{"id":48627,"date":"2016-12-23T10:25:40","date_gmt":"2016-12-23T15:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/why-are-so-many-gay-bars-closing\/"},"modified":"2016-12-23T10:25:40","modified_gmt":"2016-12-23T15:25:40","slug":"why-are-so-many-gay-bars-closing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/why-are-so-many-gay-bars-closing\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are so many gay bars closing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why are so many gay<\/a> bars closing?<\/b><\/p>\n

\"CandleBar\"<\/p>\n

“Guys my age stopped going out to bars all the time,” said Jack LaFary, a former bartender at Indianapolis’s 501 Eagle, which closed this year.<\/p>\n

He’s interviewed this week in a piece by the Chicago Tribune<\/a>, <\/em>which examines the fact that gay<\/a> bars are slowly but steadily going extinct.<\/p>\n

The story echoes a similar sentiment in The Economist’s<\/a> <\/em>recent article that explores the same subject, reporting that over 16 gay<\/a> bars closed in London between 2014 and 2014. They suggest this “points to a larger, and overwhelmingly positive, trend.”<\/p>\n

Related: The Best Destinations And Gayborhoods Around The World? You Decide!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

One problem is rent. Gay bars tend to pop up in more downtrodden parts of a city, but as those cities become richer, watering holes and dives are eventually squeezed out altogether.<\/p>\n

Of course, hookup apps have also hindered business, providing a cheaper (and far less slurry) way to meet potential partners.<\/p>\n

“It all changed with smartphones,” LaFary says. “When I first came out, you went to a gay<\/a> bar to meet gay<\/a> people. But the smartphone changed that, and it was an all-of-a-sudden thing. Business just dropped, and it wasn’t a gradual thing. It was, like, boom.”<\/p>\n

The Economist <\/em>article maintains that the number one culprit of gay<\/a> bars’ slow fade into obsolescence is the fact that homosexuality is now accepted more than ever before, making the need to seek out friends in darkened corners all but unnecessary.<\/p>\n

“Now gays<\/a> can go into a straight bar and it’s no big deal,” says Colby Palmer, a gay<\/a> activist interviewed by The Chicago Tribune.<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s “a good thing for the gays<\/a>,” says 501 Eagle’s former owner Tom Vester, “because they should be accepted anywhere. But it wasn’t good for me.”<\/p>\n

It’s also a rather bittersweet victory for people who gravitate towards dives and dance clubs as a matter of personal taste rather than a lack of alternatives.<\/p>\n

“I was… visiting my [gay] uncle in New York,” says Stavros, a 24-year-old Londoner.<\/p>\n

Related: Five Reasons The Death of Gayborhoods Is Highly Exaggerated<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Talking to The Economist, <\/em>he says, “It got to 1am one night and he said, ‘Let’s go out.’ It just blew my mind. It was the first time I saw guys<\/a> kissing. It was more than I dreamed of.”<\/p>\n

While it’s hard to imagine a cultural landscape in which the magic of gay<\/a> nightlife is gone altogether, there’s no question that most cities in America are losing gay<\/a> bars and they aren’t being replaced.<\/p>\n

The Chicago Tribune <\/em>reports:<\/p>\n

\n

San Francisco was down to just a few dozen gay<\/a> bars compared with more than 100 in the 1970s, according to a 2011 report in Slate, and Manhattan had but 44, half as many as it did at its gay<\/a>-bar peak in 1978. In London the Queen’s Head, a gay<\/a> bar since the 1920s, closed in September, going the way of other prominent gay<\/a> bars in that European capital.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Michael Bohr, founder of the Chris Gonzales Library and Archives, tells The Chicago Tribune <\/em>that bar closings are “a definite loss to gay<\/a> culture.”<\/p>\n

“A man<\/a>’s first trip into a gay<\/a> club was a rite of passage,” he says, “both to his own self-acceptance and the realization that he was not alone, that there were a lot of LGBT people out there and they weren’t miserable and alone — they were having a great time.”<\/p>\n

What are your thoughts on the slow decline of gay<\/a> bars around the world? Have you experienced the same phenomenon where you live<\/a>? Sound off in the comments below. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n<\/a> <\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\nwww.queerty.com\/many-gay-bars-closing-20161223?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why are so many gay<\/a> bars closing? “Guys my age stopped going out to bars all the time,” said Jack LaFary, a former bartender at Indianapolis’s 501 Eagle, which closed this year. He’s interviewed this week in a piece by the Chicago Tribune, which examines the fact that gay<\/a> bars are slowly but steadily going extinct. … Continue reading Why are so many gay bars closing?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy are so many gay bars closing? - GAYFRIENDSCHAT.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/why-are-so-many-gay-bars-closing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why are so many gay bars closing? - GAYFRIENDSCHAT.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why are so many gay bars closing? “Guys my age stopped going out to bars all the time,” said Jack LaFary, a former bartender at Indianapolis’s 501 Eagle, which closed this year. 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