Mark Simpson on the enduring allure of anonymous sex in an age of gay marriage and ‘anti-social networking‘ I was sixteen when saw my first glory hole. Or rather, saw my first filled glory hole. It was in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, a public-spirited, snobbish spa town well-served by shiny Victorian lavatories.… Read More »The Global Glory Hole
Examining the famous Victorian anuses of ‘Fanny and Stella’ (bv Mark Simpson, the Independent) “I had never seen anything like it before… I do not in my practise ever remember to have seen such an appearance of the anus, as those of the prisoners presented.” So testified Dr Paul in shocked tones… Read More »How To Spot A Sodomite
Mark Simpson interviews David Halperin about his controversial new book How To Be Gay (Originally appeared on Out.com 20/08/2012) I’ve always been a big fan of Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, and Doris Day. But it was a secret, shameful love – until, that is, David Halperin’s new book, How to Be Gay (Harvard… Read More »Camp For Beginners: David Halperin’s ‘How To Be Gay’
My friend Michelle, formerly the male stripper known as ‘Stud-U-Like’, alerted me to this ‘freaky’ tale of transformation reported in this week’s freaky Daily Mail with this priceless headline: ‘Burly rugby player has a stroke after freak gym accident… wakes up gay and becomes a hairdresser‘ It then teases us with a… Read More »Traditional Masculinity Has a Stroke – ‘Burly Rugby Player’ Transforms Into ‘Gay Hairdresser’
I’ve just finished reading This Small Cloud, a wonderful posthumously published memoir by Harry Daley, a London copper in the early part of the 20th Century. Daley had a weakness, as you do, for young boxers and gangsters. And an intolerance for Mosley’s Blackshirts, whom many of his colleagues sympathised… Read More »Harry Daley: A Beat Poet