Monday, July 10, 2006
Living on the Square
Only as my progress learning the local languages developed, so did my awareness of the gay life in Uzbekistan grow. I finally met some local gay people who let me in on a few secrets. Some of the secrets would astound me – at my own cluelessness. I hadn’t even realized – not until after a year of living there and someone told me, that my apartment block was right on the “pleshka” or the “square.”
Every Soviet city has such a square –where gays gather clandestinely or informally – to meet, for trade, sometimes to cruise, etc. There was even a famous café on the square – Golubiye Kupola, or “Blue Domes” that had three blue, eastern-style phallic domes, serving traditional Uzbek fare in Soviet times for tourists. Today, it’s better known for the gays congregating there after twilight to drink tea.
Until this discovery, I honestly had no idea why the men sitting on the park benches near my apartment were always watching me as intently as I came home, as everyone seemed to stare at me wherever I went. (See later posting “Stare Stare Stare!) I just assumed that they were typical nosy neighbors.
I sometimes laugh at how not clued in to the place I was that first year. It’s likely I didn’t understand anything in that country at all. ¶ 7:38 PM
Only as my progress learning the local languages developed, so did my awareness of the gay life in Uzbekistan grow. I finally met some local gay people who let me in on a few secrets. Some of the secrets would astound me – at my own cluelessness. I hadn’t even realized – not until after a year of living there and someone told me, that my apartment block was right on the “pleshka” or the “square.”
Every Soviet city has such a square –where gays gather clandestinely or informally – to meet, for trade, sometimes to cruise, etc. There was even a famous café on the square – Golubiye Kupola, or “Blue Domes” that had three blue, eastern-style phallic domes, serving traditional Uzbek fare in Soviet times for tourists. Today, it’s better known for the gays congregating there after twilight to drink tea.
Until this discovery, I honestly had no idea why the men sitting on the park benches near my apartment were always watching me as intently as I came home, as everyone seemed to stare at me wherever I went. (See later posting “Stare Stare Stare!) I just assumed that they were typical nosy neighbors.
I sometimes laugh at how not clued in to the place I was that first year. It’s likely I didn’t understand anything in that country at all. ¶ 7:38 PM
