Gay Bar Excursion

Having the opportunity to go on field studies with my classes has provided me with experiences I never thought I would have. Case in point, my most recent field study. My fourth field study was for my Gender and Sexuality class. For the field study, we had to go somewhere I never pictured myself going...a gay bar. Before the class headed to the variety of gay bars located in Copenhagen, we met at the center desk of the school to split into small groups and to learn about our assignment. My group consisted of 4 other girls and one guy. Part of the field study was for the group to ask someone in the bar questions about homosexuality in Denmark. Once our groups were assigned and we had our assignment sheets, we were off to our assigned destination. My group was assigned the bar Centralhjørnet, the oldest gay bar in Copenhagen. When we walked in our group definitely got the look of "what is this group doing here." In the beginning, there were only 3 older men and the bartender. We went to sit at a table in the back corner of the bar to figure out the best way to approach asking someone in the bar questions. First, we went to get a round of drinks since DIS was paying for one free drink. As we were ordering our drinks, the bartender started joking with us. Because of this, we decided he would be the best person in the bar to interview. We had to ask him questions about what it means to be a homosexual in Denmark, is there a gay identity in Denmark, does he participate in the homosexual political movement, and what is dating life like. Through our interview we found out he doesn't really participate in the political movement, the way people view homosexuals is up to them and will vary from person to person, there is not a gay identity that homosexuals live up to in Denmark, and that when gays want to hit on someone they don't buy drinks they just go straight up to the person and say "you want to fu**." After we finished asking him the interview questions we just talked to him to get to know him better. We found out that he has been working in drag for 30 years (since we have 15!). Because of this he has lived in German quite a few times. One thing he found weird about his drag job was that he would find out 2 years in advance where he was going to be living. He also told us why Danes don't partake in small talk. He said that when Danes have a conversation with someone, they want the conversation to mean something and have depth. For them, small talk seems fake. Although that doesn't mean they won't talk to someone new, others just have to initiate the conversation.Interviewing the bartender was a lot of fun for my group and I.

At 9:15pm we had to head back to school so we could discuss our bar experiences. Overall the night was different and interesting, but still fun.