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Often, your local gay bar or club is the only public place you can party as a queer person without the fear of being gay or threatened for simply being yourself. But at the same time, the idea of striding into a gay venue for the first time can be intimidating for young LGBTQ people — especially anyone new to exploring their sexuality.

To find out what the experience means to people across Europe, we spoke to queer people from six different countries and asked them to describe what their first visit to a gay club was like. Bar of the bars were full of women, others were packed with men. In one of the latter ones, we were treated like queens for being the only women there.

I gay thought I could feel so safe in a two-storey building filled with hunky men. I felt free in there — like we were all in on a secret nobody else knew about. I could be myself and not have to worry about what other people would think if I kissed a girl. I was 17 and hanging out with two friends when another mate suggested we meet him at Station des Artistes, a gay bar in my home city of Pau, in the southwest of France.

So I decided, mainly out of curiosity, that it was time to try it out. Almost as soon as I walked in, I felt intimidated and bar — almost guilty. But most people there were in their thirties and forties, and seemed fairly comfortable. One of them left with my best friend, and they ended up going out for three years. I guess that night feels so special, bar now, because of how quickly and radically my outlook changed.

I went from coming in and feeling like I was doing something wrong, to having a great night with new friends. It was a club in gay Belgrade called Apartman, and I went with my friends. I especially loved the general vibe in Apartman — everyone was dancing, nobody was rude, posing or giving anyone dirty looks.

It felt like a magical space. We eventually left the club at 6AM. That whole experience turned out so much better than I could ever have imagined. After that first night, gay clubs became my second home. I was 16 and had just come out, and a lesbian friend wanted to check the place out.

Musk Machine

I was super nervous beforehand, and once we got there it actually turned into a bit of a nightmare. A few minutes later, this old guy just grabbed my bum. Suffice to say, the whole experience left me feeling super awkward, so I left after about ten minutes and promised myself I would never go to a gay club again.

But nobody seemed to care, and I realised that this was what freedom looked like. I realised that it was cool that I was different from all the straight kids who had bullied me. Going to a gay club in Romania back in was a big deal — it was only a few years after the country had officially decriminalised homosexuality.