The first gay pub I dared set foot now has a rabow plaque. Here’s why that matters | Gary Nunn | The Guardian

Contents:

• WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A UNTY OF 590,000 PEOPLE LOS S ONLY GAY BAR?
• GLOUCTERSHIRE IS NOW WHOUT A GAY BAR
• THE FIRST GAY PUB I DARED SET FOOT NOW HAS A RABOW PLAQUE. HERE’S WHY THAT MATTERS
• EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS GLOUCTER
• GAYT PLAC IN MASSACHETTS FOR 2020
• GAY BARS AND PUBS GLOUCTER GLOUCTERSHIRE

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A UNTY OF 590,000 PEOPLE LOS S ONLY GAY BAR?

Fd your neart gay venue. Fd your neart gay bar, club or event by enterg a lotn or post below. Explore the bt and most ncise UK gay nightlife, daylife, pri and event gui.

Get the ee Morng Headl email for news om our reporters across the worldSign up to our ee Morng Headl emailIn a quiet functn room Gloucter, a group of iends are drkg tea and enjoyg some ke served om a table which is adorned wh rabow members of the Glouctershire Gay and Lbian Communy (GGLC) seem as optimistic as they are welg. The rabow flag still fli over Gloucter’s Wtgate gay bar.

But the doors are last dited lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) venue the entire unty has closed.

GLOUCTERSHIRE IS NOW WHOUT A GAY BAR

This was the startg pot for gay pri march, the place where everyone popped for a pre-para Hyman: "It's so sad to see board up" (Andrew Fox)At weekends, the dis would last all night. ”Now there is no LGBT venue a unty of 590, 000 people, up to 34, 000 of them gay by some timat.

Lonely Pla's top 10 gay-iendly travel statnsShow all 10“If you want a gay night out, ” said Mr Merrett, “You have to go to Bristol – a 60-e round trip – or Birmgham, 50 away. ”Glouctershire may be the most extreme example, but is far om the only area where LGBT venu are closg, and where some feel the gay scene is ntractg as a Manchter’s gay village there are reports of bars stgglg. In London, mpaigners are fightg to save the Joers Arms Shoredch, after the famo gay venue was closed and earmarked for to home, Mr Merrett remembered: “When a gay bar closed Hereford four years ago, a iend of me said was the last straw, and moved to Bournemouth.

THE FIRST GAY PUB I DARED SET FOOT NOW HAS A RABOW PLAQUE. HERE’S WHY THAT MATTERS

”It has been suggted that as well as stgglg to rever om a fire 2013, The Wtgate was ught up a general dtry downturn, which acrdg to Camra, the Campaign for Real Ale, is g 29 pubs to close each gay bars, however, may be closg for unexpected, rather posive reasons. “Sometim people feel safe other bars, so they don’t need gay venu as much.

Royston Glue, 26, an admistrator om Cheltenham, said this was particularly te of younger generatns: “You n walk to some pubs as a gay uple and not get harassed. Gay venu, they agreed, were the only plac where LGBT people uld feel entirely rabow flag still fli over the Wtgate (Andrew Fox)“You n now legally be hband and hband or wife and wife, ” said Michael Charlton-Hubble, 68, a retired supertennt registrar.

EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS GLOUCTER

”As for kissg a non-gay pub, they all agreed – fet . Hence, said Ms Fuller of the Albert Kennedy Tst, there ntu to be a need for gay venu, pecially for those jt startg to e out.

Already, the plans for the future are beg formulated – “I wonr whether we should be lookg at startg a gay ffee shop, ” said Mr Charlton-Hubble, “Or fdg a iendly pub landlord... Glouctershire is now whout a dited gay venue followg the closure of the unty’s sgle remag gay pub.

GAYT PLAC IN MASSACHETTS FOR 2020

“Gloucter is a safe place and I’ve never heard of any problems wh homophobic cints. Now we have nowhere to showse what our gay muny is all about. EXS, a popular gay club Cheltenham, which is also the unty, closed s doors 2012.

GayGlos is lookg for two new tste, a Team Lear, and an Assistant Team We DoEdutnWe provi external trag LGBTQ+ issu, around equaly and diversy. Frankly, I’d have served a prison jt for him to hold my hand, like he did his off-whe Vxhall Nova on the drive there, breakg only to change, he took me for strawberry cir the Gloucter, a pub at the park’s edge, takg my tremblg hand his and reassurg me: “It’s actually a gay bar.

GAY BARS AND PUBS GLOUCTER GLOUCTERSHIRE

Gay pubs are far more than bars; they’re refug. On Sunday, the first a new seri of rabow plaqu will be stalled at the Gloucter – now the Greenwich Tavern – cementg s place gay home the workg-class Medway area of Kent, where we met when he sold me a phone cred rd at the lol petrol statn, “queers” like were wily perceived as predatory, perverted, spic or simply scum.

”After the strawberry cir, served by a man a tight whe vt – the only other gay man I’d seen real life – the squiggly summer sunlight ma a strobe effect through the park’s tre.

The first time I saw wh him, when I was 18, I realised he had echoed the love story of the two protagonists, who also had their first kiss the twilight of Greenwich Park’s tre, and their first experience of a gay pub at the Gloucter. The explanatn for his obssn is now clear: there was such a pcy of same-sex love stori that this was the first time many young people had seen a same-sex kiss, or peeked si an actual gay bar after dark.