Shanghai has (much) more than just gays

Aginger sprinkling of homosexuality cuts to the core of any cosmopolitan city. Fabulous and fashionable hats off to Pete for manning the LGBeaT, but one thing that our boy seemed to leave out of his columns is that Shanghai has more than just its gays. This city would be decidedly monochrome without the sundry vowels and consonants that combine to make up the curious rainbow of la-las, comrades, free-wheeling bisexuals and suitably over-baked trannies–the LGBT community.

But it wasn't always so. Back in the day, a gay nightlife was characterized by the obligatory bar triumvirate of the old chestnut, Eddy's Bar, the original Home bar and Kevin's. Mon dieu. Outside of these venues, contact of the homosexual variety was reduced to quick encounters in parks after dark and regrettable hook-ups via Gaydar (since bested by the locally produced Gays.com).

A lack of action wasn't only restricted to gays. For the lesbians too, the Shanghai of old was a very dry fish bowl indeed. People used to feverishly text local cocktail drinker and woman-in-sensible-shoes, Ivana, for sightings of the Sapphic variety. Today you can't swing a kitten lest it be tangled in the chunky belts, flat-ironed bangs and finely manicured fingernails of a vagaterian. Meanwhile, the come-what-may bisexuals–I call them pancakes, because they flip so well–have elevated their bi-sibility from random evenings and mornings spent spread-eagled in unfamiliar living rooms, to acceptable modes of fun.

Not to be outdone, the trans are beginning to represent as well thanks to, in part, yours truly, Gwen from Tempe. Perhaps you've seen me out and about at Bar Rouge, Velvet, Shanghai Studio and Dragon Club, or staggering along Wulumuqi Lu in clacky mules and Qipu Lu couture with make-up by Kate-Noble.com and wig maintenance by Matsume Kai. I've been around the block a few times and the highlight of my seven years here was a recent Sichuan earthquake fundraiser at Shanghai Studio, where your diarist received a Certificate of Honor from the Red Cross. Gwen is a taker and a giver in equal measure.

Today's Shanghai is an altogether different kettle of fish sauce than that of yesteryear. Today the breeder and non-breeder scenes are integrated, rubbing earnestly-starched shoulder pads with trust fund babies on the Bund and oozing fabulousness into every nook and cranny that this cosmopolitan city will submit to.

Gwen from Tempe