Peter Vetter’s Memories of The Gay Centre

Peter Vetter's first visit to the Gay Centre was a pleasure and a ground breaking event:

"I think Andreas (Demetriou) was doing a couple of dance classes there. There were those 'Greek positions' that one did. There were discos at the centre and the whole place was expanding really quickly. I was feeling terribly shy....I thought everyone else knew what was going on but I didn't. This was the first time I had been around gay people engaged in an activity other than sex which was very nice. I just remember that they were incredibly exciting because I always wanted to be a dancer (laughter). So we were down in this stony, cold basement doing Greek positions and it was all very kind of amateurish and wonderful."

Rebuilding tables and benches to refurbish the Gay Centre after the original eviction and re-squatting gave him a life-long set of skills allowing him eventually to establish a furniture making business that thrives to this day:

"I had not done anything like that before. I think that is when I launched into furniture making. The gay centre launched me on a new career. Yes, I picked up a lot of skills around that time. Because it was squatting.....people were learning a lot of things about make up (cosmetics), electricity, plumbing, sewing, cooking. I learned all those things."

read more of Peter’s Personal Testimonies here

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