The realities you only understand as a gay man in Sheffield

According to Stonewall statistics, five to seven per cent of individuals in Sheffield identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. That’s between 27,635 to 38,689 people. And what does Sheffield provide for this thriving gay community? Well…not very much.

Nightlife

If you’re hoping for a bustling scene like Soho or Manchester’s Gay Village, you might in for some disappointment. Sheffield’s gay scene is far from flourishing.

Firstly, there’s Climax, the University of Sheffield’s SU event boasting the title of ‘Yorkshire’s Biggest LGBT Clubbing Experience’ (yikes). This event welcomes all kinds of clubbers, but only takes place once a month. When you arrive, you’ll be greeted by recycled Poptarts anthems and have condoms thrown at you from the stage, which is delightful.

In a swamp of fag-hags looking to lure in new GBFs, you’ll be lucky to find any homosexual that isn’t either completely overwhelmed by the experience or desperately clinging to their straight friends.

Secondly, there’s the infamous Dempsey’s. Dempsey’s declares itself ‘Sheffield’s No.1 Gay Venue’ (sound familiar?) and is somewhat the Marmite of Sheffield nights out. Either you can’t get enough of the multi-level chaos of karaoke and table-dancing, or you’re rather wary of the party-goers trying to touch your crotch.

Thirdly, there’s the recently-opened OMG on West Street. OMG is a chain of gay bars which brands itself as ‘the most euphoric Gay Venue in the UK’. Let me tell you, there’s nothing euphoric about paying entry for a bleak dance floor with pricey drinks.

Dating

Despite the popular belief that gay people do nothing but get drunk and dance ‘til dawn, there is another side to being gay that is rarely talked about: dating. As straight people know, dating in the 21^st century has been made as easy as swiping right thanks to Tinder and other online dating apps.

Gay Tinder is abysmal, so I’m just gonna skip straight to Grindr; a gay dating app which was released in 2009, 3 years prior to Tinder.

Grindr is a mysterious and dark-sided enigma to those who have never used it, and there are many misconceptions surrounding this strange gay hook-up app. Is it just used for sex? No. Do people actually date on Grindr? Sure. Will you find Prince Charming? Absolutely not.

You’ll download Grindr during your first year, after you realise Sheffield’s gay scene is virtually non-existent. You’ll have a browse, see what’s about, and get chatting to a few guys. You may even meet up, have a drink, watch Netflix, or go for a more NSA approach. But it’s a scary world out there. Older men prey on students like cougars. If you’re into that, that’s fine. But if they’re not asking you to dress up in your Corp uniform during sex and call them ‘daddy’, they’re wondering if your used underwear is for sale (charge them no less than £50, we’re students for god’s sake).

I’m poor but I’m not that poor.

After a few months, maybe a year, you’ll have talked to every gay man in Sheffield. You’ll quickly realise that fuckboys aren’t exclusive to the straight community, when they don’t reply to your messages until they’re masturbating at 2AM and demanding nudes. You’ll get bored of the same ones popping up with the usual ‘Hey’ followed with an unsolicited dick-pic, and think ‘What did I do to deserve this?’. You don’t deserve this. Delete that app and begin your cleanse.

So what does Sheffield have to offer for its gay community? Right now, not a great deal. But I’m sure that one day, the Steel City will open its arms to LGBT.

In the meantime, I would recommend visiting some of the more forward cities, like London, Manchester, Liverpool, or Newcastle. Come back in a decade or two, and Sheffield will be waiting for you, waving a rainbow-coloured flag over the newly renovated Hallam Towers.