| It's
close to midnight on a steamy July Sunday
and the crowd is starting to trickle in
to Miami's premier swinger's club, Miami
Velvet. Couples park off the onramp to the
Palmetto Expressway on the northwest side
of Miami International Airport and make
their way to the entrance. With a flash
of their membership cards they pass through
the velvet ropes and check in their bring-your-own
liquor at the bar. Once inside, they will
slowly release the inhibitions of the outside
world. Soon they'll be stuffing their street
clothes into rented lockers and roaming
the rooms of the club wrapped in unbelievably
white bath towels.
Early on, single men
stroll fully clothed between the bar and
the free buffet. In the lounge, a woman
with Bo Derek braids sways on a brass pole
to the much-obliged gaze of her boyfriend.
The bar, the empty dance floor, the cordoned
sections where a few adventurers watch and
wait, are starting to come to life. In the
billiard room, a G-rated game of eight-ball
generates cheers and laughter from two boy-girl
couples. Above the game, a DVD loops what
seems like the same half dozen straight
sex scenes throughout the night.
Esteban commands the
pool table with an energetic hipster attitude.
He is dressed in the baggy accoutrements
of the Latino hip-hop generation; an oversized
football jersey, a tilted homeboy cap, dangling
gold necklaces and a cell phone he eagerly
whips out to show sexy pictures of his girlfriend.
"She doesn't know
I'm here," the young Colombian charmingly
smiles. "She'd freak out if she knew
this was my scene."
The scene he refers
to at Miami Velvet on Sunday nights is called
Bi-Night, an evening where bisexual men
and women get to meet and play in an environment
free of the skepticism and misinterpretations
of both the hetero set and gay male scene.
Unlike other bi-nights
that hit a fever pitch in South Florida
nightclubs during the heady days of Ellen
& Anne and Lilith Fair, Miami Velvet's
Sunday soirée is conspicuously devoid
of the hoards of college coeds making out
and dancing topless for their boyfriends.
The attendance instead reflects Miami Velvet's
bi-night logo; a girly set of pink lingerie
flanked by two rugged (and well-filled)
boxer briefs. The crowd is mostly male and
Latino, and while the men may not be kissing
and booty dancing openly on the dance floor,
they pass each other with loaded glances.
They might flirt with the women, but they
simultaneously leave ample room for the
girls' male companions to flirt right back
and play.
For a club like Miami
Velvet, where couples cavort in private
and not-so-private play areas, hosting a
night for bisexuals is nothing short of
extraordinary. Prior to this year, the club
catered only to |
 |
heterosexual
swingers and bisexual women. Boasting its
claim of being the nation's largest swingers'
club, Miami Velvet has become a magnet of
sorts that draws adventurous couples who
visit from out of town.
When the club introduced
its bi-night this year, response was slow.
Oftentimes the scene was pithy and full
of straight singles or couples who happened
to arrive at the club on the wrong night.
But slowly word began spreading in the various
chatrooms, bisexual networks and Web sites.
Anonymous postings on Craigslist's gay male
personals were soon encouraging men to check
out the scene.
"Get there after
11," one message advised.
The result on this particular
Sunday is a male-dominated throng of sexual
adventurers. Advances are made with the
most gracious of manners. There seems to
be no pressuring, or desperate groping.
Men are seen lining up along a gallery window
that looks into an orgy room. They gaze
in at the action on the other side of the
glass and then at one another. One man is
heard asking another man who leaves the
jacuzzi with his girlfriend "Do you
mind if I join you when you go to a room?"
"Everbody's cool
here," Esteban remarks. "I've
never seen a girl take off crying or some
guys ganging up on people. Some people here
are really really cool."
Esteban runs into the
young couple he played pool with just outside
the jacuzzi room as a group of men are gathering
their towels around their waists in an adjacent
alcove. From the rumpled sheets of the boudoir,
it's clear a scene has just broken up. Undisturbed,
Esteban welcomes the young couple like a
tour guide, but with extra bravado.
"I was just with this lady," he
nods toward the alcove. "Get a look
around, it's a trip."
In an effort to get
to know the couple Esteban reveals that
he's a student at Miami-Dade College studying
engineering, he drives a BMW and he's always
horny. The trio have a drink at the bar,
and Esteban explains that he frequents the
club about four times a month. However,
he prefers bi-nights for the adventure.
"It gets packed
sometimes," he says. "And I like
to go with couples and play with both of
them."
He admits he is attracted
primarily to women, but enjoys being with
men at the same time. He doesn't consider
himself straight, nor gay, nor even bisexual.
"I get into people,"
Esteban says. "All kinds of people."
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