“My staff is very, very diverse.
I have straight guys and girls, I have transgender [employees], I have gay guys, I have lesbians, people questioning themselves, and that reflects on the show.
Years ago, it wasn’t as open and accepted, being gay. So if you wanted to see leather daddies, you’d go here. If you were a lesbian, you’d go to this bar. If you wanted muscle boys, you would go here. Everything had a certain label.
Unfortunately, those bars have closed, because [being LGBTQ is] becoming accepted. Everyone gets to have fun together.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
[The Abbey is] a gay bar where everyone is accepted.
The [LGBT] community has to really stay strong together. Look after each other. There’s so many people out there now that are trying to hurt our community.
And more than ever our community has to stay closer and protect each other and support each other more than any other time I’ve seen in 26 years of doing business.
We do really control it here, because we don’t want to have our gay community as an accessory to [straight women’s] fun and their bachelorette parties.”— The Abbey’s CEO David Cooley, discussing accusations that The Abbey is no longer a gay bar in an interview with The Advocate
Nowuvedoneit
That’s all of West Hollywood to begin with nowadays. I went two years ago to celebrate a friends birthday and saw straight couples and straight women more than gays. The bartenders ignored the gay drinkers in order to serve the girls first. I was outside drinking with my friend and this straight girl would not stop pestering me. She wanted to be my friend and I told her I was not interested. She got in my face repeatedly but the bouncers did nothing.
It wasn’t till my friend grabbed her that the bouncers reacted but only to help her. We explained what she had been doing and they just escorted her to another side of the bar. San Francisco is worse, the girls will push you out of the way and the bartenders completely ignore you. It wasn’t till we went to some bar that had a dark back area where the other gays hooked up that we were treated ok.
JaredMacBride
Goodness, it’s been at least 15 years since The Abbey was a “gay” bar. Was this interview done in 2002?
ChrisK
Ha. I was just there last night. I had one drink and was out of there. Too crowded for my tastes. Yes the bartenders are hot but very straight. Don’t expect much interaction or even a smile unless you’re a pretty girl.
You can always go around the corner to the motherload though. It’s pretty sleazy and hasn’t changed at all since the 70s but the bartenders while not the hottest are nice and the drinks are strong and cheap. Plus no lines.
I know Cooley a bit. Used to hang out at his parties which were legendary back in the day. The guy is mega rich from just one bar. Funny when you think it started out as a lowly coffee shop.
Fredrick Bertz
Several years ago, I was accosted on the Abbey dance floor by drunk girls. This happened not once or twice, but almost every time I went there with my friends.
Not only do I not consider the Abbey as a gay bar, but it is not a safe space for me to go and enjoy myself. My friends and I actually consider it to be a media industry bar where LGBT are included but not always respected.
He BGB
I lived in West Hollywood for 10 years and never patronized the abbey once. There are dozens of other bars in the area that were fun. And I don’t go to a bar because it’s upscale or a dive or whatever. I always went for friendly service and friendly people. The patrons’ income or job description meant nothing.
throwslikeagirl
The Abby is what it is without apology. I like what Cooley says. There are still old-time gay bars within walking distance of the place.
I’ve gone to The Abby very sporadically ( as in every few years– had breakfast there a few months back ) since it opened. It never was a traditional gay bar. There are plenty of options in WeHo and Los Angeles in general. No need to go anywhere you don’t care for.
cabe
It actually was very gay back in the day. I used to live a few blocks away and was there frequently. Despite the fact that there are tons of straight bars/clubs a few blocks north on Sunset Bl, straight folks have taken over almost all of the gay bars in WeHo.
That is why so many gay bars have recently opened up downtown. Gay people want to get away from the straight sports bar ‘bro and ho atmosphere that has taken over W. Hwd. There is still a place for gay bars just like there are other niche bars like Banda bars for Mexcians or Middle eastern dance clubs or country & western bars etc.
In any event, the Abbey these days is like going to a Applebees on a Friday night in Des Moines.
jkthsnk
It was a great coffe house but since it became a bar The Abbey has always had the worst bartenders in Weho. Slow inside and out. It ceased to be relevant for anyone but the Kartrashian crowd after the second remodel.
Richard 55
As a rule, women find male homosexual attraction quite threatening. In the old days, this did not impact negatively on male homosexual attraction because the sexes were segregated. Men could easily find other men to have a relationship or a one-night stand because the prevalence of all-male environments was a perfect cover against the anti-male homosexuality laws that existed back then.
With the rise of modern feminism, male homosexual attraction has been pushed more and more to the margins to accommodate a woman’s fear of male homosexual attraction. The decline of sex segregation has made matters worse as women have been allowed to impose their norms on social spaces.
Women’s views and male homosexual attraction simply do not mix. They are two opposing forces created by the innate differences between the sexes.
ChrisK
You change into more names. Last one being Brian our resident troll that just happens to be a mysogonist too.
scotshot
@CHRISK
Just the keywords “homosexual attraction” tip us off to Brian.
I have a feeling that whoever “he” is, is probably 85 and lives in a retirement village near Omaha.
seaguy
As the Gayborhoods that the bars are located in become more gentrified like what is happening in Seattle on Capitol Hill and from the sounds of things also in WEHO the bars in those neighborhoods are going to have to adapt and that usually means welcoming in the non gay customers. It’s in a way a sad part of our community becoming more accepted because we are losing the bars that were once our exclusive domain where we could escape the the screaming girls and drunk frat bros of the straight bars to feel safe and welcome.
Captain Obvious
West Hollywood is swimming with yuppies. It’s still the least sucky place in LA but I wouldn’t call it a gay area. Most seem to have moved to the valley or out of California altogether.
Dan
This is nothing new. Gay neighborhoods have a lifespan. Always have. Gay people tend to move in to disenfranchised neighborhoods, clean them up and eventually get priced out as the trendy wanna-be’s with cash follow behind them. In the past gay people needed to live near each other to meet and protect one another. These days with social media and the greater acceptance of gay people in general, its not as needed. So these neighborhoods have an even shorter lifespan. Its good and bad…its good because it shows gay people don’t need to be as segregated anymore, but its bad because it also means our community its dying. The bars, the clubs, the pride festivals are all being hijacked by straights because they see it as hip and cool. But they too will move on one day and then that will be it for gay communities. Its kind of depressing.
Kenney G
He’s a sell out, plain and simple kissing straight people’s asses, You go to a straight bar and hold hands if you’re gay and see what happens.
like he’s doing someone a favor by hiring all the straight people to bring in more straight Customers. It’s not a gay bar it a straight bar with a few fags working there.