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

Contents:

• GAY BARS AREN’T DISAPPEARG; THEY’RE CHANGG
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• DO WE STILL NEED GAY BARS? THIS AUTHOR’S BOOK TACKL WHY THEY’RE DYG — AND WHY WE SHOULDN’T LET THEM
• RH, “AN ALL NEW GAY BAR” G TO SHAW, POSTS LIQUOR LICENSE PLARD
• GAY BARS NEAR ME
• THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY
• THE BT GAY BARS LONDON
• A MEMOIR ABOUT QUEER INTY, TOLD ONE GAY BAR AT A TIME
• GAY SAN DIEGO
• HOW TO BEE POPULAR AT A GAY BAR

GAY BARS AREN’T DISAPPEARG; THEY’RE CHANGG

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.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

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.

DO WE STILL NEED GAY BARS? THIS AUTHOR’S BOOK TACKL WHY THEY’RE DYG — AND WHY WE SHOULDN’T LET THEM

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 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.

RH, “AN ALL NEW GAY BAR” G TO SHAW, POSTS LIQUOR LICENSE PLARD

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.

GAY BARS NEAR ME

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 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI

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.

Per Outsports, Maxen is the “first publicly out male ach a major Amerin men’s pro sports league, ” wh WNBA ach Curt Miller, who publicly me out to the media as gay 2015, also a publicly out male ach an Amerin profsnal sports league.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY

“The fastt clg typ of gay bars have been bars servg people of lor and bars servg men’s kk muni, ” says Greggor Mattson, an Oberl College profsor and thor of “Who Needs Gay Bars?

THE BT GAY BARS LONDON

Mattson tackl the latter qutn his book, which he tails htg the road across Ameri — 39 stat and 10, 000 on his r — and visg every gay bar he uld.

But Mattson also noticed that gay bars varied across how they treated patrons of lor, how they treated olr gay men and how they treated straight patrons.

A MEMOIR ABOUT QUEER INTY, TOLD ONE GAY BAR AT A TIME

Some — like The Woodward, which Mattson c as a standout gay bar — do well wh race and other intifiers, but many don’t take to nsiratn anyone other than “whe, cisgenr, middle-class men, ” Mattson says. It’s one of the few plac that Mattson feels fortable as a “middle-aged” gay, but “some of the old, whe, cis guys are creeps” when to his partner. On one hand, gay bars are a necsy bee of their historic role as s for anizg the fight for civil rights and their role as fundraisers for var margalized muni beyond their own.

A realizatn durg his rearch was that Mattson was vlated several ways while equentg gay bars, as the bar for nsent around touchg has shifted recent years. Gay bars n get to their North Star, Mattson says, by rememberg their rol as not jt provirs of safe spac, but by unrstandg how money flows through the muny.

GAY SAN DIEGO

One uld argue that gay bars aren’t need anymore as acceptance has bee more wispread on topics like the ballroom movement, drag gog mastream, gay marriage beg upheld, the rise of gay apps and straight people beg better alli. “It’s dangero to over ialize gay bars bee they haven’t always clud all of , and at the end of the day they are small bs that need to pay their bills. 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.

The kd where a man celebrated his first unn job by buyg a round of drks for the strangers at the bar—the most touchg thg that has ever happened to me at a gay bar. Hundreds of fundraisers the bars provid a lifele for HIV/AIDS chari, gay sports leagu, polil mpaigns, and direct-actn funds to help people pay for their rent, meditns, utili, or funeral expens.

HOW TO BEE POPULAR AT A GAY BAR

The bar plex also anchored what was, for much of the early 2000s, the only gay hub Cleveland, the clost thg to a gayborhood the cy had seen before or sce.