The Death of the Gay Bar - Boston Review

Contents:

• LAW STUNT'S FAY SAYS HE WENT MISSG AFTER VISG NYC GAY BAR
• WHY GAY BARS ARE DISAPPEARG ACROSS AMERI
• THE GAY MEN FREQUENTED MANHATTAN PIANO BARS. SO DID THEIR KILLER.
• THE CASE OF AMERI’S DISAPPEARG GAY BARS
• AN INPLETE COMPILATN OF THE GAY BARS AT HAS LOVED AND LOST
• THE DEATH OF THE GAY BAR
• GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI
• YOU COULD BE A GAY BAR RIGHT NOW AND NOT EVEN KNOW IT

LAW STUNT'S FAY SAYS HE WENT MISSG AFTER VISG NYC GAY BAR

A New York Cy law stunt has been missg for nearly two weeks, and his brother said his last known lotn was a gay bar Manhattan’s Hell’s Kchen neighborhood.

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.

WHY GAY BARS ARE DISAPPEARG ACROSS AMERI

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.

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.

THE GAY MEN FREQUENTED MANHATTAN PIANO BARS. SO DID THEIR KILLER.

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. BT2, a gay bar North At, had to permanently close s doors after beg impacted by the COVID-19 panmic, acrdg to an update on s Facebook page.

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. As a club, cisey MJ's was a happy medium between Silver Lake's other gay bars -- the rough-and-tumble Eagle and the PG-rated, hipster-iendly Akbar.

THE CASE OF AMERI’S DISAPPEARG GAY BARS

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 closed 2013, a ntributor to SFist lamented, "We don't want to live a world wh no Marlena's, Hay Valley's sgle greatt bar, gay or otherwise. 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 .

AN INPLETE COMPILATN OF THE GAY BARS AT HAS LOVED AND LOST

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. Openg unr the name Badlands 1983, this club fally and abptly fold 2011, cg enomic difficulti, thereby endg the reign of the longt-nng gay dance club D.

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....

A historic rriage hoe turned gay bar, this buildg was sold at for undisclosed sum 2013 and has sce been nverted to an Asian rtrant, a bagel store, and a hair salon.

THE DEATH OF THE GAY BAR

Hung Jury was proud to be a space for women, often to the excln of men; one gay patron remembers feelg unwele and spurned by the female clientele.

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. At s closg, owner Lda Rodgers, explaed why lbian bars had more trouble stayg afloat than their gay unterparts: "Men have more expendable e -- that's a fact.

GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI

Image the chagr of Miami's gay muny when, after seven years of outstandg club culture, Mova Lounge closed both s Brickell and South Beach lotns 2014. 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. New York's Lost Gay BarsWe've known for many years that too many of our cherished gay bars and clubs are shutterg, fallg victim to risg rents and the ubiquy of apps like Grdr and Scff. A nfluence of factors ntribute to the rapid disappearance of gay bars and queer spac across Ameri, acrdg to Zach Stafford, edor--chief of Grdr’s magaze INTO.

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.

YOU COULD BE A GAY BAR RIGHT NOW AND NOT EVEN KNOW IT

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.

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. And there’s somethg to be said for the fact that straight bar and rtrant goers are so attracted by aspects of the gay liftyle that the drag clubs have bee statns.