You will recognize him at first glance. He is old, ragged, slovenly in an elderly man way, and probably hungry. But your eyes will fix on him without fail. If you take trouble of thinking why you cannot tear your eyes off the lanky old man sitting on the bench and smoking a cheap cigarette, take a closer look and you’ll notice that the man is handsome, but his beauty is of a peculiar, devilish kind. This is the oldest gay playboy of Zaporozhie. None of the gays as long ago as 25 years could remember where Borman – this is how the man’s senile friends call him – had come from. Not to say about why he is called Borman. By the most modest count, Borman’s gay «track record» has long ago hit the mark of a half century. Today he is enfeebled, old and needed by no one, but there were times when he gathered around himself the pick of the town’s population. Youth strove to get to know him out of curiosity, as well as to get protection. His connections were truly big – from officials of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the upper ranks members of KGB and Moscow pop-music stars to a janitor of the neighborhood. Currently he is merely a living monument to the Zaporozhie gay world of the socialism epoch.

Another case is She-Colonel (aka She-General). This crook is a product of today’s time. Residents of Zaporozhie could read a lot about him – papers wrote about a swindler attired in colonel’s uniform who used faked documents to get goods supposedly for army units – after which made a clean getaway. But the press did not feature another aspect of this man’s life.

She-Colonel was reputed to be «tough» in the gay world: an expensive car, never ending bashes in posh restaurants, costly clothes (not uniform, certainly). Who cares about the fact that he is repulsive both inwardly and outwardly? Especially popular he was among those young gays of Zaporozhie, who were all too willing to engage in intimate contacts with him in the hope to make use of his money and connections which he widely publicized. Life is hard today, especially for the young generation. It was this that She-Colonel capitalized on, giving away endless promises. Now everyone is disowning acquaintance with him. And this was not these boys that he needed, he hankered for connections with the senior officers in the garrison and upper-ranking officials from the state administration, as well as links in the procurator’s office and police. It may be assumed that he has succeeded in building these bridges. Very telltale, for instance, was the celebration of the fake (lies even here!) birthday. Apart from hearty meals and drinks guests were also offered satisfaction of their sexual desire with … soldiers from a military unit who were present at the party!

There are quite a few gays among businessmen. In the public eye – and ear – there is certain Mad Florist (gays’ nicknames can be most unexpected and often signify nothing but unbridled imagination of the author). Mad Florist is distinguished only by lop ears, colorless inexpressive eyes, a knack in intimate matters, some degree of sponsorship smacking not of flowers, and his former and current lovers who regularly kick up rows in his office or nearby.

Samurai is different – enormous, powerful, intellectually advanced in many aspects, and to top it off, a lucky and well-heeled businessman. He spends more time abroad than at home. Sometimes he takes with him on trips his other half – certain N. – a gay distinguished by nothing more than by being Samurai’s partner of fifteen years. This couple had to undertake enormous efforts to ward off the attacks from other gays, for Samurai is a way too attractive individual for them. And the lengths these blokes went to achieve their goals are worth being described by a novelist. At some point Samurai discontinued any links with them altogether, giving a succinct explanation: «They’ve got me!»

The city’s homosexuals have no decent place to freely meet and socialize. Some time back there was a specialized disco in the «Central» hotel (it was held twice, but proved financially unprofitable and was closed down). This was the second disco of this kind over the last three years. One can find partners through ads in papers. Another «democratic», if not the most widely used, method of meeting others is hanging out in public bathrooms, parks, bath-houses, etc.

A certain, quite negligible part of gays, gather in the vicinity of public bathrooms or even inside. There are those who fancy spending a lot of time on the WC waiting for a suitable sexual partner, most often assessed by the size of his genitals. There are also champions – a certain Refuse-bin, aka Queen Margo, set up records of sitting there for 6 to 8 hours, and the number of copulations is probably cannot be counted. Bathrooms haunters are far from harmless community of depraved people, especially for the beginners who still lack the correct understanding about all the variety of characters and relationships – usually of a quite dirty nature – in such places.

The most striking example of that is the man called Hose. He served his term about twenty years back for forcefully making (resorting to blackmail and threats) a minor co-habit with him. Criminal ways have persisted till now, if have morphed under the influence of the current, market economy conditions. Of special interest to Hose are novices. The reason is simple – he gets paid for each boy put in a certain bed at a certain moment, or, he is granted some other services, like having his restaurant bill footed, and the stuff. A victim does not suspect that a night with him is paid and that he actually is «working» rather than loving from the depth of his heart.

By and large, the relationships within this «bathroom community» range from bets – for a bottle of cheap wine – as to who will be able to seduce a certain novice, to bare faced prostitution. Among clients there are even a few «God’s servants», not to mention plain officials. In the according manner, in the spirit of the hideous system of values based on the prostitution cult, beginners – who get in contact with this refuse as a result of fate’s will - get subjected to moral and psychological influence.

In its majority this society’s basic features are moral monstrosity, wicked and vulgar manners, often the lack of even the lowest level of education, and the attitude to other people and each other that is far from being human.

And how do the rest of Zaporozhie gays live? What is so peculiar about their lifestyle? The answer is trivially simple: nothing special, they live just like everybody else. There everything is present – love (even suicides occur on this ground), same-sex families, friendly companies, though certainly they all do not catch the eye as those 120-150 bathroom habitues.

Companies vary. In keeping with their structure two types can be singled out: those based on common interests and hobbies, i.e. fishing, sports, joint drinking, etc; or on sexual closeness – a team consisting of people who regularly get into intimate contacts with one another and are the aggregate of collectivized sex partners. Such a classification is of a relative nature since a real company can combine both of these principles, and a member of one group can be a member of another one too. They have one feature in common – their predestination: socialization within these groups is meant to make up for the repression the gays are subjected to in the society.

It’s becoming a style in the city to speak of one’s bisexuality – if not homosexual inclinations – or at least about a certain closeness to the gay world. «New Ukrainians» are starting to befriend gays – probably with the view of telling their business partners with according gesticulation: «Why are you ogling, brother, this is my wife’s girlfriend!» Or just so that not to pass for a retrograde. Such a popularity of the gay idea in the capital city can be somehow explained, but to account for its existence in Zaporozhie is quite a tough task.

To this day gays of Zaporozhie have not had a decent organization, which would be able to at least organize an informational activity, let alone cultural, political and legal ones. There was a branch of the Ukrainian «Ganimed» association here, but today this organization is not heard of, and its regional head is out of sight. Maybe he is participating in some summits in power-holding structures, but it is not of the least help to the minorities.