Thursday, September 28, 2006
Living in Tucson, I sometimes feel like I'm a backwoods kinda gay guy. There are about 700,000 people living here. The gay community is large and fairly diverse, but the overall number of young people is small. A lot of the younger people move away to bigger cities like Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Diego after they graduate from school. In turn, a lot of guys in their 30s through 50s, including many couples, are moving here because it is a relatively inexpensive place to live- housing is still quite affordable, especially if you have sold a high-priced house on the east or west coasts.
Tucson is slower-paced than other communities. In our gay community, there is less emphasis on body building- I don't feel really self conscious because I am not all rippling with steroid-enhanced muscles. I don't think a lot of the guys here use fancy drugs, at least that is my perception. Beer is the drug of choice. There is no gay uniform here either. In other places it seems like the guys all look alike. In Phoenix a few years back it was tight shirts, designer jeans, and clunky boots. In Tucson I can show up at one of the bars in a t-shirt and flip-flops and no one gives me attitude. I am also amazed when I smell cologne on someone.
So Tucson should be paradise, shouldn't it? At least if you value being yourself and being relatively close to nature (I hear the coyotes howling often at night when I'm in bed). But of course the downside of living here is if you are single, it is really difficult to find someone.
So how is life in your community?
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Tucson is slower-paced than other communities. In our gay community, there is less emphasis on body building- I don't feel really self conscious because I am not all rippling with steroid-enhanced muscles. I don't think a lot of the guys here use fancy drugs, at least that is my perception. Beer is the drug of choice. There is no gay uniform here either. In other places it seems like the guys all look alike. In Phoenix a few years back it was tight shirts, designer jeans, and clunky boots. In Tucson I can show up at one of the bars in a t-shirt and flip-flops and no one gives me attitude. I am also amazed when I smell cologne on someone.
So Tucson should be paradise, shouldn't it? At least if you value being yourself and being relatively close to nature (I hear the coyotes howling often at night when I'm in bed). But of course the downside of living here is if you are single, it is really difficult to find someone.
So how is life in your community?
