We undressed and fumbled into the lobby. There, I caught a familiar sight cutting a corner: He was here as a guest. He saw me and ushered me into a private room with baby-blue brick walls. There was a rectangular mirror glued behind a cot. We hadn't so much as exchanged "heys," and there we were, alone together. Typically, I find each repeated hookup with the same person to be more fruitful than the last, but this time I experienced something unexpected: Entertaining pillow talk, he expressed wishing to move to South America.
I gushed over the new David Sedaris diaries. We asked a lot of questions. The mundanity of our conversation juxtaposed with the surreal setting left me feeling dazed and slightly euphoric. I wondered if the mechanical nature of our introduction was why I hadn't considered this Grindr hookup more romantically.
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Eventually, we said our goodbyes. Bounding out of the room, I saw T gliding up a distant staircase. Hawks is a maze. It's a scatterplot of dressing rooms with netted ceilings that allow you to peer in from the tops of curvy landings. The glass doors of the steam room and the silver shower faucets dotting the walls make for funhouse mirrors.
I asked T about Jane's whereabouts. He said he had had his fill and was ready to leave.
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Having encountered something sentimental, I also felt fulfilled. We set out in search of Jane—he said he thought he saw her last in the middle of an orgy with a gaggle of older men. This was believable: I estimated that out of 50 or so people, the average person at Hawks was about On bi night, the split was about 70 percent men and 30 percent women.
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Most men were lone wolves. For whatever reason, my resistance to the hypersexuality was rapidly wearing. Nude bystanders tried their best to pinpoint when they saw Jane last and with which guy. Most of our peers sympathized with our impossible quest.
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T and I resorted to the information desk. Just like "escorts" have little to do with handholding and pleasant dinner conversation, it's no secret that bathhouses are synonymous with gay sex. In the late '70s and early '80s, six such clubs operated in Portland. But the spread of AIDS and a culture of anxiety that permeated the gay social scene shut down foot traffic through those establishments. In truth, despite opponents' claims, bathhouses are banned by neither the city nor county of San Francisco.
Several prominent clubs line the upscale, decidedly gay Castro District, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city. Even the stuffy weekly periodical the Bay Guardian proudly nominates the "best sex club" in San Francisco every year.
This year it was Eros, a popular bathhouse along Market Street. The first such bathhouse to open in Portland in nearly a decade, Steam Portland would have launched discreetly and with little fanfare had neighbors not thrown up their arms in dismay. Five years ago, say residents, the Hollywood neighborhood was a bona fide red-light district, crawling with prostitutes and plagued by seedy strip clubs and adult bookstores. Due to untiring neighborhood policing and pressure, the area has about-faced.
Only a few strip joints remain on the east end of Sandy Blvd, and hookers are as rare as Starbucks is common.
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But, say a handful of residents, Steam Portland will re-introduce seediness, amorality, and crime. Grand Ave.
Ash St. Inside you'll find glory-hole areas, three slings, an orgy area, a water sports section, bear and fisting parties, and other intriguing elements.
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Other amenities at the maze-like spot are lockers, cedar sauna, a steam room, and an industrial vibe that's something of a throwback to classic gay sex clubs or porn flicks of the s and s. Keeping with current trends, Hawks offers an outdoor, clothing-optional private patio where you can smoke cigarettes or marijuana. Portland also has some legally sanctioned clothing-optional beaches on the Columbia River with strong gay followings, including Collins Beach at Sauvie Island , which is a minute drive northwest of the city center, and Rooster Rock State Park also known as "Cock Rock" , which is in the spectacular Columbia Gorge and reached via a minute drive on I Also, check out the Portland Gay Nightlife Guide for more on the city's gay scene.