Wow! Are "Gay Bars" really a dying phenomena?
According to some recent articles includig this in the Orlando Sentinel: "For a number of gay bars, it's last call" and another one in the business mag Entrepreneur: "10 Businesses Facing Extinction in 10 Years" what was once one of the mainstays of LGBT community is going the way of the dinosaur.
The culprit is said to be the growing casual acceptance of LGBT people in American culture by those of bar-hopping age combined with the "graying" of LGBT population who came of age when a stop by the local Lesbian Bar, the Gay Dance Club, etc. was the only social outlet where people could feel safe.
I knew that the inclusion of LGBT materials in the big chain book-stores (both on and off-line) had caused the demise of many small LGBT book-stores, but it did not occur to me that it would also hit the bars. I had somehow assumed that the Cubby Hole, et. al. were forever.
But on the other hand this certainly fits in with what Peter Tatchell has been saying for ages, especially in many of this Queer Theory columns.
The culprit is said to be the growing casual acceptance of LGBT people in American culture by those of bar-hopping age combined with the "graying" of LGBT population who came of age when a stop by the local Lesbian Bar, the Gay Dance Club, etc. was the only social outlet where people could feel safe.
I knew that the inclusion of LGBT materials in the big chain book-stores (both on and off-line) had caused the demise of many small LGBT book-stores, but it did not occur to me that it would also hit the bars. I had somehow assumed that the Cubby Hole, et. al. were forever.
But on the other hand this certainly fits in with what Peter Tatchell has been saying for ages, especially in many of this Queer Theory columns.