ABSTRACT
There has often been an uneasy relationship between capitalism, gay liberation, and queer spaces. Specifically, commercial LGBT+ spaces have had to pay careful attention to state-sanctioned moral standards to ensure the continued licensing of their premises. Operating beyond and against state-sanctioned moral-economic behaviours, chemsex is often seen as a “destructive force”, one that threatens the perceived safety and normalcy of mainstream gay culture. The result is a binary division between “good gays” and “bad gays”. Projective fantasies and pre-emptive strikes against “bad gays” have shaped public narratives around chemsex, as well as how capitalism commodifies and channels the desires of gay men through the figure of the “Sober Gay Man”. However, chemsex itself can at times share some of the more egregious effects of capitalism. In this chapter, the contradictions and critical affordances of chemsex are explored, drawing from a wide range of theorists and participant interviews. This exploration aims to develop an understanding of how through chemsex and other means there remains the possibility for imagining more collective and anti-capitalist approaches to morality with chemsex.
