The SSO A-Z guide to queer Sydney

E is for:

Exhibitionism Is there a better place in the world to engage in outrageous show-offery than Sydney? We have sun for months, beaches for miles and football fields full of skin to display, and display said skin we do. From the sublime (the hot boys and girls of North Bondi) to the often-ridiculous (entry after entry of bare-fleshed punters in the Mardi Gras parade), Sydney is a voyeur’s paradise.

Women can marvel at a Wednesday night wet T-shirt comp at the Sly Fox or see the unimaginable at regular strip nights Gurlesque -“ and believe this, guys, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen what those girls can do. Dudes can walk into any gay nightclub on just about any night and be guaranteed at least shirts-off action, or more, at Stonewall’s annual Search for an Underwear Model comp.

Big parties still feature plenty of eye candy -“ Azure for example, claims itself to be the party for the buff and beautiful -“ but there’s a lot less sex these days. The Black Party at Sydney’s 2002 Gay Games is now a legendary moment in queer Sydney’s sex history. DJ Buck Naked told the Star in 2003 the infamous party became an absolute raging orgy. There were at least 2,000 in the venue, and at least one third were fucking in the corner.

Elton John Sir Elton is a famous AIDS activist, a notable Diana confidante, a legendary musician and is about to be a pioneer of British same-sex marriage. But this marriage caper is old hat to the world’s most famous soon-to-be-same-sex-married man. As is Sydney, where he first tied the knot 21 years ago. Our Elton, still reeling from the reaction to his bisexual coming-out in a 1976 edition of Rolling Stone [in which he famously remarked: There’s nothing wrong with going to bed with somebody of your own sex] married US sound engineer Renate Blauel at a celebrity-studded 1984 ceremony on the harbour.

Elton plans to marry long-time partner David Furnish in December, and this time he says it’s for better rather than worse. He recently called his upcoming connubials a brilliant end to a brilliant year in The Times, adding the couple had been offered the campest list of bridesmaids ever, including Anastacia, Sharon Osbourne, Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek.