‘The are our hom’: LA gay bars fight to stay afloat after year of shutdown | Los Angel | The Guardian

Contents:

• THE PANMIC IS HURTG GAY AND LBIAN BARS. THE NSEQUENC FOR THE MUNY ULD BE VASTATG
• THE NUMBER OF GAY BARS HAS DWDLED. A NEW GENERATN PLANS TO BRG THEM BACK.
• WHY GAY BARS ARE DISAPPEARG ACROSS AMERI
• GOLD COAST, WEHO’S INIC ‘DIVE BAR,’ IS THE FOURTH GAY BAR TO CLOSE ON SANTA MONI BLVD.
• ‘THE ARE OUR HOM’: LA GAY BARS FIGHT TO STAY AFLOAT AFTER YEAR OF SHUTDOWN
• WHAT DO TOWN’S CLOSG MEAN FOR THE FUTURE OF GAY NIGHTLIFE D.C.?
• 'WE'LL DIE': GAY BARS WORLDWI SCRAMBLE TO AVERT RONAVIS LLAPSE
• THE STUD, SAN FRANCIS'S OLST GAY BAR, IS CLOSG S DOORS DUE TO THE RONAVIS PANMIC
• LTLE JIM’S, THE FIRST GAY BAR IN BOYSTOWN, CLOSG FOR GOOD
• BOYLE HEIGHTS GAY BAR EL PLACE IS CLOSG BUT IT'S NOT THE END FOR THIS PARTY

THE PANMIC IS HURTG GAY AND LBIAN BARS. THE NSEQUENC FOR THE MUNY ULD BE VASTATG

Pike and McDaniel know openg a bar durg a panmic may be risky, but they say they’ve learned one thg om years of visg and workg other queer tablishments: If they want to survive, they first have to build a better and more clive than a barThe gay bar was long the ma, and sometim only, space where queer people uld gather. About 200 of those tered to, like Hershee Bar Norfolk, opened when their stat had laws that prohibed bar owners om employg gay people or creatg gatherg spots for them. She mentored foster children whose parents had kicked them out, and every Thanksgivg, she threw a dner for people whose fai didn’t accept 1987, Norfolk had four or five gay bars, and the number natnwi peaked at more than 1, 700.

Those servg lbians and people of lor were h all gay bar listgs cled by 37 percent between 2007 and 2019, the number of queer bars servg people of lor cled by 59 percent, and bars for lbians cled by 52 percent, Mattson Francis lost the Lexgton Club, and Rubyu Jungle shut s doors New Orleans. “Gay bars were never jt hookup plac, but they were plac to meet other LGBTQ+ people, and now that you n meet them om your bedroom or while you’re wag for the b, that has taken away some of gay bars’ monopoly on beg the place where you fd other LGBTQ+ folks, ” he bars are also no longer the only place some queer people, pecially Whe and cisgenr men, feel safe. Pike did secury for Nellie’s Sports Bar, and McDaniel bartend at APEX, Cobalt and other gay bars before workg alongsi Pike at A League of Her Own (ALOHO) Adams was one of jt 21 lbian bars left the untry when Pike and McDaniel worked there, but durg the early days of the ronavis panmic, the uple cid they wanted to create a new spot, one they owned.

THE NUMBER OF GAY BARS HAS DWDLED. A NEW GENERATN PLANS TO BRG THEM BACK.

As You Are won’t have secury guards; stead, Pike is trag a fleet of “safety managers” — a change Pike hop will attract applints who are ls ncerned wh actg tough and more terted creatg a safe atmosphere for and McDaniel know that some people thk the gay bar era is over, that spac like theirs are no longer need, but people who say that tend to have more privilege, McDaniel said.

“My experience of tryg to fd safe space here the Stat, and parg wh trips back to vis fay Mexi, has probably rmed my fervor for creatg a space where you are able to jt exist regardls of how or where you were born, who you want to love and how you intify, ” Castellanos, the owner of Hershee Bar Norfolk, nsirs herself an “old-school gay girl, ” but she’s rootg for the next generatn of queer bar owners. And Yenia Gaan’s Saturday “Taboo Nights” was billed as the bt mil show downtown Los New Jalis Bar weled people jt as they were — homosexual, transgeneros, s papel, drsed as vaqueros and old enough to feel out of place dancg to hoe mic Wt Hollywood.

WHY GAY BARS ARE DISAPPEARG ACROSS AMERI

’s only queer-foced ffee shop; Rage nightclub Wt Hollywood; San Francis’s olst gay bar, The Stud; Ltle Jim’s, the send-olst gay bar cle of gay bars started well before the panmic, part bee creased acceptance of queer people has lsened the need for bars as plac of refuge. “The irony is that jt as gay bars have bee more clive, they’re startg to go away, ” he owners of Jalis are stgglg to ensure their closure isn’t Rosa Garcia, 53, started as a bartenr there 1992. Many blame datg apps as the digal accs to potential partners obviat the need for -real-life flirtg and, as Stafford not on this week’s episo of the Eater Upsell podst, “People n make any space through the apps a gay bar, a gay club, and you kd of now unrstand that gay people are everywhere.

Also changg gay bars as we know them across the untry: gentrifitn and a prsure to ter to straight dienc and sell them ritur of what pop culture says a gay bar should be. Upsell -host Dan Geneen and I spoke wh Stafford to discs the lnch of an Eater documentary he starred lled Boystown, which he explor the changg hospaly dtry Ameri’s olst gayborhood.

GOLD COAST, WEHO’S INIC ‘DIVE BAR,’ IS THE FOURTH GAY BAR TO CLOSE ON SANTA MONI BLVD.

Part of the change is posive, that gay liftyle and culture is so readily accepted now, so part of the mastream, that the gay muny don’t need rved out spac orr to feel safe, meet one another, or be themselv. “As the thgs change, and the spac bee more sanized, and more people go there jt to explore, and ’s kd of voyristic, you feel that you’re losg that sense of omniprence of gayns that ed to feel like a protectn, ” says Stafford. The only gay bar Arlgton, Tex., has shuttered due to the 1851 Club, which for s operated as a Cheers-style waterg hole for the lol LGBTQ+ muny, announced the sad news to s patrons a January 2021 Facebook post.

Oil Can Harry's has had s last gay untry-wtern bar, which has provid le-dancg and a waterg hole for the LGBTQ+ muny Los Angel's Stud Cy neighborhood for 52 years, was sold December to a new owner who plans to nvert to a venue wh jazz mic, acrdg to owner John a Monday Facebook post, Fagan revealed that the landlord of the buildg, Monty Overstreet, had ma the sale.

The Atlanta Eagle has end s more-than-30-year flight midtown Richard Ramey announced that the gay bar would be vatg s longterm lotn at Ponce De Leon Avenue November 2020. Although no reason was given the post, the popular dive bar was the fourth gay bar after Rage, Flamg Saddl, and Gym Bar to shutter Wt Hollywood durg the COVID-19 panmic, which has forced all Los Angel bars that nnot nvert to rtrants wh outdoor dg to cease Coast was also the third closed WeHo gay bar to have had Monte Overstreet as a landlord.

‘THE ARE OUR HOM’: LA GAY BARS FIGHT TO STAY AFLOAT AFTER YEAR OF SHUTDOWN

Except for a brief wdow, bars Wt Hollywood had been closed to prevent the spread of the Robert Maghame and Saeed Sattari opened the gay bar on Santa Moni Boulevard 1983, reports Wehoville. Sadly, there will be no more socializg at the Albuquerque Social New Mexi gay club, known to lols as the "SOCH, " operated for nearly four s before shutterg Augt 2020 due to fancial issu tied to bar had first opened as The Heights the 70s before takg on the Albuquerque Social Club name 1983.

Flamg Saddl Wt Hollywood has hung up s Squatriglia and Chris Barngay, owners of the untry-wtern bar, announced Augt 2020 that COVID-19, bed wh a failure to renegotiate the lease wh the landlord durg the panmic, has led to s permanent tablishment, known for shirtls wboys and wgirls who danced on the bartop, opened January 2015 on Santa Moni Boulevard. Ltle Jim's Tavern -- the olst gay bar Boystown, and the send olst Chigo -- closed s doors July 2020 orr to open a satelle lotn for Howard Brown Health, an LGBTQ+ clic.

WHAT DO TOWN’S CLOSG MEAN FOR THE FUTURE OF GAY NIGHTLIFE D.C.?

The Stud, San Francis's olst gay bar, shuttered s lotn of 33 years rponse to the health opened 1966 around the cy's burgeong leather muny by founrs Gee Mason and trans bs owner Alexis Muir, who was mored to be the spiratn of Anna Madrigal Tal of the Cy, the Stud grew to an LGBTQ+ stutn and safe hosted many drag and muny events over the s. The only gay bar on Barracks Row, a mercial strip near the Navy Yard, Orchid was known for s Prohibn-era style, a 40-foot marble bar, and an upsle menu that clud avodo gazpacho, seared sea sllops, and magnums of rose. It also featured a cktail named for Hay and others named for one of his lovers, fashn signer Rudi Gernreich, and Pershg Square, once a gay cisg an terview wh The Advote, owner Garrett McKechnie said gay bars were still relevant.

'WE'LL DIE': GAY BARS WORLDWI SCRAMBLE TO AVERT RONAVIS LLAPSE

A sad story is nnected wh the bar; a manager, Sean Verdi, died sudnly at age 23 2014, possibly of a dg overdose, a Central Park South apartment belongg to Ian Reisner of Out NYC hotel fame (and known more recently for hostg a receptn for antigay printial ndidate Ted Cz).

Jewel Thais-Williams bted through the male-domated, mostly-racist gay club culture of the early 1970s by openg Jewel's Catch One, a dis loted a stgglg neighborhood near downtown L. It actually occupied the same spot as Black Cat, a gay bar that was the se of protts and ristance 1967 followg a jarrg police raid (the cint was the impet for The Advote g to existence). When Rawhi closed due to a rent crease 2013, after 33 years bs, the Chelsea spot was mourned as "one of the last of a handful of old-school, unpretent gay bars" the cy, as a blog lled Jeremiah's Vanishg New York put .

THE STUD, SAN FRANCIS'S OLST GAY BAR, IS CLOSG S DOORS DUE TO THE RONAVIS PANMIC

Most gay New Yorkers n claim at least one dnken night here -- there was an open bar if you got there early enough -- and some n even say they say Madonna or Beyonce perform there. Dpe s proximy to Dupont Circle, a rzy District gayborhood, Apex was a notor dive; patron Charlie Leveridge wr, "I remember drivg past s cr block, wdowls fa high school and wantg so badly to venture si....

Perhaps bee of this fact, Hung Jury remas a spot of pri for lbians, some of whom feel that such excln was jt serts for gay men who regularly exclu women om their nightlife venu. As had been ced as one of the bt gay bars Miami, Mova's closure me as a surprise -- fact, the Brickell property was bought out om unr the owner, Babak Movahedi, who then cid to sell the other lotn and start h somewhere else. Solare jected the Miami gay scene wh fierce drag and hot dancg, not to mentn "one of the bt queen-stttg stage shows" around -- that is, until 2008, when closed s doors for good.

LTLE JIM’S, THE FIRST GAY BAR IN BOYSTOWN, CLOSG FOR GOOD

Others say the mastream acceptance of LGBTQ+ people has ma queer spac iends meet for drks at The Bh BhwickLaila Annmarie Stevens for GothamistThe closure of Mattson’s favore gay bar Cleveland 2013 prompted him to vis more than 250 LGBTQ+ venu natnwi search of answers to the qutn posed by the tle of his new book: “Who Needs Gay Bars? And bars terg to lbians and people of lor, and those centerg on certa kks, have closed at a faster rate than bars for gay of early 2021, only three wily known lbian bars were open New York Cy: Henrietta Hudson, Cubbyhole and Gger's Bar.

The event triggered the start of the gay liberatn the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall uprisg 2009, New York Cy officials promoted the cy as an LGBTQ+ tourist statn.

In 1966, three years before the Stonewall uprisg, three young men 1966 went to have a drk at Juli’ and changed ’, a two-mute walk away om Stonewall, is one of the olst ntuoly n gay bars New York of New York Landmarks Prervatn CommissnThe men were members of the untry’s earlit gay rights group, the Mattache Society.

BOYLE HEIGHTS GAY BAR EL PLACE IS CLOSG BUT IT'S NOT THE END FOR THIS PARTY

Giekg says rints and tourists alike want to vis plac like Stonewall and Juli’ bee they want to be a part of that history – to “experience what means to be gay, ” he said. Photographer Pl Hamel and Gold Coast owner Bob Hastgs at the Red Drs Red Drs Party has been held at Gold Coast every July for sce then, which some of s proceeds gog to a gay-related chary. Meanwhile, the area’s skyle has transformed almost beyond regnn, wh tower upon tower of luxury newbuild this Saturday Vxhall is a time for celebratn: ’s the openg of Bloc South, the first gay club this part of town to open for years.