Before the Internet: Ayala Triangle

I’m always interested to hear how things were like for the hidden PLU community before the advent of widespread Internet. For sure, finding like-minded guys was a helluva lot harder then than it is in this day and age. Now we have plenty of online venues such as social networking sites, Internet relay chat (or IRC), and even blogs like Discreet Manila to provide us with tons of connections and information. Well, I’ve seen a documentary last year which showed how the gay community was in the United States in the 1970s, but I also want to see how things went here in the Philippines.

Before the Internet, I imagine that discreet cruising skills like the look or even silly ones like the leaving-your-card trick are one’s best assets for meeting other guys. From there, you get to build your set of gay PLU friends and you are then able to obtain news, and information on cruising spots and gay-friendly places from your network.




Anyway, thanks to this really enlightening (and old) blog post by the Corporate Closet, I had learned that one (surprising!) cruising spot back in the 1980s was Ayala Triangle in Makati. Who knew? Back then it was called Ugarte Field and that’s where you could meet upscale yuppies for quick sex or even just companionship. I guess it’s inevitable that gay guys would flock to dark parks in the same we gravitate to comfort rooms.

So, for the older guys out there, got any nostalgic stories to share, like CC?





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