Pink Hole

You see the sign and carefully enter down the steps into a basement. From a modest doorway on a small side street, you now find yourself in an immense club, one of the biggest you've ever seen. Stripes of pink neon lights line the back white wall and strobe lights blink on the dance floor. Club music is blasting from the hands of a lanky DJ with braces, bobbing her head and smoking a cigarette. The floor is wet and slippery and sweat is dripping from everyone's faces in the summer heat. Signs line the walls, "No Photos" but you wish you could capture this moment in time. There is a chaos of people, couples, singles, and who knows? dancing, drinking, flirting lounging in corner booths having chats over the din.  You look around and marvel at the sensory overload of it all before it really dawns on you, even though you already knew: They are all women.
 *~*~*~*~*~*

I went to the club Pink Hole for the first time in over a year on Saturday night. The evening started out as a meeting for the Sappho Korea group, a group of bi and lesbian women that get together from time to time. We watched a lesbian themed romcom at the organizer's art studio then played the usual drinking games. A friend of mine suggested the amazing idea of Makgeolli (Korean rice wine that is milky) and walnut ice cream. Kind of like a beer float. Mmm delicious.

After that I got to go on my first scooter ride, an item that has been on my Korea bucket list since my first year. The wind (and her hair) blew in my face as we raced our way to Pink Hole. Amazing. If I had an extended stay and the ability to cheat death,  I'd totally get one.

With my laymen statistical skills, baring no mathematical accuracy I'd say the club was 99% Korean when we arrived, and after our arrival, perhaps 96%. It always amazes me the range of people you see from super fem to androgynous and even a few masculine women. Basically, just people. That's just it. Just people of all sorts who happen to be women that like women. Just like if you had a club of straight people, they'd all be very different as well. Seems obvious to me.

Foreign disease indeed. The more people come out, the more things will change, and people will realize being gay isn't weird or scary or perverse. The ones that won't change their mind will eventually die off anyway. Progress is happening.



 Unrelated note: A few new shots with my most recent haircut!

For more information the blog Ask A Korean did a great article addressing the issue of LGBT rights and the perception of gays in Korea. Surely an interesting read!