On the occasion of Useful April, a month dedicated to raising awareness about chemsex, a report from gay cruising spaces that organize “bio-touzes” intended for those seeking group sexuality without the risk of falling into drug addiction.
Illustration : Laurier The Fox pour têtu·
“Here, we get high without drugs.” Against the chemsex phenomenon that has invaded gay sexuality, cruising establishments are now offering group sex sessions guaranteed to be drug-free. Naked and drug-free: these “bio-touzes” are meeting a certain level of success, proof of a real need to rethink a sober sexuality within the community.
At Secteur X, a sex-bar in the Marais district of Paris, men circulate and eye each other in the hope of an anonymous sexual encounter, as in any cruising venue. But on this evening dedicated to the “bio” theme, i.e., drug-free, the atmosphere is very different from what they are used to. First, because there are noticeably more people than usual in these spaces. This hardly surprises Alexis, 31, a regular who “loves the party and the ass” but who notes that it becomes “complicated to find them together” if one does not consume drugs. Here, then, in this event described as “nice, efficient, and no-nonsense,” as he puts it while handing his clothes to the cloakroom.
The luxury of bio sex
Axel, a man in his fifties and the organizer of this initiative, is a devotee of group sex. “I’ve always done it; it’s my baseline sexuality,” proclaims the man whom regulars also nickname “Mister Touze.” But in recent years, notes the connoisseur, it has become increasingly difficult to go all out without rocket emoji—the one used on apps to signal chemsex enthusiasts. So, at the start of the current decade, he decides to take the bull by the horns and organize for himself drug-free evenings. He starts privately, at home, and quickly realizes that the concept meets a need. “Having received a flood of requests, I looked for a solution to meet them,” he recounts.
This will be TouzeBio, launched in 2022 with this message on X (formerly Twitter): “TOUZE 0 CH*MS GIANTE coming: Everyone naked and fucking at all levels”. Axel then receives about a hundred interested responses. “Now I do 250 entries with sometimes up to 300 guys on the waitlist, he says, a demand that continues to climb. “I don’t know if it’s because I’m more visible or because there’s a growing need…” At the bar, Guillaume, 25, with dyed hair and a heart tattooed on his chest, explains that he entered for “discovery”: “In the four years I’ve been sexually active and going to orgies, I’ve only known guys who were high.” Next to him, Mathias, a fifty-something, brown-haired and muscular man, counts on his fingers: it’s his fourteenth time here. Living in Nice, he even schedules his business trips to the capital around the TouzeBio calendar: “A good orgy without drugs is becoming a luxury!”
Pause from chemsex
Others are eagerly awaiting Saturday, when a second monthly edition of TouzeBio takes place at Red Zone, another Paris cruising bar. “On Saturdays, there’s the possibility of reaching another audience, notably a lot of people from the provinces”, explains Axel, who is also pleased with his international clientele: “Some are astonished, notably the Australians, for whom it’s difficult to be naked in a room without everyone being high.” In the basement, indeed, one is perched only on the dicks, in an atmosphere almost vintage of bodies in action in simple wisps of poppers. No men sitting on the floor to scroll frenetically on their phones – they are kept in the cloakroom – while rubbing a sex made soft by the products. “Here, the active guys get hard and the passive ones want to get fucked,” boasts Axel.
In the back, Elia, 29, with a hairy chest and long hair under his black cap, watches the scene calmly. Despite his shyness, he came on the advice of a friend. The young man has already participated in orgies, and sometimes takes things, but faced with the scale of chemsex, he believes these drug-free evenings have become necessary. Nicolas, 45, a transport worker, comes from Poitiers every month for the occasion. He has never consumed drugs. “Every time I end up at a party with drugs, I’m not comfortable”, he explains, speaking of his “fear of falling into it” when he sees these boys injecting behind a door, or offering him “a hit” on their dick while he could be controlled in his work. And then there are the dramatic accidents. “A friend overdosed on G; he’s not here to talk about it anymore”, he sums up briefly, before sweeping away this dark memory to return to a practical aspect: “At least here you enjoy yourself, and you leave with empty balls without coming home late.”
