In ‘Who Needs Gay Bars?,’ Greggor Mattson Explor the Past, Current, and Future of Ameri’s Queer Spac - Eater

Contents:

• THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI
• GAY BARS NEAR ME
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW
• GAY BARS AREN’T DISAPPEARG; THEY’RE CHANGG
• GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI
• HOW TO BEE POPULAR AT A GAY BAR
• FOR THE LOVE OF GAY BARS
• 'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE
• IN ‘GAY BAR,’ TIME-HOPPG SNAPSHOTS OF QUEER NIGHTLIFE
• WHY GAY BARS ARE VAL FOR LGBT COMMUNI
• MOSW GAY MAP
• MOSW GAY BARS
• A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.

THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI

The word “gay” lls to md our special knack for fdg the light the darkns, for buildg the dance floor off to the si of the cel world. Let’s take a look at some of the bt gay bars Ameri, om the open-air, vil-may-re spac Wt Hollywood to the neighborhood pub downtown St. The entrance is through an unmarked shed behd a Chipotle, and featur a blend but unexpected gay/not crowd which same-sex grdg is rigur.

—Alfonso Fernanz NavasCourtyAt: Cheer Up CharliBack when I was a young gay, I saw the olt, most betiful woman the world at Cheer Up Charli. When the bar fally reopened Sprg 2022, an entire borough’s worth of gays celebrated by floodg the new back pat all summer and Gger’s has been crowd wh queers ever sce.

GAY BARS NEAR ME

It began s life as a beer-and-we offshoot of the Metropolan Health Club, a gym that opened 1983 to serve the gay ctomers who’d been bullied out of other lol clubs at the height of AIDS hysteria. It gave the boys a place to gather the ‘80s, the first outpost that helped tablish the South End as the Boston gayborhood. While other gay bars of the time were basements or board up, Club Cafe faced by Columb Avenue wh floor to ceilg wdows.

While you won’t fd any Pri flags at Farraguts, you will undoubtedly hear Cele Dn and Melissa Etheri blarg om the bar’s dty, old jebox and, hontly, isn’t that jt as gay?

THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

CourtyDallas: Round-Up SaloonEqual parts wboy boots and dis ball, Round Up Saloon opened 42 years ago Dallas as a gay untry wtern dance hall. Thanks to Perez-Gallardo and their team, gay people who love the outdoors (most lbians) now have a iendly place to unwd after a hike.

GAY BARS AREN’T DISAPPEARG; THEY’RE CHANGG

Billed as Wt Virgia's olst gay bar, the venue regularly brgs some of the biggt queer performg artists the game right now.

Live out your Brokeback Mounta fantasi at this verno club, where wboy stum are not nsired drag, and le dancg is not an explic exprsn of homophobia. A gay gatherg spot sce 1939, and gay bar sce 1963, and the Bar Complex sce the 80s, s unassumg exterr beli a triple-threat treat of lounge, performance space, and a mirrored dance club reportedly moled after Stud 54. ) The glorly lively bar and rtrant scene is enhanced by a black box theater downstairs, where farcil plays, lbian standup, and gay dance troup reign.

Honey’s is sentially a sexy, gay speakeasy wh a DJ booth where queers of all strip n dance their hearts out until 2 am. Jt a uple of blocks om the beach, Twist brgs the whole breadth of the Miami gay world together to dance and flirt and keep movg.

GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI

CourtyIndianapolis: English IvyEnglish Ivy advertis self as an “LGBTQ+-enthed” “gay-therg place” and that is not an overstatement. If you want to get away om the typil scene at fellow gay bars Olly’s and Gregs Our Place, English Ivy is an ial place to meet iends: mature enough for a proper Ladi Lunch (or bnch or dner.

HOW TO BEE POPULAR AT A GAY BAR

But this is Nashville we’re talkg about so the gays who perform at Lipstick Lounge aren’t your average karaoke queens.

They are stars the makg and their rendn of Cele Dn’s “It’s All Comg Back to Me Now” will shatter your pt glass and break your ltle, gay heart. It’s not a gay bar the tradnal sense, but a place where traed pianists play selectns om Broadway shows and all of the drama teachers and mil theater majors of the tri-state area nverge to sg along. It was the se of an early gay-liberatn “sip ” 1966, years before Stonewall, and has been a low-key haven ever sce, wh a diverse clientele, a small menu, classic cktails, and an extensive (and packed) 4:00-7:00 happy hour.

FOR THE LOVE OF GAY BARS

In December, Dave’s hosted a queer holiday market wh “live gay bands” and “cute queer vendors” at nearby Bohemian Beer Garn. It’s not que French-themed, ’s not que Mardi Gras-spired, feels as close as we have experienced this untry to a gay neighborhood pub.

The origal was burned down an anti-gay hate-crime a few years back, but the revival has jt opened across the street and is bigger and better, wh a new performance space. CourtyWashgton DC: TraIn a town where n feel like every other bar is crawlg wh Capol Hill staffers lookg to talk shop, Tra is the rare, glorly gay dive where absolutely everyone is wele to jt kick back.

'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE

41) Bar Gaytherg (Miami Beach, FL)42) Cafe Lafte In Exile (New Orleans, LA)43) Cubbyhole (New York, NY)44) Srlet Honolulu (Honolulu, HI)45) The Goln Lantern (New Orleans, LA)46) Freddie’s Beach Bar & Rtrant (Arlgton, VA)47) Replay Beer and Bourbon (Chigo, IL)48) Berl (Chigo, IL)49) Marty’s Marti Bar (Chigo, IL)50) The North End (Chigo, IL).

We intified bs the gay bars tegory, then ranked those spots g a number of factors cludg the total volume and ratgs of reviews between January 1, 2016 and April 28, 2021.

The bars are safe spac where members of the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and tersex (LGBTI) muny n e together and celebrate their inti whout fear of discrimatn or judgement. To fd gay bars your area, you n do a quick onle search or check out popular gay-iendly webs and apps such as Grdr, Her, and Gay Ci. The rourc n help you fd the perfect gay bar for you, whether you’re lookg for a laid-back neighborhood spot or a high-energy dance club.

IN ‘GAY BAR,’ TIME-HOPPG SNAPSHOTS OF QUEER NIGHTLIFE

Many gay bars are safe havens for the LGBTI muny, and ’s important to be nsirate of others and follow the l of the tablishment. One of the 130 gay bar owners he terviewed is bemoang how his ctomers are no longer ntent to hang wh iends and nverse over a few drks. The differenc are sort of the pot of Mattson’s book, a chronicle of gay bars 39 stat across the untry and throughout Amerin history.

WHY GAY BARS ARE VAL FOR LGBT COMMUNI

’ bee there is no one ‘who, ’ no one set of ‘needs, ’ and no one kd of ‘gay bar, ’” wr Mattson, a soclogy profsor at Oberl. Mattson wr that 50 percent of the untry’s gay bars closed between 2012 and 2021, and that the difficulti have not been evenly felt.

But even light of all the threats, gay bars are figurg out how to fill hol muny needs, how to pete wh apps and apathy, how to balance muny tradns wh more clive valu.

MOSW GAY MAP

And what’s more, the “gay bar” as exists popular imagatn — an exclive space by and for eher gay men or women — has never reprented what gay bars actually are.

Or if a nightclub has a gay night at least once a week, then I’m willg to say that’s a place where queer culture flourish. And then I wanted to know om people who’ve been volved wh gay bars over the last 20 or so years, what have they seen? In the book you wre that certa kds of gay bars, like lbian bars or more “cisy” gay bars, are closg at a faster clip than other typ.

You mentned that a lot of people have been sayg that they personally don’t need gay bars anymore bee they feel wele anywhere.

MOSW GAY BARS

What do you make of that tensn and the issu that arise wh what we expect out of gay bars vers what they n reasonably offer? Is , “I don’t need gay bars my middle age, but I might as a retiree, ” or is , “I don’t need gay bars now that I’m a mted partnership, but I might if I were sgle”? I don’t know that needg gay bars is an on-off swch for the rt of your life, and so ’s important to me that the bars that n serve all of be open for when we need them.

A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.

” A lot of amics bate or wonr whether we’re a post-gay phase, where we — and ’s never que clear who the “we” is — don’t need our gay inti or LGBTQ+ inti anymore. But one of the thgs I realized talkg to owners of bars that don’t intify as gay bars but are certaly full of gay people is that maybe other bars need to prove to that they’re post-straight. Somethg that sort of surprised me when I was terviewg was the number of straight people who are pillars of the gay muny.

Here I rely on David Halper, who wrote a book, How to Be Gay, and he nclus that even if was a world whout opprsn, we still are raised a heteronormative world.

I’m not married to the ia of a gay bar always beg everythg — if ’s a queer fe, if ’s a nonprof LGBTQ+ center — but I thk the panmic tght all how important is to have physil plac to ngregate, and those will rema important even a hypothetil, non-opprsive future. Was there anythg else your rearch you were surprised by, posively or negatively, or maybe a prenceived notn that you had about gay bars that was challenged? The fact that you have a bar that’s maly Latx folks or a bar that’s Ain-Amerin LGBTQ+ folks, that didn’t surprise me, although I was very terted to fd out what were the challeng of nng those kds of bs bee those are the bars that’ve been closg among the fastt — gay bars that serve people of lor.