Swift as a Coursing River (LGBT+) | ✓

12. A walk through time (part 2)

The lighting in the bar is low, even though the sun hasn't set yet. On the wall are pictures of naked or half-naked men in various poses, showing off their biceps and abs and thighs. Philippe heads straight to the ancient counter, where an old white guy and a much younger brown man are waiting. "Armand and Palesh here will take your orders and your questions. We'll continue our walk at 5:30."

Vincent looks at Edwin and his little group of friends. "Do you all want to sit? We can order and go to the terrace." Edwin glances around the bar. There's not much space to sit. Half of the room is a dance floor, there's a row of bar stools along the counter, and one couch against the wall around two tables. Outside, it's much roomier, though chilly. Edwin sits next to Vincent, Sabine and Jules at the other side of the table, and Roos at the head of the table, between Vincent and Sabine. Now that they're sitting, they're less in their own world and turn to Edwin again.

"So, Edwin, has the walk been what you thought it would be?" Sabine asks.

"It's interesting," Edwin replies and he finds that he means it. It's sparking something in him, a desire that he doesn't understand yet. "I didn't know any of this and I feel like I should have."

"Are you not from around here? You sound like a real Antwerper, though."

"No, I am. I mean, I don't live in the city, but a few towns over."

"Late coming-out then? Or straight? Because you seem old enough to have lived through a lot of this stuff and the fight for our rights."

"Yeah, uh, I'm 56. Came out in March."

Sabine laughs. "Jules got you beat by more than a decade!" Edwin's gaze darts to Jules, who smiles back. "But I get it. I always knew and I sneaked out to have fun, but I only came out to my family and colleagues five years ago. We might have a lot of the rights, but people's minds haven't always caught up yet."

"That's a good way to put it." Edwin glances at Vincent, who raises an eyebrow and curls his mouth in a half-smile. "I, uh, think my mind hasn't always caught up yet either. Hence the, uh, education."

"Don't worry. Most of us have been there at some point in our lives. That's not so different now or thirty years ago. Has Vincent told you any of the good stories yet? Roos and Jules also have some." She elbows her husband. "You and Vincent are the queer men here, come on."

"Antwerp does have one of the oldest gay communities in Belgium," Vincent says. "But I'm too young to have lived through some of the more colourful periods. I only turned eighteen in the nineties and I remember a lot about the Aids crisis, not the fun stuff. Everything else are stories I've heard."

"I remember when Popi Café opened because a lot of gay bars were only for men back then. Implicitly or explicitly," Roos says. "Also the Sapho and Pink Lady. And the Shakespeare!" She looks at Edwin. "The Shakespeare was special because only women were allowed. They even had a female bouncer! Also some of the wildest lesbian parties I've been to. Nobody went there before at least 11 pm."

"Were women really not welcome in gay bars?"

"No, no! Or well, depends. Some places really not, but in other places, you had a lot of straight women who came there, so they wouldn't be bothered by men. It was really better that we had our own places. It's different now, of course. The more repressed you are, the more the subculture flourishes. Something that catered to women only wouldn't survive now."

Edwin's thoughts briefly stumble at the idea of straight women in gay bars. "But there's still places for men only. Like, uh, The Boots."

Roos shrugs. "Men have always been different. And that's kink."