Licht Café, D.C.’s Newt Gay Bar, Is a Cozy, Art-Filled U Street Hiaway  - Eater DC

Contents:

• TOWN, DC’S LARGT GAY BAR, IS CLOSG. WHAT DO  MEAN?
• GAY BARS, RIP
• D.C.’S BIGGT GAY NIGHTCLUB IS SET TO CLOSE, BUT A NEW ITERATN MAY REPLACE IT
• D.C. GAY NIGHTCLUB COBALT CLOS WH LTLE WARNG
• LICHT CAFé, D.C.’S NEWT GAY BAR, IS A COZY, ART-FILLED U STREET HIAWAY
• TOP 10 BT GAY BARS NEAR WASHGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
• DC’S GAYBORHOODS ARE DISAPPEARG. HOW SHOULD WE FEEL ABOUT THAT?
• THE GAY WAY: HISTORY OF LBIAN BARS SOUTHEAST WASHGTON, D.C.

TOWN, DC’S LARGT GAY BAR, IS CLOSG. WHAT DO  MEAN?

RIP Gay BarsCi around the untry and globe have seen many of their most beloved gay and lbian waterg hol close down — often after the area's queer populatn dispers or the owner simply gets priced out. Town, the massive gay dance club Shaw, announced last week that will close next summer after mors to the ntrary. I me out twelve years ago, and like many queer kids DC, I sought out gay bars as a refuge.

Yet many of the plac I equented are gone: Phase 1 Barracks Row, Apex Dupont Circle, Ins Fairfax (which wasn’t a gay bar, but hosted a lot of drag shows), not to mentn all of the LGBT clubs Navy Yard that closed to make way for Natnals Park over a ago. When Town opened 2007, the sleek, warehoe-style club seemed out of place at 8th and Florida, far om DC’s tradnal “gayborhood” on 17th Street.

But did lead the gay muny’s shift further east towards Shaw, herg a new generatn of bars, like Dirty Goose, Takoda, and Uproar. Contributors agree that the “gayborhood” isn’t gog anywhere, but won’t look the same the future. Town was the first gay bar I ever vised, but I met my boyiend of the last three years at a (straight) bar.

GAY BARS, RIP

All that said, I hope that the owners of Town follow the lead of DC Eagle and Secrets, which found new hom so they uld ntue to wele both people at a gay bar for their first time and people who experience every week. Obvly sucks to lose a well-loved place but at the same time…I don't thk the actual activy (whether s gay bar or DIY mic shows) is disappearg necsarily though the landspe is certaly changg.

Tracy Loh says ’s no surprise that Town led to other velopment, cg the example of other “gayborhoods. A lot has been wrten before about the role of gay “pneers” jumpstartg growth property valu by crementally vtg real tate and muni.

A muny wh a lot of disvtment but historil charm, gay people are the only on not racist or otherwise prejudiced enough/sperate enough for a place to stake a claim to see the value opportuny and have the risk-tolerance to act on , and so a gayborhood is born.

D.C.’S BIGGT GAY NIGHTCLUB IS SET TO CLOSE, BUT A NEW ITERATN MAY REPLACE IT

Matt Friedman says DC has lost a lot of gay venu, but new on are always takg their place. At the news of the closg of Town, I joked to some iends that “the gayborhood is everywhere now.

Gay bars provid a safe space at a time when was a lot harr to meet other LGBT people.

D.C. GAY NIGHTCLUB COBALT CLOS WH LTLE WARNG

Payton Chung poted out that bs n’t survive on nostalgia alone, quotg Marty Chernoff, then-owner of Tracks, a popular DC gay club the 1980s and 90s.

LICHT CAFé, D.C.’S NEWT GAY BAR, IS A COZY, ART-FILLED U STREET HIAWAY

Natn was my first gay club and I have fond memori of gog there when I was llege. Maybe isn't a dited gay club as much as a uple nights a week at a club but I thk there is still a need of such a space where gays n be gays and there is no judgment (except maybe about someone's outf). DC Eagle – The District’s olst ntuoly operatg gay bar closed after the buildg rented was sold.

TOP 10 BT GAY BARS NEAR WASHGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

You wouldn’t know by the health of the cy’s gay nightlife—the past year alone has seen the shutterg of four gay bars and nightclubs. Remgtons: For nearly 20 years, Remgtons’ large dance floor was filled wh gay upl two-steppg and le dancg while others leaned on the woon railgs to watch the psdo-untry-wtern scene.

Or maybe ’s part of a natnwi trend away om gay-specific spac, now that queers n more eely meet and nnect public, onle, and tradnally straight spac.

Whe, who liv New York, was a -founr of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and of the 1980s queer wrers group The Vlet Quill. “Whether ’s evotive pictn of gay life durg the tumultuo 1980s, pastakgly rearched bgraphy or elegant memoir, Whe’s work stands out across s as s ronance … for a multu of voted rears.

DC’S GAYBORHOODS ARE DISAPPEARG. HOW SHOULD WE FEEL ABOUT THAT?

) Whe has been lled the “godfather of gay Amerin lerature, ” Prceton Alumni Weekly has reported.

“I’m workg now on a sex memoir about the lov of my life, ” Whe, who 1977 -wrote wh Charl Silverste, “The Joy of Gay Sex, ” said. In that era, “the three most heo thgs Ameri were hero, munism and homosexualy, ” Whe wrote an say. “Or they would try to get passn for gays and prent as sick sad stori, ” Whe said.

The above map and s acpanyg history tell the story of the bars, bookstor, group hom, clics, and church that have played sential rol DC's gay muny for the past half century. Durg the 60s and 70s, as LGBT activism moved more to the public foreont, the number of gay bars grew throughout the District; also emergg this time were Guild Prs, which published gay travel guis, fictn, and a newspaper lled Gay Fom, as well as the Washgton Free Clic, which provid STD unselg to gay men. The growth of gay spac slowed down the 1980s, she says, but at the same time the clud DC's first gural High Heel Drag Queen Race, which has now bee an stutn.

THE GAY WAY: HISTORY OF LBIAN BARS SOUTHEAST WASHGTON, D.C.

The slowed growth ntued the 90s and 2000s, but 's very possible that's bee time has passed, there's been ls of a need for gay people to hi pla sight.

“Wh greater acceptance has me blurrier l to what nstut gay bars and spac, ” wr Kate. “Nowadays bars like Nellie's, one of the few notable gay bars to open sce 2000, are attend by straight people, and many bars whout the tentn of beg a gay bar wele and celebrate their LGBT muny. The data Kate ed to create the map is available through the Rabow History Project, an anizatn dited to llectg, prervg, and promotg gay, lbian, bisexual, and transgenr history DC.