My undergraduate research assistants and I built a dataset to try to figure out if, where, and why gay bars are closing. The first piece is short, snappy, and open access on Socius. It’s less easy to click to, but the piece has a lengthy methodological appendix that contains the data table and lots of qualifications.
The abstract is: “Widespread alarm over gay bar closures in the United States has occurred in a vacuum of data. This visualization depicts changes in gay bar listings from the only national guidebook of LGBT places, published annually between 1964 and 2017 and again (and finally) in 2019. Trends in gay bar listings support perceptions of recent gay bar decline. They showed their largest five-year decline between 2012 and 2017, losing 18.6 percent. An additional 14.4 percent of bar listings disappeared in from 2017 to 2019. The listings at greatest risk receive little attention: Between 2007 and 2019, when all bar listings declined by 36.6 percent, lesbian bar listings shed 51.6 percent, cruisy men’s bar listings declined by 59.3 percent, and listings for bars serving people of color declined by 59.3 percent. The largest change in bar types, those serving gay men and women together, became the largest single category between 1997 and 2017. Caution must be exercised, however, in inferring rates of bar closure from bar listings.”
Normally we track citations only in academic journals. Within its first six months it was only cited once–by me (if you can’t love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else?)
But it had a moment in the popular press in 2020, particularly my finding that there were only 15 lesbian bars listed in the 2019 Damron (which miraculously was transmuted to 16 by some journalists). I was cited in The New York Times, Reuters, NBC News, Jezebel, them, Marie Claire, and Eater, among others.
Greggor Mattson 
21 responses to “Article: Are gay bars closing? Some data.”
[…] That number is a drop from the more than 200 lesbian bars in the late 1980s, according to a 2019 report from Greggor Mattson, an associate sociology professor at Oberlin College.” […]
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[…] That number is a drop from the more than 200 lesbian bars in the late 1980s, according to a 2019 report from Greggor Mattson, an associate sociology professor at Oberlin […]
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[…] remaining on the West Coast. Data on the number of LGBTQ spaces in the U.S. is spotty at best, but a 2019 study revealed a nearly 37 percent drop between 2007 and 2019 — and that’s before the pandemic […]
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[…] remaining on the West Coast. Data on the number of LGBTQ spaces in the U.S. is spotty at best, but a 2019 study revealed a nearly 37 percent drop between 2007 and 2019 — and that’s before the pandemic […]
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[…] remaining on the West Coast. Data on the number of LGBTQ spaces in the U.S. is spotty at best, but a 2019 study revealed a nearly 37 percent drop between 2007 and 2019 — and that’s before the pandemic […]
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[…] remaining on the West Coast. Data on the number of LGBTQ spaces in the U.S. is spotty at best, but a 2019 study revealed a nearly 37 percent drop between 2007 and 2019 — and that’s before the pandemic […]
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[…] on the West Coast. Data on the variety of LGBTQ areas within the U.S. is spotty at finest, however a 2019 research revealed an almost 37 % drop between 2007 and 2019 — and that’s earlier than the pandemic […]
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[…] Coast. Information on the variety of LGBTQ areas within the U.S. is spotty at greatest, however a 2019 study revealed a virtually 37 % drop between 2007 and 2019 — and that’s earlier than the pandemic […]
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[…] Knowledge at the selection of LGBTQ areas within the U.S. is spotty at best possible, however a 2019 find out about printed a just about 37 % drop between 2007 and 2019 — and that’s earlier than the pandemic […]
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[…] remaining on the West Coast. Data on the number of LGBTQ spaces in the U.S. is spotty at best, but a 2019 study revealed a nearly 37 percent drop between 2007 and 2019 — and that’s before the pandemic […]
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[…] ayer de la pandemia, dice Greggor Mattson, profesor de historia social LGBTQ+ en Oberlin. Su investigación muestra que el 37% de los bares y clubes gay a nivel doméstico cerraron entre 2007 y […]
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[…] remaining on the West Coast. Data on the number of LGBTQ spaces in the U.S. is spotty at best, but a 2019 study revealed a nearly 37 percent drop between 2007 and 2019 — and that’s before the pandemic […]
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[…] such establishments, says Greggor Mattson, a professor of LGBTQ+ social history at Oberlin. His research shows that 37% of gay bars and clubs nationwide closed between 2007 and […]
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[…] remaining on the West Coast. Data on the number of LGBTQ spaces in the U.S. is spotty at best, but a 2019 study revealed a nearly 37 percent drop between 2007 and 2019 — and that’s before the pandemic […]
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[…] such establishments, says Greggor Mattson, a professor of LGBTQ+ social history at Oberlin. His research shows that 37% of gay bars and clubs nationwide closed between 2007 and […]
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[…] such establishments, says Greggor Mattson, a professor of LGBTQ+ social history at Oberlin. His research shows that 37% of gay bars and clubs nationwide closed between 2007 and […]
LikeLike
[…] remaining on the West Coast. Data on the number of LGBTQ spaces in the U.S. is spotty at best, but a 2019 study revealed a nearly 37 percent drop between 2007 and 2019 — and that’s before the pandemic […]
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[…] ayer de la pandemia, dice Greggor Mattson, profesor de historia social LGBTQ+ en Oberlin. Su investigación muestra que el 37% de los bares y clubes gay a nivel doméstico cerraron entre 2007 y […]
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[…] remaining on the West Coast. Data on the number of LGBTQ spaces in the U.S. is spotty at best, but a 2019 study revealed a nearly 37 percent drop between 2007 and 2019 — and that’s before the pandemic […]
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[…] College researcher Greggor Mattson compiled a historical database of LGBTQ+-friendly spots and found that in the late 1980s there were about 200 lesbian bars in the U.S. Now there are only a couple […]
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[…] bars — who needs them these days?” Mattson wrote on his website promoting the book. “No really, who needs them? The newly out or newly widowed? The LGBTQ+ people who’ve rarely […]
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