The time I visited a XXX movie theater in Philly

April 22, 2015
Day 357

My friends thought it was all very funny, but my take was quite different.  Looking back on that night, I'd call it sad and scary, but in my mid-20s brain, still very new to all things gay, it was an extremely uncomfortable but extremely eye-opening affair.

You entered through the front doors like anywhere else, only nothing about the front of this movie theater indicated there was anything too crazy going on inside.  You had to know something was going on--you wouldn't have just accidentally wandered in from the street.

It was all very dark, but not unlike what a movie theater should be, except this place was...different.  At this place, you'd never find the newest Disney feature film or even the newest Fast & Furious sequel for that matter.  Instead, all they played were triple-X gay porn movies, for the pleasure of their guests.  No, we didn't see anything unseemly, but it was obviously happening.

Still, this wasn't the craziest part.  Oh yes, there's more!

Next, we walked toward a door leading to the basement.  We moved down the stairs very slowly, hearing very little noise coming from what looked like a pitch-black cellar.  We turned a corner, and I saw approximately four dozen men all moving slowly around a large room.  Everyone was clothed, but this was apparently just the outer chamber.  All around the perimeter of the room, in these little chambers the size of changing rooms at the mall, men had paired off to do other things with each other.  No doors on these chambers though, so other men stood outside and watched.

I was shocked, I was sickened, I was pretty scared too, and I just wanted out.  How could people be so unsafe and so open to sharing anything--even just a kiss--with a guy they'd just met?  I really felt so strange being there, and hoped we'd leave soon, but then it happened.

A cute young guy locked eyes with me.  Despite the very dark lighting down there in the basement, I saw he was about my age and very attractive.  I saw he wanted me, wanted us to find a changing room of our own to disappear to.  And I thought about it.  I have to admit, I thought about it.

I moved on though, and my friends and I soon left, but in just those few seconds down there, I learned how easy it was to meet someone and do something like that on a Saturday night, even if it meant having five men watching you from the doorway.