Category: Who Needs Gay Bars?
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Counting bars with Damron Travel Guides
My data about the changes in the numbers of gay bars over time are based on Damron Travel Guides. These slim address books have been published by the same company since 1964 and under the same editor, Gina Gatta, since 1992. This stability and their national coverage makes them a unique resource in an era…
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Oklahoma City bound
If you want to understand gay life in America today, you need to go to a city with a historic gay neighborhood and thriving a womyn’s center, where gays won victories against police harassment of gay bars in 1969, where its corporate titans win Supreme Court cases, a city that has confronted the realities of…
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I Made the List! “The Best Writing From and About Northeast Ohio From 2016”
My short piece on my favorite lost gay bars, A Man’s World / Tool Shed / Crossover, made The Cleveland Scene’s list of the best writing from and about Northeast Ohio from 2016. The Editor, Vince Grzegorek, called it “An insightful and at times scathing look at the branding experiment turned neighborhood built, as the author…
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A Christmas Wreath for the Phoenix Cabaret
Two sides of the Phoenix cabaret in 2012 via Google Streetview, wreath visible above main door, R. For 5 years after it closed in 2011, a wreath adorned what used to be The Phoenix Cabaret and Embers Disco in Birmingham, Alabama. Don’t ask why I was looking up closed gay bars in a…
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Gay bar holiday jukebox playlist
Holidays have always been important in gay bars, and most gay bars go all-out on decorations that change more frequently than the seasons. The Hawk’s crucifix is permanent, however, above the work schedules and sticky notes that change as often as the garlands and ribbons in the rafters.
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Digital project: Mapping lost lesbian bars, 2006-2016
I just finished the first draft of a map of all lesbian bars in the U.S. and Canada that closed from 2006 until now. It may not be the most depressing map of the 21st century, but it is seriously sobering: The Map depicts 93 100 addresses (as of 9/27/2016) that no longer are lesbian…
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Lesbian bar closures, Lost Womyn’s Space
I’ve been reading the blog Lost Womyn’s Space for a while now, but it’s proving invaluable to track what the author ruefully calls “the Great Lesbian Bar Die Off.” You can read about my interest in lesbian bars here. It’s impossible to contact the author: the blog is anonymous, there’s no “About” section, and comments…
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Article: Post-Orlando Truth For You: Gay Bars Aren’t ‘Safe Spaces’
This piece was picked up by The Daily Beast, thanks to Melissa Petro of Becoming Writers and including suggestions from TDB editors and several friends. Read it here, or contact me for the archived version. Save Save Save
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Violence at gay bars and the police
Police actions in the aftermath of the terrorist massacre at Orlando’s Pulse were heroic. This is noteworthy because until recently police were often agents of violence at gay clubs. For most of the 20th century, going to gay bars meant that “you may be placing yourself in a position that you’re not just going to…
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Terrorism and gay bars
Gay bars have always been sites of danger, Terrorists and gay bashers have long used gay bars to find LGBTQ people- only last weekend, my boyfriend and I had “faggots” shouted at us from a speeding car outside a Columbus, Ohio gay bar. The massacre at Pulse’s nightclub is the worst mass shooting in U.S.…
Greggor Mattson 