Paper short abstract:

Observing interactions between body, desire, drugs in a transnational gay circuit party space marked by intensive sexual multi-partnership and substance use, we focus on local knowledge / agency to outline pharmaceutical and deal expertise, challenging current medicalized sociology of homosexuality.

Paper long abstract:

Grounding on an ongoing ethnography at La Démence (a monthly gay party in Brussels), this paper examines interactions between body, desire and drugs in a transnational (interurban) recreational circuit space marked by intensive sexual multi-partnership and drug use. It shows that they do not merely produce isolated "alternative" subjects, characterized by risk, addiction or mental distress, but tend to create alternative inter-subjective relations in which sex trade is interwoven with multiple transactions and different degrees of utility around substances, bodies, sex, money, health, information, sociability, networks.

Focusing on local knowledge, competence and agency over such transactions also highlights discrepancies with current behavioral trends in scientific literature or in coincident socio-medical debates. The dynamics of gay circuit parties (Brussels, Paris, London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Barcelona), somewhat relying on a pharmaceutical and deal expertise to maximize sexual experiences, can therefore be described to challenge the current medicalized sociology of homosexuality.