Exit in the 80s . reading the article on the Exit and it’s anniversary reminded me of how important the ” Exit classifieds “were in those days.

I was living in Johannesubrg and decided that I wanted a boy friend and l realisied that not all people were “bar or club flys!” So I placed an ad using all the abbrevations ( bf wltm sa/sl etc) to save money (!) sent the ad off with my cheque and waited for the edition to appear ! Checked it out and then waited what seems like ages… to get the replies. You have to remember that it was snail mail in those days and Boy was it slow !

I did receive a nice lot of replies over the month or so and it was great to go to the Post Box and I so got excited when I saw a hand written envelope !

The gay youngsters of today actually do not realise how difficult it was in those days – NO MAMBA NO gaydar and dare I say NO PERSONAL COMPUTERS ! God am I that old ? Believe me I am only 51

Thnaks to all the editors of Exit and to the likes of the guys at Mambaonline who make it easy and much quicker to communicate with ease and PRIVACY. Please respect that guys and the effort by all who have made gay dating easier AND SAFER !!

No doubt there still exists a section of our community that longs for anonymity or a source of information about where to go etc., but apart from the HIV section, I find myself wondering more and more what relevance it still has.

I remember once writing a letter to the Exit complaining about certain gay facilities and how the gay community just didn’t seem to care (we were just to pleased to HAVE sex friendly venues). I received a reply from the editor saying that while he would like to publish my letter, he wanted to omit the names of the establishments I had cited as examples, because he relied on their advertising..
Does this fear of offending our gay advertisers still exist I wonder?

I acknowledge unreservedly that there are different strokes for different folks, but I long for an article or editor’s page where the gay community can examine or even debate aspects of our lifestyle, openly.

For instance, is there a place in the Exit for articles about barebacking, chem friendly sex, filthy or smoky clubs etc?
Is there a place for a forum where gay people who are not clones, can express their views about gay society, without “offending” the gay establishments and their adherents?

Just wondering..

I wrote for a gay and lesbian life style magazine, and within 3 months it wrapped up… because of lack of advertising etc…

So i respect the fact that you, your team and the paper has survived.

And i thank all who keep on buying it, you are supporting the praiseworthy pink ink paper…

Keep it up for another 21 years…