In Vauxhall, for example, the local council had been encouraging luxury property development in a way that made it far too expensive not only for gay businesses but also for gay people. Looking at migration patterns in London, people are moving into areas where they would have historically relied on gay bars or clubs to meet new people, but they don’t have strong bonds or social networks. People are isolated by a lack of disposable income, and by their ability to get work and experience public space. [...]
Neoliberalism encourages us to think of ourselves as competitive individuals in all aspects of our lives—in our sense of self and in practices of intimacy. Chemsex begins to make sense in these conditions—it allows us to be together in very relaxed ways that have become increasingly difficult since the financial crisis. There’s a need to feel together, in historical conditions which do not encourage that. [...]
Gay marriage is important, in terms of ensuring LGBTQ people are absolutely equal in law. But monogamous marriage, respectable jobs, and earning lots of money… aspiring to that has its implications. It’s foreclosing all the other sorts of intimacy gay men have been arguing for since the beginning of the gay liberation moment. One of the important interventions the gay rights movement made was precisely the idea of inventing new forms of intimacy that had nothing to do with marriage. [...]
Gay men build various sorts of intimacy. Previously, recreational drug use was a problem because it inhibited your productivity—now, under neoliberalism, you can pursue pleasure only if you’re consuming. Chemsex intimacy doesn’t fit either of those and so it’s difficult to convince mainstream society what good comes of it.
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