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

Contents:

• THE BT GAY BARS BOSTON
• ‘THE ARE OUR HOM’: LA GAY BARS FIGHT TO STAY AFLOAT AFTER YEAR OF SHUTDOWN
• THE BT GAY CISG SPOTS LOS ANGEL
• WT HOLLYWOOD GAY BARS

THE BT GAY BARS BOSTON

Fans wept when Roosterfish, the Wtsi’s olst gay bar, closed 2016.

Micky’s WeHo has long been a staple on Wt Hollywood’s strip of gay nightclubs and bars on Santa Moni Boulevard, known for s open-walled two-story buildg where passersby n see the party ragg om the street. The venue is the only Latx gay bar LA that explicly ters to a gay and Mexin dience every night, not jt as a theme once a week. But ’s the perfect space to grab a workday bnch wh a lleague or for -workg ssns -hosted on Tudays wh Gay Asstrology.

The origal Downtown gay bar, Jalis is a dive bar that ters to the Latx and Mexin LGBTQ muny.

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

Though Sweetwater isn’t officially known as a lbian bar, the humble tablishment has long been the go-to spot for queer women the lol gayborhood, which featur nearly half a dozen gay bars that le Broadway Long Beach.

One of Long Beach’s few, if not only, three-level gay bars, Executive Sue boasts a karaoke bar, vio gam, pool tabl for rent, and regular drag shows.

Dubbed by KCET as Montebello’s bt Lato gay bar, Chi is the sister to Club Cobra, servg as a groundg se for the queer Latx muny the suburbs of East LA. It’s the perfect place for gay men to meet on the Eastsi. At the wtern end is Urban MO's Bar & Grill, a "hetero-iendly gay bar" and lol favore.

THE BT GAY CISG SPOTS LOS ANGEL

Consired the world's first and only gay-owned brewery, 's a great spot to grab a pizza or two and make iends at a munal table, while enjoyg the many beers on tap. It was once voted one of the bt gay bars Ameri by Yelp. Wh ep red walls and chanliers, SRO Lounge is a legendary gay bar that livers a glam but laid-back vibe.

The crowd n get rowdy, but everyone’s there to simply have a good time, and the foosball tabl the back are always a good this the bt gay bar LA? Four inic Los Angel gay bars, toutg a bed history of 130 years, have permanently closed durg the panmic and many more have warned that they are on the brk of as nightlife gradually returns, some of the remag queer bars across southern California have rorted to crowdfundg a last-dch effort to stay afloat, warng that Covid-19 may brg about the end of historic stutns that have weathered the Aids crisis and multiple enomic panmic has permanently closed more than 100, 000 bars and rtrants across the Uned Stat but LA, which has been unr some form of lockdown rtrictns sce last March, the impact on nightclubs has been particularly LGBTQ+ bars shuttered Wt Hollywood last year, cludg Rage, a legendary nightclub that closed after 37 years, and Gold Coast, a 39-year-old dive bar down the street on Santa Moni boulevard. Then January, as LA bee one of the worst Covid hotspots the natn, Oil Can Harry’s, a beloved gay untry bar Stud Cy, said was closg for good after half a century of hostg queer le dancg.

WT HOLLYWOOD GAY BARS

”Before Covid, gay bars were already disappearg LA and other US ci due to risg rents and gentrifitn, and as onle queer datg and hookup apps grew populary. The venu most at risk of closg are often penntly owned and ter to more unrreprented groups, cludg Black and Lato muni, trans and genr-nonnformg crowds and workg-class neighborhoods, rearch has of the LA bars that are stgglg are loted outsi of the Wt Hollywood scene, which is known for terg to whe gay male crowds and is more touristy, wh owners turng to GoFundMe to make through the crisis.

”Precct has long had an unpretent vibe that ma more fortable than many gay bars, Meatball said: “It’s dgy, smells like old alhol when you walk , and there’s somethg so fortg about this dark, seedy place – gay people love that stuff. ”New Jalis, also downtown, is one of the longt-nng Lato gay bars the regn, n by an immigrant uple who transformed to an LGBTQ+ venue the 1990s.

”Some of the Akbar owners’ younger iends and longtime patrons eventually nvced them to try crowdfundg before sellg their property and closg down, said Peter Alexanr, -owner: “It’s much more important than my own personal fancial wellbeg – all the plac are more than jt gay bars. The succs of the mpaign energized other queer bars to try to seek aid om supporters, though some say their bts are still signifintly greater than the donatns they’ve Alpuche, owner of Redle, a downtown gay bar, timated that the panmic has left him wh nearly $400, 000 of bt, part bee he has had to ntue payg for licens and perms. ”For the performers and gig workers who relied on gay bars to make ends meet, their return n’t e soon enough.

This moment, he add, remd him of the Aids crisis when gay clubs beme a ghost town until they eventually bounced back the 90s: “This jt ret everythg … I know we’ll e back. We abhor homophobia. We do not unrstand gay Republins.

There were a uple of sgle mothers raisg teenagers, olr gay upl, a Perry Farrell-like du named Adam who created and tend to the neighborhood’s famo chanlier tree. When the bar opened 1968, was one of many gay bars the neighborhood, and one of que a few piano bars the cy. ” He remembers a time when Silver Lake was home to dozens of gay bars.

Much of the film is dited to memori of LA’s gay nightlife history, when so-lled gentleman’s bars were monplace. Both Cantillon and a number of men terviewed the film blame the ath of the piano bar—and the vast gap between piano bars and morn gay bars—on the missg generatn of men who were lost the AIDS epimic. Ltle ced Akbar, the Sunset Boulevard spot that is paratively young at 22 but is now nsired Silver Lake’s last historic gay bar.