The number of gay bars has dwdled. A new generatn plans to brg them back. - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• THE NUMBER OF GAY BARS HAS DWDLED. A NEW GENERATN PLANS TO BRG THEM BACK.
• WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY [UPDATED MAY 2023]
• THE BT GAY CLUBS AMERI
• NEW ORLEANS GAY BARS

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

Bounce closed 2017, and hundreds of other gay bars have shut down, too. A group is planng a lbian and queer “clubhoe” Los Angel, and an “old-school gay girl” Norfolk plans to reopen the lbian bar she found four s ago.

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. A few opened quietly the early 1930s, then after World War II, hundreds more began servg gay men and women. 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. Many stayed open through the 1990s, but the early 2000s, hundreds of gay bars started to close.

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY [UPDATED MAY 2023]

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. Still, Mattson has found two prevailg factors — the rise of datg apps and a growg acceptance of gay people. “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.

“I thk this is highly uneven, ” Mattson said, “but for gay, Whe, middle-class people like myself, any bar feels like a gay bar if you show up wh six iends. ”Mattson has terviewed 120 bar owners 35 stat for a forthg book lled “Who Needs Gay Bars? For some bar owners, Mattson found, that’s jt enomics, but for a new generatn, “lbian” and “gay” don’t pture their full and fluid inti.

THE BT GAY CLUBS AMERI

”A fay-oriented spacePike and McDaniel have spent the past 20 years workg gay and lbian spac. 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.

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.

“He was clearly homophobic, ” Pike said.

NEW ORLEANS GAY BARS

“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.

LGBT stands for lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr.