Q & Gay: From 70’s to Scruff
Photo by Simon Shimshilashvili
Guest Post by Paul Reed
On Tuesday, March 20th, The LGBT Center hosted the premiere installment of their new intergenerational “live talk show” series, Q & Gay: Sex from the 70’s to Scruff. I arrived quite early to notice that many of the seats were already full of people of many ages, proving that sex does indeed sell. During the opening cocktail reception, I also felt a strong sense of jubilation and reunion in the air, witnessing several long lost friends reconnecting all around me.
Ashley Brockington, a striking and statuesque theatre professional, proved to be a highly engaging facilitator, beginning the session by introducing the audience to the four members of the panel. Ashley first introduced Johnny Skandros, the co-founder of Scruff, a gay social smartphone app, and thus one of the most important people in the modern age of gay digital media. Next up was Joseph Lovett (Joe), producer of the celebrated film, Gay Sex in the 70’s. Following Joe, we met Rob Zukowski, talented photographer and in my opinion, the most delightfully salacious panelist. Rounding up the panel was Francis Sheehan (Frank), an influential New York artist originally from Ireland.
Photo by Simon Shimshilashvili
After establishing the house rules for the discussion, Ashley asked the panel a series of 25 questions all within the framework of gay sex from the 70’s until the current time. Questions, and thus answers, ran the gamut from the comical, (Question #5) “What’s the most embarrassing place you’ve ever woken up?”, to the reflective, (Question #7) “Where were you when you first heard of AIDS?”, and to the educational, (Question #2) “How do you define safe sex?” It wasn’t long into the discussion before the theme of age began to show its influences on the different perspectives within the panel.
One of the best questions that displayed this overreaching theme of age was (Question #3) “Describe yourself at twenty-one.” Joe’s long-time friend told him that in 1966 he was “desperate.” Frank reminisced about his times at The LGBT Center of Dublin in 1978. Johnny, the youngest member of the panel by far, reflected that in 2004 he was naïve and fed into gay stereotypes. Rob gave the fascinating picture of the West Village in 1988 as a colony of AIDS “lepers” trapped within the fabulous illusion the neighborhood tried to uphold. These answers provided a window to explore how the interactions of place and time create our self-identity of what it means to be a gay man.
A question that evoked much discussion was (Question #10) “How has technology changed the sex scene?” The audience had the privilege of hearing this question answered first by Johnny, the co-founder of Scruff, a mobile application utilizing GPS allowing one to view other gay men globally and to physically meet gay men within the immediate area. Johnny bypassed the seemingly obvious answer, which is that the application allows for more frequent and easier hook-ups, and dove more into the other benefits of his application. According to him, Scruff also is a way for gay men without a visible gay community to connect with other gay men, lessening the oppressive isolation that is the reality for many outside of metropolitan cities.
Scruff also is a venue to spread education and awareness about safer sex practices and important LGBTQ causes. Joe took the question in a different direction, speaking about how technology affects his relationship with his partner in negative ways. Technology’s ability to keep one connected to work can become a stressor and invasive to personal space. Rob had an incredibly insightful answer, speculating that technology has allowed rejection to become more prevalent, sometimes based on one’s race or perceived masculinity.
