All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay Washington, D.C.

Yes, it’s another biography/memoir…the same as yesterday but different. Today we’re “peeking” into the life of a former gay nightclub stripper.

I can honestly admit, politicos aside, Washington, D.C. is one of my favorite cities. I spent 2.5 years of my early adult life stationed very near there with the Army. I visited the city as often as I could on my meager lower enlisted military paycheck. Now back in the day, I thought I was “straight” and I was definitely military so I never saw nor did I really hear about the seamy side of our nations capitol. I did all of the tourist stuff…saw everything I could. When you make what an E-4 made in the mid 1980s, free was a good thing and most everything there for “tourists” was FREE.

I took my son, my ex and her daughter there. It was awesome to show the monuments and such to my son and it was a good sort of closure for my ex whose father’s name is etched upon the wall that is the Vietnam Memorial. It’s probably the last meaningful thing that we did even though our relationship would last another year after the trip. If it weren’t for my son, I don’t think I’d harbor much memory of that trip.

When D.C. made same sex marriage legal, it solved a huge logistical dilemma for my wife and I. We were married there in late 2010. I couldn’t wait to show her some of the city I knew and loved. Unfortunately, we were under time constraints and we only just scratched  the surface. Maybe another time. And, maybe that time, we’ll see some of the other side of life in D.C., the gay side.

The gay side of D.C. is the side that author, photographer and former stripper Craig Seymour gets. He was born there and considers himself a native – though it would seem he currently lives in Chicago. During his time at the University of Maryland as a graduate student, Seymour stripped in the gay clubs of D.C. for money, for confidence, and for research. His Master’s Thesis was titled:  ”Desire and Dollar Bills: An Ethnography of a Gay Male Striptease Club.” It would seem that he also paid for Ph.D. in American Studies by stripping in gay clubs as well.

In 2009, Seymour took his memories and his research and combined them into a best selling book, All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay Washington, D.C..

The Amazon synopsis bares it all:

Now in paperback, the frank, funny, explicit, and inspiring memoir about how dancing naked in gay clubs in the nation’s capital helped a college professor discover his true self.

All I Could Bare is the story of a mild-mannered graduate student who “took the road less clothed,” a decision that would change his life forever. In the 1990s, when Washington, D.C.’s gay club scene was notoriously no-holds-barred, Craig Seymour embarked on his incredible journey, all the while trying to keep his newfound vocation a secret from his parents and maintain a relationship with his boyfriend, Seth. Along the way he met some unforgettable characters: the fifty-year-old divorced man who’s obsessed with a twenty-one-year-old dancer; the celebrated drag diva who hailed from a small town in rural Virginia; and the many straight guys who were “gay for pay.” Seymour gives readers both the highs (money, adoration, camaraderie) and the lows (an ill-fated attempt at prostitution, a humiliating porn audition). Ultimately coming clean about his secret identity, Seymour breaks through taboos and makes his way from booty-baring stripper to Ph.D.-bearing academic, taking a detour into celebrity journalism and memorably crossing paths with Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, and Mary J. Blige along the way. Hilarious, insightful, and touching, All I Could Bare proves that sometimes the “wrong decision” can lead to the right place.

Just as yesterday’s autobiographical tale of discovering your true sexual identity as a lesbian seeing the atrocities against women in the Middle East was gripping, so too is this book…no pun intended. Yes, there are other “gay stripper” memoirs out there. They aren’t like this book. Craig Seymour’s reasons for stripping were different and his lifestyle was different. Rather than ending as many of these tales do, with an aging stripper turned hooker or porn star who either is dying of AIDS or who has changed his ways, Craig’s ends with a Ph.D. and a solid career in journalism that would be the envy of many.

You won’t want to put this book down. I promise!