© Photo Courtesy of Kelsey Branca (Too_Tired)So much has been written recently about the fact that “gayborhoods” and gay nightlife are in a dramatic decline all around the country. It is not that the neighborhoods themselves are in decline but the fact that the gay population is not going out to the “gay bar” as much anymore and the speed of gentrification in places like Seattle’s Capitol Hill is enough to make your head spin. Take Seattle for example. Recently, Seattle lost Thumper’s after 20 years in business and the first gay bar on Capitol Hill, the Elite, closed down and has yet to reopen. Sugar Bar recently changed from a gay format to a straight hip-hop club and the gay bar Blu, which took over Brass Connection, would also become a straight hip-hop bar called War Room. Brass Connection had played a key role in moving Seattle’s gay scene to Capitol Hill. Very soon both Manray Video Bar and Pony Bar will be torn down. There has been so much talk about what is happening and the net effect it is having, however, no one has truly enlightened us as to exactly why this is happening.
The blog Faggoty-Ass Faggot first points out that “Gay Bars” are listed by Entrepreneur.com as one of the top 10 businesses facing extinction and then offers the following explanation:
Before we had the Web, and Facebook, and MySpace, and chat rooms, we had to leave the house to meet people. That meant even the shy ones had to pull themselves together every few months and drag their asses to social situations.
Not anymore. Now we can click to send a “wink” or a “poke.” Type three characters to flash a smile. Search by height, weight, age, occupation and sexual proclivity to weed out anyone who might have had a chance if they could just speak and woo us with personality.
I don’t think communities formed digitally are sustainable. The connections are too fragile, the deception too high, the civility nonexistent
One of their blog’s readers, “Brad” offers the following that probably goes deeper at an explanation than he even realizes:
I guess I’m in the “younger generation of queers” still, and while I do go to gay bars, it’s ONLY with friends to dance and/or enjoy a good drag show. I never go to bars to look for guys because it’s all so superficial. It’s like high school all over again in that you’ve got a half-dozen pretentious cliques who won’t even look at you if you don’t fit the image, which sucks for me because I don’t fit into any one scene and prefer guys who don’t. I like talking to guys online because I can get a decent idea of their interest and beliefs as well as what they look like, and can decide whether or not he’s worth my time. Plus, the worse that can happen is that he won’t reply, compared to the awkwardness of being rejected in person.
Another one of their readers, “The Ghost of Quinton Crisp” offers a different prospective on the issue:
When I came out back in the late 1960’s, the only “perk” to being gay was the fabulous people and lifestyle you were exposed to. Back then, you were just as likely to go to jail for the night when the police raided the bar as going home with some hottie, so there was a definite sense of community ~ and it was wonderful. Such a stark contrast to riding around at night in a car with your straight friends hitting garbage cans.
Now it seems that the focus for gays and the gay-rights movement is on adopting the respectable, middle class, straight lifestyle ~ marriage, children and even a military career. WTF. LOL. I guess trolling gay bars at 4am just isn’t in the stars for future soccer moms or PTA presidents. What a f**king bore.
The gay bar is being rejected on all levels, by both the gym fit attractive gay, who feels the bar has little to offer now other than a few “trolls,” and the stigmatized gay who feels rejected for not fitting the “ideal” body type.
In the article: “Will the last gay bar in Laguna Beach turn out the lights?” a group of gay activist has organized to save the Boom Boom Room in hopes of saving what use to be a gay oasis within conservative Orange County, California from impending “heterosexualization.”
Trouble is this does not sound like something that can be “saved.” Over the past few decades gays have tackled so many social injustices and ultimately have been able to win or move in a winning direction. To approach this with a “Save Gay Laguna Beach” or “Save Gay Castro” seems hypocritical and counterproductive. For the most part, gays are getting a lot of what they asked for: more acceptance and more protection. So now this desire to cling to the gay ghetto seems counterintuitive. However, many, including myself, feel a strong sense of loss and impending uncertainty about the future after belonging to a community that over the years has made us feel comfortable in our daily lives.
Many gays, middle-aged and older, associate much of their life as young men with gay bars. To see gay bars and “gayborhoods” slowly disappear can have a traumatic affect on one’s sense of security, belonging and community.
I suppose as the young gays get older and the old gays “get put out to pasture” this idea of the “gay bar” may be dramatically different than it ever has been. Even today so many of the new gay clubs are actually “pseudo gay” and really catering to straights who want the nostalgic feeling that they’re in a gay club.
When traveling, gays no longer eat at some greasy spoon hamburger joint simply because they are listed in a Gay Guide nor do they visit the gay bookstore when they first arrive in a new city. The line between the activities and businesses that are considered “straight” and those considered “gay-friendly” is becoming so blurred that it becomes difficult to delineate the characteristics of “gay” vs. “gay-friendly.” Does this assertion require that gays be present in order to be considered “gay-friendly?” Must a business actively discourage straight patrons in order to be considered “gay?”
Seattle’s Capitol Hill, like changing “gayborhoods” throughout the nation, will struggle with these and many other issues as the gay community is forced to adapt to this new reality in the future.
OMG, I’m sorry but that is such a load of crap, I see it as all the Bar and Club owners catering to the younger hip hop group knowning that yeah the larger club going groups will always be the very young. But if anyone had the Balls! to open another killer Bar like the Brass Connection Seattle would start hopping again. I’m sure there are other reasons for the decline too and the cost of going out and gas prises aren’t helping iether. But come on I’m 51 and part of a very large bunch of ready for prime time TG’s that are very saddend by all this Hip Hop horse shit. I also have MANY! gay friends who just stoped going out after Seattle lost all it’s really good Clubs and Bars. And face reality honey most people over 28 can’t stand that Hip Hop crap.
I agree with your statement that many “people over 28 can’t stand that Hip Hop crap,” however, I am not sure that simply building another “killer Bar like the Brass Connection” would work either. I wish you were right. The Brass Connection, with their resident drag queen the late Crystal Lane, left an indelible mark on a generation of gays. But for some unexplainable reason, many people under 28 insist upon Hip Hop and historically the dance club is very dependent upon the younger generation to survive.
I am not sure gas prices and the cost of going out has much to do with it since the straight bars on Capitol Hill are “hopping” like never before, however, the overall costs of living on Capitol Hill has certainly been a major factor.
My feeling is that the gay bars are partially a “victim” of achieving acceptance in society and the younger generation is rejecting the classic idea of being a part of any “gay community.” But who knows the whole reason why. I have asked the question many times but the younger generation simply will not fess up.
The great bar scene in the 70s and 80s and even the early 90s, was created and supported mainly by the Baby Boom generation gay men. There were an abundant number of young hot guys out there at that time. And they were horny and knew how to meet and talk to people face to face. Unfortunately they’re all getting old, those that are left who did not succomb to death of AIDS or drug abuse such as crystal meth. And the newer generation is not as intelligent, or socially sophisticated. Also we have had a shift in demographics that is a factor. So don’t blame bar owners or the music, or the smoking ban. All that is incidental and is the outcome, not the cause. I personally see very few young guys that are hot anymore. Most are overweight or too skinny, and look like they have never played sports or even mowed their parents lawn. And don’t blame the internet, because there’s no one on there worth talking to either. I know, I’ve tried.