Instead, he characterizes the job as self-affirming. “It’s really not that gay,” insists one user from California. In forums like, shredded men talk about their experiences dancing for gay clientele. But you’re forgetting the way the straight man views the gay bar in 2018: as an ideal venue for picking up women. The question is: Why are straight men taking these jobs? Surely, the gay community has the abs to staff a fleet of go-go dancers for every occasion. A web series he created, called Down with David, is also about the trials and tribulations of a totally straight dancer who works in gay bars. “On any given night, I’d say anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of the go-go dancers at the gay bars in L.A. As chronicled in the reality TV show What Happens at the Abbey, Nelson and others are proof that L.A.’s queer nightlife runs on the sex appeal of beautiful men with no interest in other men. Today, he’s part of a large contingent of strippers in gay bars who like women. When gay marriage was proposed, I was like, ‘Yeah, gay people should have the right to be as miserable as the rest of us.’ But if you would’ve told me in high school that I’d grow up to strip for gay guys, I’d have said you were crazy.” Nelson wasn’t super well-acquainted with the LGBT community at the time.
