Gay bars are on the decline nationwide according to new study

[Behind the Aegis]

The number of queer bars is declining nationwide according to a new study examining the effects of the COVID-19 lockdowns on U.S. LGBTQ spaces. The study’s author, Greggor Mattson, a professor of Sociology at Oberlin College who also curates the Who Needs Gay Bars project on Twitter, found that between 2019 and Spring 2021, the number of gay bars in the U.S. dropped by about 15%.

Compared with the similar decline between 2017 and 2019, Mattson writes, this indicates a steady rate of decline in recent years.

Mattson and his researchers compared historical from the Damron Travel Guide and compared it to an online census of gay bars taken from February to May of 2021.

“36.6% of gay bar listings disappeared between 2007 and 2019,” Mattson tells Chicago’s ABC7 News. “So more than a third of gay bars closed in a 12-year period.”

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[RandySF]

1. Dating apps.

[Effete Snob]

2. How are bars/nightclubs in general doing?

[Phoenix61]

4. Badly, DUI laws, rightfully so, really changed the night

life scene. Maybe the ride share apps will help with that but then you hear about female passengers being assaulted so.. Also, dancing seems to have fallen out of favor. Say what you want about disco but the cloths were great, the music was fun, and people hit the dance floor.

[Ferrets are Cool]

5. I loved the disco era

[Effete Snob]

6. If we transition to more walkable lifestyles...

…it would be better all the way around.

At various points in life, I’ve been within walking distance of a bar, and that was always a nice thing.

Although every time I’d go, the same people would be there and I’d think “Jeez, they must be alcoholics.”

[Chainfire]

3. I misread the title as Gray bars...

I was thinking, "We are doing away with jails?"

I stand corrected.

[Celerity]

7. As of 2919, there were only 15 or so lesbian bars left in the US. Now probably less, due to COVID.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/rise-and-fall-americas-lesbian-bars-180976801/

[Sandy Becker]

8. Part of the general depression in the hospitality industry? n/t