Mainstream bars, nightclubs and bathhouses were conscripted as gay meeting places until, in the 20th century, bars, nightclubs and bathhouses were conceived and operated for the specific purpose of same-sex commingling. There’s been cruising in public spaces, I imagine, since public spaces have existed. Yet same-sex-attracted people have always had various strategies for finding each other. It’s hard to believe now that, for most of human history, this kind of meeting – text on a screen to a stranger far away – would have been unthinkable. Though I had never seen a photo of him or heard his voice, he turned out to be handsome and charming. I ended up striking up an online friendship with a guy from London, England – I think his handle had the word “Wolf” in it – and eventually met him during a trip to the UK. I remember asking lots of vague questions about chat rooms, and when I got home my first course of action was logging into a gay chat room, fluorescent green type on a black screen. I made some calls and found out that I could go to the local university to get an account, which involved attending a personal instruction session where ideas like “passwords” and “hyperlinks” would be patiently explained to me. ![]() I first heard about the internet in 1992 I must have read about it in a newspaper, since there was certainly no Googling to be done. We’ve always had a way of finding each other…
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