It’s been a tough 2019 for gay and lesbian bars and clubs across the country, especially with the news that San Francisco’s Blow Buddies is on the endangered list. While we cross our fingers for that sex club’s survival, let’s pour one out for these five destinations — all of which have either closed or announced closures since New Year’s.
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Cobalt
Facing an expiring lease, this Washington D.C. gay bar announced its closure earlier this month. “For more than 20 years, our amazing customers and incredible staff have contributed greatly to the DC-area LGBT community and we have always strived to do our part to strengthen local organizations, businesses, and the entire 17th Street neighborhood and we couldn’t be prouder of the legacy Cobalt leaves behind,” owner Eric Little said on Facebook.
Grand Central
News broke this month that the owner of this Baltimore institution, billed as one of the city’s largest gay nightclubs, sold the 15,000-square-foot property to a company that plans to redevelop the site. The club had been in business since 1991.
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Related: No, gay hook up apps aren’t killing gay bars — it’s actually far more complicated
Bum Bum Bar
The NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project confirmed earlier this month that this Queens bar — which attracted a “mixed, but mostly working-class, Latina lesbian crowd” — had shuttered. “It’s a really sad commentary on the state of nightlife for LGBTQ women,” Ken Lustbader, the nonprofit’s co-director, said in a statement. “This was one of the only places that provided the opportunity for LGBTQ women to meet each other in a safe environment.”
The Brass Rail
New London, Connecticut, is left without a gay bar with the closing of The Brass Rail, as The Day reported in January. “This was a family business in town for a very long time, and when the need was there for the LGBT community, that family opened its doors to us,” said former Mayor Daryl J. Finizio, “and I’ve never forgotten that.”
The Caliph
Billed by the Los Angeles Times as one of San Diego’s most iconic gay bars, The Caliph closed with the last call on New Year’s Eve after 58 years in business because its lease was not being renewed. “When I bought the place, I always wanted it to be all-inclusive — gay, straight, transgender, young, old, men, women,” owner Sherman Mendoza told the Times in December. “It was always open to everyone.”
Chrisk
I blame the millennials. It was their job to keep going out to these places and they totally dropped the ball. Now they just stay in and watch Netflix.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
I agree with ChrisK. All the younger guys use hookup apps. Am guilty myself, but I have developed life long friends from Gay bars.
I live on on Long Island. When I first came out there were like 20 Gay bars. Each had it’s night. We had Gay bowling league, ski trips, Holiday parties and many events which built a community, all without the internet. Younger guys have lost out on a lot. …
Prax07
Meh…been to gay bars/clubs a total of three times over my 40 years. I definitely won’t mourn their closing.
vaguy
I view this as good news that is reflective not only in the use of new apps but also the fact gay men are slowly mainstreaming in society. We don’t need gay world. Thank goodness. Gay bars are gross. The smell of spunk pervaded too many of them.
Blackceo
I was there for the early days of Cobalt in college undergrad and right after I graduated and oooo…..I got some stories for your ass from that place.
I’m sad Grand Central is closing. I was introduced to it about 6-7 years ago by my grad school professor who taught an LGBT course and took all us students out to Grand Central for our last official class, and it was the only Baltimore gay establishment I occasionally frequented.
Looking back I’m glad that there weren’t the hookup apps that exist now. I made some very genuine, substantive connections with people that I still keep in touch with, particularly Cobalt in terms of gay DC political connections. Good times.
Giuseppe
I think it’s unfair to totally blame hook-up apps, gay bars have become watered down in the last 10-15yrs: Now they’re half-filled with women and that makes them like every other bar, not to mention the need has diminished. What made a gay (and lesbian bars) necessary was they were special places where you could be amongst your “own kind”, now with more social acceptance and the open-doors-to-everyone policy, that unique angle is gone. Times change.
toronto
No sympathy here, these places are gross, dirty, and excuse me, but $15 for a beer?
iamru2
Wtf? How on earth are they gross and dirty?
bodie425
This is a double-edged sword. These clubs were a refuge from the hateful people in our world and a place to make friends and lovers without fear of judgement or retribution. I have many fond memories of my club days in Charlotte but I’ve no desire to go there now–too old and hate the loud music. But as someone above said, this is a sign that we no longer have to hide ourselves away in dark clubs during their business hours. Now, we can be “out” many places (but not all) all the time. This, is progress. This is what we fought for so we should not mourn too much.
Kangol
Uh, this is not exactly what “we” “fought for”. Many of us fought to be treated equally under the law, for an end to homophobia, and for sexual liberation. Go back and look at the gay rights movement of the 1970s. Having gay/queer institutions erased off the face of the map was not the aim of gay/LGBTQ rights activists, IJS. We’ll rue the day that these institutions, created by us for us, disappear. The larger society is not always safe, and in more than half of the US states, there are still no comprehensive laws protecting LGBTQ people.
sfhairy
Diva’s in San Francisco is closing at the end of the month. Long time gay, drag, trans bar. Sad to see it go.
Geeker
I’m in my forties and I’ve never even been in a gay bar.
MatthewHall
Most of the time I spent in gay bars in the 90s and early 2000s was a complete waste of time. I won’t mourn the loss of institutions that were never helpful to me. Gay men can make the world their gay bars now with technology and a new confidence that comes from a more inclusive, though far from ideal, society. Younger gay men are out in the world not leering at each other in dark spaces too loud for conversation and designed to make a profit for bar owners, not support genuine interaction among gay men. The use of booze and drugs in bars was an important part of the huge addiction problem among gay men today, also. Good riddance. Something much better is taking the place of gay bars.
wizbang_fl
Some bars/clubs were more about a hookup, others were about meeting people. In NYC when I first starting going out I met guys and joined a volleyball league, made friends, eventually planned trips (and didn’t have sex with any of them) Not to say we didn’t dance “naughty” but that was all it was just teasing not seriously to hook up. So we had a ball and weren’t worried about being “on the hunt”. I remember one year for Halloween my costume was a beside table with a tablecloth and another of our group dressed as a crochet hook. So when we went out the hook was linked to the table cloth and we were “hooked up with the one night stand”
Kangol
I had a great time in gay bars and clubs. I met my longtime partner in one, and had unforgettable experiences in others. It’s always nice to be able to be in a space with other gay/bi/queer men/people, and to be able to dance and let loose. NYC, DC, LA, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, etc. all had legendary bars and clubs, but I can think of great ones overseas too. There’s nothing like them, and losing those spaces is a loss for the LGBTQ community as a whole.
wizbang_fl
I always loved going out to the gay clubs and bars. At least in Florida and New York you would hear music being spun by DJ’s that couldn’t be found anywhere on radio, or streaming. Peter R, Danny T, Junior V. But when I moved to Florida from the North East cruising apps like Grindr started I saw more and more of the younger crowd were in their phone and not about actually talking with anyone, and there was an infiltration of straight girls and their boyfriends going to gay bars who were anything but respectful in the Florida bars and clubs. In the NYC bars the clubs/bars bouncers really screened out the “straight element” I remember one of the first times I went to the Palladium in NYC and when I approached the club the bouncer looked at me and said this is a gay club. I stopped and looked at him and said “I hope so, otherwise I just spent 45 minutes getting here.” He smiled and gave me a ticket to get in. Limelight, Roxy, Tunnel, Twillo were all clubs that were around for years and have since disappeared. Guess it’s to be expected, but still sad to see less of a community of people meeting in person.