  I went to my first 'moot' today (a moot is just a cool pagan way of describing a gathering of people). It was in a Gay pub in London called The Kings Arms just around the corner from Oxford Street Tube. I found out about the moot as a result of joining a Yahoo Group earlier this week - Gay Pagans UK. I was initially just looking for pagan groups, it just so happened that the only decent one I could find was a gay one (more on this later), so I joined up, said hello, and almost immediately got invited to the moot.
I was with my friend Caroline. At first we didn't know if we were going to attend the moot or not, we just knew we were going to enjoy a night up town. Starting in Greenwich, we walked down to the market and Cutty Sark via the park, stopped off for a quick beer, then decided what to do next... As I'd been invited to the moot, and we didn't have anything better to do, we decided that it should be our next destination. Next stop, The Kings Arms (via an hour wasted waiting for a friend in the city, but never mind).
Now I've never been in a gay pub before, and let me tell you, it was an interesting experience. As I'm sure you can imagine, it was full of men. Lots of big men in fact, many with piercing and tattoos, some with shaven heads, some with bleached blond hair, etc... As I walked in with Caroline I felt like every eye in the room was on us, but not in a threatening way (at least I hope not).
Something else which I noticed about the pub was that it was full of safe sex literature, on the walls, in the form of leaflets, everywhere... Why can't other pubs help to promote safe sex this much? The pagan group was upstairs, so up I went, over to a group of people in the corner, and proudly announced 'Hi, I'm Daniel' (which I'm very proud of, being the shy person I am). It was a bit awkward for the first minute or so, but the leader of the group introduced himself and a few of the others, and despite my shyness, I was talking with a few of them towards the end of the evening. I don't know how long we were there for, maybe an hour and half (if that), but it was long enough to say hi, put some faces to names (even though I failed in that regard, thanks to my weird and forgetful brain), and get used to the idea of meeting other pagans (which is nice). After this we stopped off at a nice little cafe, had some dinner, then found our way home. A very good night all in all. Now about the whole 'gay' thing. Like I said before, my primary reason for joining the group was that it was the only good pagan group available on Yahoo. All the others had a lack of members, or were just not local to me (what's the point in joining one based in Ireland after all?).
However the fact it was gay is also a bit of a blessing... I've recently decided to formally change my status, relating to my sexuality, from straight to 'bi-curious'. What does this mean? Well initially, maybe nothing. All it means is that I'm going to keep an open mind when it comes to relationships, and may very well end up dating guys as well as girls. This is something that I've been thinking about for a long time, so it's not by any means something new or something that I'm rushing into. It's also NOT a case of doing this because I've started to fancy men, the truth is - I don't.. not yet anyway, but I'm not opposed to dating a guy, and indeed, it is something that I would like to experience. I don't quite know my next step from here, I'm just going to take it one day at a time and see what happens... PS, thank you very much to each and everyone of my friends that I've told about my sexuality, that have been fine with it.. I'm still the same guy that I ever was, and I'm glad that you recognise this.. I've not yet told my parents.. not because I'm worried about their reaction (I know they will be cool with it), but just because it's none of their business&#8230; although they could easily find out just by realising this blog, so lets see what happens. 
