gone.
My answer has been pretty consistent. I appreciate all of your positive comments and I really did not know what our plans were. Personally, 2007 was a bad year. I had borrowed heavily to keep the bar going, and I was forced to sell property at a deep discount just to try to repay debts. What little money was left from sales went to start to repay people who had helped us, but at the end of the day, there wasn't enough to pay everyone. In a different economy, there would have been enough to cover all our debts and reopen. Despite this setback, we continued to discuss plans to remodel and reopen. The idea of reopening under my management became even more distant in the last few weeks.
In the last few weeks, someone cut the power lines to the building to steal the copper from our electric meter. How they did it without being electocuted is a mystery. Before we could replace it, they managed to break into the building and began systematically to gut the building. While not damaged beyond repair, they cut out copper pipes to and from our boiler, they cut out copper water pipes, they even smashed toilets to get the copper pipe and valves. We have been maintaining the building, keeping it secure, and alarmed since we closed. We could have easily cleaned, painted, and reopened in a matter of days. Now, the damage done in the last few weeks make that dream unrealistic.
The building is secure again. We have removed the equipment to keep it safe. We don't feel that we have the capital necessary to make repairs, remodel, redecorate, and reopen. It breaks my heart to say the only way to pay off all our debts and make necessary repairs is to offer the club for lease. We hope to offer someone with new ideas the opportunity to repair and reopen Faces. I want Faces to reopen as much as you do. I want it to reopen as a gay bar. Your on line survey responses have confirmed that there is a demand for Faces to return. I will help anyone willing to make that happen.
An observation - disturbing recent events in St. Louis gay nightlife seem to point to a continued downturn in the clubs. Manchester Street favorite, Freddie's was forced to close recently with plans to remodel and re-open in the spring. EXP Magazine, long the source of St. Louis' gay bar news recently suspended publication, leaving St. Louis without a gay bar magazine. Both events are sad. My heart goes out to the owner and staff of Freddie's as well as EXP owner/editor Jeff Balk. We had a long friendship with EXP and Jeff deserves credit for much of our early success as well as for his contributions to our community. We always enjoyed Freddie's and have a special place in our heart for their nationally known and incredibly talented DJ Danny Morris. We wish them the best and hope this is the end of the bad news for St. Louis gay bars.
Thank you for your support and kind words.
Craig

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Gays Hit by Drug Resistant Flesh Eating Bacteria, Researchers Suggest Scrubbing with Soap & Water After Sex

From NYT:
January 15, 2008
New Bacteria Strain Is Striking Gay Men
By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
A new, highly drug-resistant strain of the “flesh-eating” MRSA bacteria is being spread among gay men in San Francisco and Boston, researchers reported on Monday.

In a study published online by the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, the bacteria seemed to be spread most easily through anal intercourse but also through casual skin-to-skin contact and touching contaminated surfaces.

The authors warned that unless microbiology laboratories were able to identify the strain and doctors prescribed the proper antibiotic therapy, the infection could soon spread among other groups and become a wider threat.

The new strain seems to have “spread rapidly” in gay populations in San Francisco and Boston, the researchers wrote, and “has the potential for rapid, nationwide dissemination” among gay men.

The study was based on a review of medical records from outpatient clinics in San Francisco and Boston and nine medical centers in San Francisco.

The Castro district in San Francisco has the highest number of gay residents in the country, according to the University of California, San Francisco. One in 588 residents is infected with the new multidrug-resistant MRSA strain, the study found. That compares with 1 in 3,800 people in San Francisco, according to statistical analyses based on ZIP codes.

A separate part of the study found that gay men in San Francisco were about 13 times more likely to be infected than other people in the city.

The San Francisco researchers suggested that scrubbing with soap and water might be the most effective way to stop skin-to-skin transmission, particularly after sexual activities.

MRSA, for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, was once spread chiefly in hospitals. But in recent years, a number of healthy people have acquired it outside hospitals.

Nearly 19,000 people died in the United States from MRSA infections in 2005, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported.

The infection can cause unusually severe problems, including abscesses and skin ulcers. The bacteria can invade through the skin to produce necrotizing fasciitis, giving them the popular name of flesh-eating bacteria. They can also cause pneumonia, damage the heart and produce widespread infection through the blood.

Among gay men in the study, MRSA was spread by skin contact, causing abscesses and infection in the buttocks and genital area.

The new strain is closely related to earlier ones. Both are known as MRSA USA300.

The strain is much more difficult to treat because it is resistant not just to methicillin, but also many more of the antibiotics used to treat the earlier strains, said Dr. Henry F. Chambers, an author of the new study.

The new strain contains a plasmid called pUSA03.

“This particular clone is resistant to at least three other drugs, clindamycin, tetracycline and mupirocin,” Dr. Chambers said in a telephone interview.

Of the alternatives recommended by the C.D.C. and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim), clindamycin and a tetracycline, “this strain is resistant to two of those three,” he added. “In addition, the new strain is resistant to mupirocin, which has been advocated for eradicating the strain from carriers.”

Monday, January 14, 2008

HIV Rises in Young Gay Men

From NYT:
January 14, 2008
Editorial
AIDS appears to be making an alarming comeback. The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that the incidence of H.I.V. infection among gay men is shooting up, following an encouraging period of decline. The rise of infections among younger gay men, especially black and Hispanic men, is troubling, and the study carries the clear implication that people at high risk of contracting the disease are becoming less cautious.

Statistics gathered by New York City health officials show that new diagnoses of H.I.V. infection — the virus that causes AIDS — in gay men under age 30 rose 32 percent between 2001 and 2006. Among black and Hispanic men, the figure was 34 percent. Most troubling, the number of new diagnoses among the youngest men in the study, those between ages 13 and 19, doubled.

New York officials say increased alcohol and drug use may be partly responsible since they make unprotected sex more likely. Other basic precautions, including finding out whether a potential partner is infected, are also apparently being ignored.

The one bright spot in this bleak picture was the 22 percent decline in infections among men over 30 in the New York study. Awareness of the disease’s devastating effects, as much as maturity, may explain the difference. A large number of these older men came of age when AIDS was all but untreatable. They may have buried friends who died after being horribly ill.

When the disease was new and terrifying, the gay community helped change behavior by preaching loudly against taking sexual risks. From San Francisco to New York, bathhouses notorious for promoting casual sex changed the way they did business or closed down. Condoms were encouraged, and so was H.I.V. testing. “Silence equals death” was the motto of the day.

Silence now seems to be winning the day. Nearly 6,000 gay men died of AIDS in the United States in 2005; still, many young men appear to have persuaded themselves that the infection is no longer such a big deal. It is true that antiretroviral therapy has improved the outlook for anyone who becomes infected. But the treatments are still too new to know whether they can work much beyond a decade. Public health officials need to continue to distribute condoms, encourage testing and treat those who are ill. Leaders in the hardest-hit communities need to start speaking out again. The fight against AIDS is far from over.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Nine Days Into Badly Written Illinois Smoking Ban Law and State Government Still Can't Agree on Enforcement Rules

From Stltoday.com:
By Kevin McDermott
POST-DISPATCH SPRINGFIELD BUREAU
Thursday, Jan. 10 2008

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Almost two weeks into Illinois' new indoor smoking ban,
state officials haven't yet cleared the air of lingering questions over how it
is to be enforced — and what recourse business owners have if they think
they've been wrongly cited for violations.

The ban remains in effect, as it has since Jan. 1, making it illegal to smoke
in or near bars, restaurants, casinos and other indoor public venues in
Illinois. But there are still no detailed enforcement standards for that ban. A
legislative panel on Wednesday rejected, for the second time, a proposed set of
specific rules.

As a result, it remains unclear how outdoor beer gardens are to be policed,
whether bar owners are responsible for outdoor smoke that drifts inside, and
whether universities can legally conduct smoking-related research in state
facilities.

What most concerned lawmakers on the panel Wednesday was that the proposed
rules provided no internal appeals process for businesses that are fined for
violating the law.

"The existence of an ashtray (in a restaurant) could trigger an investigation,"
yet there's no way for the restaurant owner to appeal any findings except to
sue in the court system, said Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, a member of the Joint
Administrative Committee on Rules.

That legislative committee, which oversees how state laws are implemented by
state agencies, voted 9-1 against approving rules that were proposed by the
Illinois Department of Public Health. The agency now will have to revise and
resubmit its proposed rules to lawmakers, probably next month.

It was the second time in the past two months that the legislative panel
rejected the agency's proposed rules. Lawmakers expressed frustration at what
they said was the agency's continued failure to address crucial issues of
enforcement and due process.

"The one thing I've heard from my constituents is they don't know what their
rights are," Rep. David Miller, D-Dolton, said at the hearing.

Miller and others chided Public Health Department officials for their
insistence that the proposed rules should be implemented immediately, and then
updated as needed.

"Even though you know there are problems with the rules as written, you want to
proceed?" Miller asked.

After the hearing, department spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said the agency was
disappointed at the committee's decision, and that it will put together yet
another proposed set of rules for lawmakers to consider next month.

"The law still is in place," she added. "As far as smoking in a bar or
restaurant or bowling alley … that is still against the law."

But within that broad prohibition, there remain numerous detailed questions —
to the frustration of business owners who are trying to find ways to continue
to cater to smokers without violating the new law.

One of them, Fast Eddie's tavern of Alton, has conducted a major renovation to
install a beer garden to allow patrons to legally smoke on the premises. Owner
Eddie Sholar said he's confident the facility adheres to the new law as it's
currently written, but he worries that whatever rules are eventually
implemented from Springfield may change that.

"They say we have to obey the law, but they can't even tell you what it is.
Just tell us what it is and we'll do it," Sholar said Wednesday. "It's
ridiculous how Illinois did this. They don't even know what they're doing."

State officials have received about 300 complaints alleging smoking ban
violations by businesses since the ban started Jan. 1, said Arnold, the Public
Health Department spokeswoman. She said she wasn't aware of any fines being
imposed, and that most violators still were being given warning notices because
the law is so new.