Hey! I’m a guy in early 20s and gonna be living in DC in the month of November. I come from a very conservative background and lived in a very close-minded community my entire life.

However, I have been very curious about my sexuality. I’ve heard DC is very open when it comes to sexual orientation and I’m interested to try out my bi-curious side when I’m there. Im gonna be away from home and have the freedom to be on my own so of course I’d like to take advantage of it to explore my identity. But I do have a few questions:

Q: What is the best way to try something with guys in DC in a safe way? I tried downloading the apps like grinder in my hometown but mostly everyone there is very experienced or advanced already, and I prefer to experiment with someone who is ideally as new as me. I would like to be a receiving-partner, which they call as a “bottom” and apparently it’s better to try with someone who has a lot of patience, which doesn’t seem to be the crowd on the apps. So is it better to go to bars or nightclubs? Which ones? idk… what do you recommend?

Q: I prioritize safety very highly and have been researching on ways to engage in same-sex activity safely. One of the things I found was being on PrEP. Is that common in DC? If so, is there a place where I can access it in an affordable way? Anything else you recommend? Anything to be wary of?

Anything else you’d recommend?