Gay Play

But while he may always have been open socially, Charles hasn't always been the belle of the ball. "For most of my life," he says, "I was overweight. At age 30, I weighed 300 pounds…and I'd only come out as being gay three years before that." He disappeared from the nightlife scene and immersed himself in aerobics, getting down to a low of 181 pounds and eventually having surgery to tighten his skin. In the mid-'90s, he won a couple of national aerobics awards. "When you're very overweight," he says, "you don't get attention other than 'He's fat.' It makes it harder to establish relationships that could turn into love." That may be the reason Charles hasn't had a boyfriend for several years -- he still hasn't forgotten being dismissed. "I'm the same person," he says. "The package is all that's changed."

Well, maybe not all that's changed. After all, Charles has gone from professional financial manager to professional partyer. Tonight at Meteor, he keeps slipping away, wandering to the other side of the bar to chat with some DJs he knows or to tease the bartender, who's wearing an Afro wig. After a while, his circle breaks up. Several Spoiled Boyz are headed over to JR.'s, and Charles plans to meet up with them. Maybe when he gets there, he'll run into Kara having her Jäger. The two know each other, of course.