After a bit of persuasion, he popped into the Prince of Wales for the monthly social. Shavez, who describes himself as the ‘fresh meat’ of the group, came across GBMCC when he was browsing the gay social media app (‘the orange one’ apparently) and got talking to one of their current members. Being up at 7am on a Sunday morning is different for me, as that the time I would normally be getting home from a night out.” I use the bike to commute and de-stress most days. My friends say I’m slightly bike obsessed at the moment, as I seem to eat, sleep and breath riding. It helps keep me focused. “Now I find being on two wheels is exhilarating.
“I guess I must have had a mid life crisis, as I woke up one morning last summer and decided to bite the bullet and learn to ride. “I’ve always had an interest in bikes, but never thought about getting one seriously,” says 37-year-old Craig Shavez, an IT consultant in South London. And even though many of its members are at an advanced riding ability, many join as complete novices. With its current membership of around 350, the UK-based group are now the biggest gay biking club in Europe. GBMCC began in 1977 as a club for gay men and women bikers. My first event was pride and everyone was very welcoming and friendly so I knew I was into a winner.” I was delighted and after looking into it further I joined straightaway. “I’d been looking for a good biking organisation for a while and then found GBMCC through a couple of mates. “I’ve ridden before with straight guys and it can be a different atmosphere,” says Townsend.
Though he enjoyed these trips, it wasn’t until he realised that he wanted somewhere that he could truly fit in that he discovered the Gay Bikers Motorcycle Club (GBMCC). While most of this was functional riding around London and along motorways, he’s also had experience riding for pleasure in large groups. Townsend has been whizzing around since he was 17 (over 30 years), with his current bike of choice a Triumph Tiger. “Plus let’s face it, there’s just something sexy about a bike, and they can give you massive grins. “I’ve always loved it there’s just something freeing and joyous about you and a good well-matched motorbike,” says Chris Townsend, a 48-year-old from South London. There’s nothing more liberating than two wheels, the roar of an engine and that old whiskey-stained, Lana Del Rey-lauded cliché: the open road. Our books should reflect that multiplicity.So it’s no surprise that some of us have thrown cars and commitments to the winds, and taken up biking for ourselves. These works (which include books that are already on the shelves and others you can look forward to reading later in the year), reveal that as much as we share certain things in common, our narratives-our selves-are various. There's poetry, history, true crime, time travel, and a slew of dynamite short story collections. McQuiston's new novel, One Last Stop, is 1 of 45 on this list of the best LGBTQ books of 2021, illuminating the vast and multi-hued world of the queer experience. We read queer books in large part because there is deep profundity in finding out we're not alone, and yet there is a singularity to our stories, to the stories of others. It is a wholly subjective experience, something that lives inside all of us, which is why LGBTQ literature is so dynamic and vast. It means different things to different people. Queerness isn't a solid state, an easy description for sexuality or identity. It unfolds like a first language every time I open my mouth." It is inside all of my thought processes, it moves my hips when I walk, it makes me pick at my cuticles. "My queerness is a living animal," Casey McQuiston wrote in an essay for Oprah Daily's Coming Out series, "the same way that I am.