On Friday, New York City and the world is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. In the decades since the riots, the gay-rights movement has made huge strides in the US, from the legalization of same-sex marriage to openly gay candidates being elected to public office.
But, ironically, as the city remembers the 1969 riots that are credited with catalyzing the strides made toward equality, its home to fewer gay and lesbian bars than it has been in decades.
In 1991, OutWeek, the lesbian and gay news magazine, listed 64 gay bars across the five boroughs. By 2018, Pride guide Metrosource could find only 49 to round up. This 23 percent drop hit one segment of the community the hardest: There are only three self-identifying lesbian bars left in NYC.
The reasons behind the closures are myriad and not entirely negative from a growing acceptance of LGBTQ people and changing attitudes about alcohol consumption to the rise of dating apps.
Were finding that with the younger generation of LGBTQ clients, their attention span is shorter, Mark Nayden, co-owner of Park Slope gay bar Excelsior, tells The Post. After 20 years in the neighborhood, Excelsior will shutter at the end of June, and Nayden blames the ephemeral pop-up venue trend. Theres a lot of that in Bushwick, or Williamsburg even, he says of the limited-time ventures. That has changed the climate.
Apps are the new hookup spot
Hookup apps such as the gay-specific Grindr and Scruff not to mention the omnisexual Tinder, Bumble and OkCupid are also changing the way queer folk meet and party.
It used to be that bars were the only place you could go to meet people, says Lisa Menichino, 53, the owner of Cubbyhole in the West Village. Now with all these apps, you dont have to do that anymore.
Apps that make hooking up easy arent the only thing to blame knitting hooks may also be an issue.
The larger culture is increasingly wellness obsessed, with millennials drinking less. LGBTQ people are following suit, turning to wholesome activities such as knitting circles to meet people.
Millennials, no matter their sexuality, also show a preference for more fleeting, social-media-feed-friendly experiences, such as intimate pop-ups, over brick-and-mortar institutions. Younger people want experiences they can document, something they can share on their Instagram, says Anita Dolce Vita, 43, who has run queer style brand dapperQ since 1999. Its really hard to do that when youre yelling over a DJ at a nightclub.
The growing cost of doing business in the city has also made pop-up events more practical.
There are more monthly parties due to rising rent and gentrification in NYC, says Crown Heights resident and artist Gwen Shockey, 31, whose Addresses Project has mapped more than 200 venues important to NYC queer history. It is much harder to open a seven-days-a-week space, and easier to host a queer night at a preexisting space.
