Drug consumption by gay men in a nightclub from Rio de Janeiro, RJ

Abstract

In light of leisure practices, we aim to analyze the meanings of drug consumption by homosexual men in a nightclub in the city of Rio de Janeiro, RJ. We carried out the participant observation process in 36 episodes of electronic parties in a nightclub, between January 2018 and September 2019. We detected that substance use establishes a sense of social belonging among the subjects, functioning as a cohesive and ceremonial support network. We conclude that, for those interlocutors, drugs take on different meanings for a collective “good living,” in which the drug symbolizes the union and socio-emotional support that connects homosexual consumers in a plural space to diversities, at first without moral judgments. The consumption of drugs at each party strengthened group cohesion, in addition to reflecting feelings of fraternity, companionship, and brotherhood, building and feeding back a kind of “therapeutic group” linked to this experience of leisure, a practice activated to “endure and survive” the social demands, sometimes prejudiced and discriminatory.