30 Bt Gay Bars In NYC for a Hot Night Out on the Town

Contents:

• DO YOU WANNA FUNK WH ME?: A BEGNER’S GUI TO GAY NIGHTCLUBS
• THE DOS & DON'TS OF GAY CLUBBG
• FOR THE LOVE OF GAY BARS
• HOW TO BEE POPULAR AT A GAY BAR
• WHY GAY BARS ARE DISAPPEARG ACROSS AMERI
• WHY OUR HISTORI WH GAY BARS MATTER — AND WHAT THEIR FUTURE MIGHT LOOK LIKE AFTER THE PANMIC
• 'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE
• WHAT I LEARNED WORKG A NAKED GAY BAR
• WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A ‘GAY BAR’ BE JT A BAR?
• IS IT LAST CALL FOR THE GAY BAR?
• WHY GAY BARS ARE VAL FOR LGBT COMMUNI
• THE DEATH OF THE GAY BAR
• THE 30 BT GAY BARS NYC

DO YOU WANNA FUNK WH ME?: A BEGNER’S GUI TO GAY NIGHTCLUBS

To be fair, there are straight clubs that play great mic and have fun, nonjudgmental crowds, and there are gay bars that are nothg more than S and M (Stand and Mol) clubs.

THE DOS & DON'TS OF GAY CLUBBG

Certa gay/lbian clubs have their target clientele, of urse — wboys and wgirls (The Round-up Saloon Dallas), leather men (La Track Montreal), punk lbians (The Dyke Bar Brighton, UK), and drag queens (1001 Pub Maryl Istanbul), for stance — but what I’m talkg about is your basic glter-ball, all-wele, humpg-on-the-dance-floor dis. This wouldn’t have happened at any of the gay bars town, and we fely would have had a better time, as the doorman was jt the first of numero snooty employe we enuntered, there.

A gay bar is one of the few plac where homosexuals n exprs their affectn for one another whout beg subjected to someone’s narrow judgment, or, prumably, riskg harm to themselv, so expect to happen. I went wh three iends — a lbian and a straight uple — to a gay nightclub a while back, but was separated om them immediately after enterg the crowd club.

FOR THE LOVE OF GAY BARS

Unlike what you may have seen on Queer as Folk, the overwhelmg majory of gay bars don’t have backrooms and hallways where wild i are takg place. Dg e, particularly the e of ecstasy and other signer dgs, is higher among the gay populatn than the straight populatn, and some gays and lbians equate a night on the town wh a night of high-energy, dg-duced spastic dancg. In my qut for the perfect dance club, I tried, or was dragged to, diss of all varieti, so I know om experience that the bt dance mic is a gay bar.

HOW TO BEE POPULAR AT A GAY BAR

Sylvter, the late dis diva of the ’80s, was one of the first to target gay dienc, and he tablished a proud tradn of producg multi-layered tracks to which even the most rhythmilly-challenged uld dance.

WHY GAY BARS ARE DISAPPEARG ACROSS AMERI

Even though he was straight and had a girliend, Ron and I went dancg together often; we both loved to dance, and if no one wanted to go out wh , we knew we uld dance a gay bar whout beg hassled. From gym gods to nerds to fag hags (the latter beg the straight women who hang wh their gay male iends) to straight upl who want to try some place new — don’t matter. Although, to be hont, the more you look like a er ught the headlights, the more the regulars will look at you oddly, so try not to eak out when you see your first drag queen or gay/lbian uple makg out.

WHY OUR HISTORI WH GAY BARS MATTER — AND WHAT THEIR FUTURE MIGHT LOOK LIKE AFTER THE PANMIC

And often, gay clubs smaller towns or ral areas are entrance-by-membership-only, to keep out the rednecks and others who want stir up trouble.

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

When I attend llege the homophobic town of Wa, Texas, gettg to the one gay bar town remd me of enterg a speak-easy durg Prohibn, but once si, the patrons were all nice and easy-gog. However, if you have no problem wh gay, lbian, bisexual or transgenred people general, they turn will have no problem wh you, so you ought to give the lol gay bar a try.

WHAT I LEARNED WORKG A NAKED GAY BAR

Chanc are, your first tentative steps out onto the London queer scene were ma or around Old Compton Street, the shg of London’s mastream gay culture.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A ‘GAY BAR’ BE JT A BAR?

Csg a venue to ll out an expensive plummer bee you and your pals thought ’d be a great plan to smash up the toilet after your first h of gay gra gak isn’t exactly the pnacle of allyship. A mere 30 years later, sectn 28 was passed - makg an offence to promote (talk about) homosexualy schools and only 5 years ago same sex marriag were not legal. The nroticism of beg closeted is like that strs of seeg a p while you’re stoned, but 24/7, and also, you like gay turns out that Gay Bar Smell (a ee logne ia one of the Queer Eye guys should sh on) was an spic troductn for me, and an inic one at that.

IS IT LAST CALL FOR THE GAY BAR?

It’s even referred to the very first le of Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, the recently released book wrten by Jeremy Atherton L that aims to pture the trici, plitns, and fabulons of this culture.

WHY GAY BARS ARE VAL FOR LGBT COMMUNI

A safe space, a therapist’s office, a dance club, a live theater, a place to get super dnk (or pleasantly tipsy), a spot to fd a hookup, an tablishment to drown sorrows, and an oasis to pe realy are jt some of the ways to scribe what queer waterg hol mean to the gay mass. Though, that absolutely happens too; nothg pairs better wh the third sp of “I Wanna Dance Wh Somebody” than a plastic cup of seltzer that tast like bbg alhol and Bar: Why We Went OutGay Bar: Why We Went OutNow 11% Off“Some people treat them jt as a bar, but to so many others ’s a muny, ” Steven McEne says. Cooley, the owner of the popular Los Angel gay bar the Abbey, tells this story: “One time a kid was put on a plane by his parents at LAX, but stead he snuck off and took a b here, ” he rells.

The first time I reluctantly stepped si a gay bar was at that effervcent spot around the rner om where I lived, bee a iend had ma his missn to brg me.

“You get a lot of first-time bar narrativ, pecially om olr gays, ” says Atherton L of the re of passage, as important as your first kiss, or the realizatn that “poppers” isn’t a nickname for buttered rn. "Gay Bar: Why We Went Out mak the rear rell stori of their own a vir way, even if they never went to the kds of bars Atherton L wr about— London and San Francis. ”It’s a sad irony that the release of Gay Bar me at a time when many gay bars were eher closed temporarily, danger of closg permanently—like one of New York’s only Black-owned gay bars, Alibi—or done for good, like the Chigo Boystown mastay Ltle Jim’s.

THE DEATH OF THE GAY BAR

A nfluence of factors ntribute to the rapid disappearance of gay bars and queer spac across Ameri, acrdg to Zach Stafford, edor--chief of Grdr’s magaze INTO. Many blame datg apps as the digal accs to potential partners obviat the need for -real-life flirtg and, as Stafford not on this week’s episo of the Eater Upsell podst, “People n make any space through the apps a gay bar, a gay club, and you kd of now unrstand that gay people are everywhere. Also changg gay bars as we know them across the untry: gentrifitn and a prsure to ter to straight dienc and sell them ritur of what pop culture says a gay bar should be.

Upsell -host Dan Geneen and I spoke wh Stafford to discs the lnch of an Eater documentary he starred lled Boystown, which he explor the changg hospaly dtry Ameri’s olst gayborhood. Part of the change is posive, that gay liftyle and culture is so readily accepted now, so part of the mastream, that the gay muny don’t need rved out spac orr to feel safe, meet one another, or be themselv.

THE 30 BT GAY BARS NYC

And there’s somethg to be said for the fact that straight bar and rtrant goers are so attracted by aspects of the gay liftyle that the drag clubs have bee statns. “As the thgs change, and the spac bee more sanized, and more people go there jt to explore, and ’s kd of voyristic, you feel that you’re losg that sense of omniprence of gayns that ed to feel like a protectn, ” says Stafford. As gay bars and clubs close and the neighborhood be ls foced on nightlife, real tate velopments, trendy rtrants, and rporate enti like Target take their plac.