The SSO A-Z guide to queer Sydney

N is for:

North Bondi: Consider this entry from The Rough Guide To Gay And Lesbian Australia (2001): One of the most scenic of Sydney’s surf beaches -¦ it attracts the most magnificently enhanced examples of the male physique. Are they all on steroids? Are those tans for real? Ask no questions and you’ll be told no lies.

But that was then (and the entry was about Tamarama -“ a.k.a. Glamarama), and North Bondi is where the hotness can be found these days.

The Star‘s David Mills first noted the Tamarama/ North Bondi pink seachange in 2002 with a trip down to the coast. There he met Duncan, a 36-year-old dude who said the beach was pretty much towel-to-towel gay at Mardi Gras time, and he also noted the shift to North Bondi had come after a 10-year queer innings at Tamarama.

But NB’s not for everyone -“ another guy, Steven, said his mates found it intimidating: I know a lot of friends who refuse to come down here because it’s just too intense.

Nipples: Psychiatrists might think of a few things to say about it, but it’s no secret: Gay men love nipples. Whether it’s looking at them (particularly easy to do at this time of year), playing with them or outright torturing them, nips are in, in a big fat way.

They’re also extremely popular among dykes, of course, enough to get a reference on an early episode of The L Word. When asked about the character Shane’s outrageous attractiveness, Leisha Hailey’s character Alice attributes it to Shane’s nipple confidence. She has the best nipples in town.

Here at the Star, we fully endorse nipples, but there’s not much of summer left, so go crazy while they’re easily available. And please, be careful. No one likes to see the Balinese-dog-style flappy nipples left after a bloke’s sustained too much tit-torture.