THE SSO A-Z GUIDE TO QUEER SYDNEY

W IS FOR

Water sports For some gay people the wetter, frankly, the better. If there’s a choice, for them the choice is moist and there’s no greater pleasure then immersing themselves in something liquid and warm. These gay people are indulging themselves in the sensuous delights of water sports – from your everyday swimming to the more exotic water polo.

A quick look in this week’s community contacts section of Sydney Star Observer will reveal six aqua-orientated groups. SUBS scuba diving club is almost 100-strong and regularly dives in and around Sydney and up and down the coast. Their year will surely climax this October at the international scuba jamboree in Belize where scores of gay divers can mingle under the waves.

Closer to home you can join not one, but two, lesbian surf clubs. But for most of us the closest we come to water sports is admiring those who play them. We’ve lusted after the Thorpedo for years and former Olympic swimming gold medallist Daniel Kowalski cuts a dashing figure on TV dance show It Takes Two – however, neither looks like joining the GLBT Wett Ones Swimming club any time soon. But if ever they wanted to, we say jump in – the water’s lovely.

WLTM (Would Like To Meet) It’s been a number of years since personal ads have been seen in Sydney Star Observer, but who could forget the wonderful abbreviated language that only seasoned readers could decipher? The gay personals borrowed largely from their heterosexual counterparts, not only the lingo but also their total lack of believability. For example, GSOH (Good Sense Of Humour) means finding Rove funny; NS (Non-Scene/Non-Smoker) means except on weekends; VGL (Very Good Looking) means not mistaken for Quasimodo; DTE (Down To Earth) means owning shoes.

With the decline of newspaper personal ads and the rise of internet profiles the need for brevity has disappeared and people have been able to spell out their sexual preferences and perversions in excruciating epic detail.

But before the shift online, personal ads were often the only safe way to communicate and meet other gay and lesbian people, particularly in country areas. They ranged from searches for LTR (Long-Term Relationships) to NSA (No Strings Attached), but the near universal constant was the request for someone decades younger than themselves. In that at least, the language may have changed, the request itself has not.