Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbySeptember 30th, 2007
Entrepreneur.com recently listed “gay bars” as one of ten business types facing extinction in ten years citing (but failing to link to) a recent Orlando Sentinel article.
Although gay bars no longer serve the same purpose as in decades past I highly doubt they’re going away anytime soon. Frankly it’s human nature to want to socialize with people we share things in common with. Although I enjoy going to gay-friendly and mixed venues I don’t believe anything can take the place of a bar where I don’t have to look at someone and wonder if they’re gay or not. In the next ten years I believe many more places will become gay-friendly or mixed and more straight people will continue to visit traditionally gay bars but I find it absurd to suggest gay bars are going extinct.
Hat tip Faggoty Ass Faggot (gotta love that name)
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Emily K
September 30th, 2007
I know that i try to stay away from bars that have scenes like the one pictured. It just says “skeevy” all over.
KipEsquire
September 30th, 2007
Gay bars in NYC are suffering because ALL bars in NYC are suffering.
Two words: smoking ban.
Without the comparison of gay bar closing relative to ALL bar closings, reports like this are meaningless.
Lynn David
October 1st, 2007
Emily K, I don’t see sleaves on any of those guys. ;~)
If you listen to the Freeper/Townhall crowd, we don’t have time for gay bars, we’re in (straight?) bathrooms across America cruising for it.
Straight bathrooms? Yeah, I heard that someone wanted to segregate gay men into our own bathroom now. One of his comments was that he’d rather trade gay men for the lesbians. I pointed out that he wouldn’t have his family jewels long if that were the case.
Note to self: stay away from your godfather’s friends.
Lynn David
October 1st, 2007
Whoops… I kneed new gkasses, I cannot male out the difference between a “l” and and an “k” …. er, male that a “k” and an “l.”
Daniel Gonzales
October 1st, 2007
haha, I had to look that up “skeevy” in Urban Dictionary. Here’s a link:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=skeevy
GayAsXmas
October 1st, 2007
I don’t like to toot my own horn, but I wrote about the article from a Lonfon perspective a while back – http://gayasxmas.blogspot.com/2007/09/gay-bubble-shrinks.html
Short version: Yes the scene will change and diversify, especially as younger generations find more acceptance, but gay bars will always have a place, especially for men and women to meet.
Timothy Kincaid
October 1st, 2007
Alas, Jim, in Los Angeles you do sometimes have to wonder if the guy is gay… in a gay bar. While some venues are becoming more gay friendly, the gay bars are finding themselves to be more appealing to friendly straights.
Jason
October 1st, 2007
Tim,
That is true, I know a few straight couples who love going to the bars because they love dancing and they say the gay bars are just “more friendly” than the straight ones.
ebohlman
October 1st, 2007
I can’t see the type of gay bar that serves the same function as a straight singles bar going away any time soon. Mixed venues aren’t going to replace it for reasons of simple math: unless you like really big crowds, you’re only going to run into a handful of gay men in a mixed venue. Assuming that 5% of men are gay and that a mixed venue usually has a 50/50 gender mix, you’re only going to encounter 2-3 gay men per 100 patrons. It doesn’t matter if all the straight men are accepting and don’t beat you up if you hit on them; finding a suitable partner is still going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack (and with only a handful of gay men, the chances that none of them are your type or that you aren’t any of their types become pretty great).
OTOH, the type of bar that’s primarily a place for listening to music or dancing (really any non-cruisy bar) is going to be less likely to be “gay” or “straight” in the future.
Marc5
October 2nd, 2007
I agree that gay bars aren’t going to go out of existence,but I think bar hopping in general is down because of the internet, smoking ban, drunk driving laws, etc. I also wonder if gay bars aren’t going to see a shortage of clientelle in future years because of less gays being born. SInce hetero couples no longer have that many children (usually an average of two), it seems like the statistical chances of one being gay drops. I don’t think gays will cease to exist, but I think their numbers will be less in 50 years.
Jason
October 3rd, 2007
Marc,
You’re forgetting about all the out-of wedlock children and single-parent homes that more than make up for the hetero-couples not having as many kids.
While it’s true the gay population will ebb and flow along with the general population, I don’t see anything suggesting our population is dwindling.
NickC
October 3rd, 2007
My three kids (ages 25 to 30 and all straight) love to go out to gay bars with me, whether here in DC where I live or when I visit them in New York. I always say it’s because gay bars serve bigger drinks. Plus, Dad’s paying!
More seriously, I do think we’re seeing the demise of the traditional dark, dreary gay bar that existed primarily as a place for pick-ups. But almost everywhere I travel–from Chicago and LA to Omaha, Nebraska–the bright, attractive lounge-style gay bars are packed.
Certainly, there’s some cruising and pick-ups going on in these bars, too–as in all straight bars I’ve ever visited. But they function primarily as settings to socialize with friends, or for dancing later at night, rather than for covert sexual encounters.
julian halevy
February 7th, 2011
Gay bars provide a kind of community. Any idea of them as “skeevy,” or even, “sleazy” comes from the direction of mock bourgeois gentility. Why long for the wholesomeness of suburban life when being gay is not “wholesome,” not really, and neither is living in or being in a great city. I love the somewhat noir environment of a gay bar, especially ones where bugarrones congregate, like the old Stella’s in midtown Manhattan. But even the friendly, very bar Monster in the Village is, for me, any indispensable aspect of home-erotic community life. All missing in Bloomberg’s sad, straight-laced vision of the contemporary metropolis.
julian halevy
February 7th, 2011
Notwithstanding a few typos, I stand by my statement. In order to contain an element of mystery, bars should a little risque,atmospheric,libertine. After all, the basic conflict between sexuality and respectability continues to apply, and papering it over with antiseptic alternative locales can never satisfy the sense of adventure that goes along with a dark haunt!
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