Does the gay bar still have a place in this more accepting world?
For years, the gay bar was an oasis. Only there could gay men and women find like-minded others. Only there could they find revelry and romance without fear of reprisal. It was in those gay bars that they plotted their revolution: a struggle for equal treatment, against discrimination. It was in those gay bars that they dreamed of a world where sexual orientation, like gender, like race, was simply a non-issue. It was in those gay bars that they came together as a community to fundraise for HIV/AIDS research, for pride centres and hotlines, for all sorts of GLBT causes that couldn’t get money from the outside world.
As time passed, as equality before the law became more real, as acceptance from the straight world began to be realized, suddenly those bars became less relevant. As the queer community expanded in pride and strength, it expanded into a plethora of social and sports groups, catering to all the interests under the rainbow. You didn’t have to go to the bar to meet other gay people; you could join the gay bowling team, gay curling team, gay swim team, etc. Still, the gay bar was the focal point of the community, the nightly watering hole and the Pride Week party central.
As time passes, as sexual orientation becomes less and less an issue in the minds of most people, especially the younger generaton, those bars become less relevant, again. No longer do you need to seek solace, safety, and solidarity within the walls under a rainbow flag. Now, when you want to go out for a night of drinking and dancing, you can do so at a bar that caters to your musical taste, or that’s stumbling distance from your home, or any number of criteria other than who you’re sleeping with.
(As a side bar, the impact that the world of online cruising has had on the gay bar is huge. Why get pretty and go out, play the Stand-and-Model games, when you can simply log onto any number of sites and have sex readily delivered to your door?)
As the queer march towards acceptance continues, what will become of the gay bar? What roles will it play in a world where its existence is not only no longer as needed but also, for some, no longer even desired? It is easy to envision a world where the gay bar is a kitschy stereotype of itself, a novelty not a necessity. The battles begun in gay bars, when won, would inevitably result in the extinction of those very bars. Even look at our own community, where a number of “straight” bars have nights catering to the gay market, or simply a mindset where, gay or straight, all are welcome. This is what we wanted, no?
Still, I feel that the days of the gay bar are not gone (and not only because I’m in the industry). To have that space where we are the majority, where we can have our drag shows and leather nights and lesbian folk singers, etc.. To have that community space where we can have our meetings and our fundraisers, that gay-owned and operated space where we can support our gay businesses with our gay dollars. To have those rainbow-clad walls.
That being said, the needs of the bar-going queer community are changing, and the queer bars have to change to match. No longer do they have a monopoly on that crowd. This forces change, and that change will be for the good. For the gay bar to survive in a world where the rainbow flag can fly freely anywhere, that change has to be.
Originally published on QMagazine