Oct 12, 2007  |  By: ZACK ROSEN  | COMMENTS     

Whisperings about the death of gay bars began with the advent of gay personal sites like Gay.com and Manhunt, and as gay life becomes increasingly less compartmentalized, that buzz has grown into a roar. Several recent articles on the subject have raised the question: Is the gay bar obsolete?

“Gay bars and clubs are not likely to be become extinct anytime soon, but they are definitely on the endangered list,” says D.C. nightlife entrepreneur Mark Lee. “Our nightlife ventures are first and foremost independent small businesses, serving a niche demographic. Because of both these factors they are economically hypersensitive to both internal market forces and external political and regulatory forces.”

Small business resource site Entreprenuer.com posted an article in September, later reprinted on AOL’s small business web site, listing 10 current businesses that could become extinct in the next 10 years. Alongside obvious entries like payphones and CD stores, the article listed gay bars. As gays are becoming more accepted in mainstream society, the article asserts that socializing will move into mixed spaces and only the best bars will survive.

A night out at the Black Cat or the Wonderland Ballroom certainly adds weight to that theory. It’s just as easy to find gay men there as it is at Dupont Italian Kitchen, although at the traditional 17th Street establishments you don’t have to play the “is he gay or just friendly?” guessing game.

Richard Rothstein, a New York-based blogger for Queersighted.com, wrote a response piece to a Sept. 16 article in the Orlando Sentinel that also predicted the end of gay bars. Though he believes that gay bars will never be completely gone, he acknowledges that they’re not the community centers they once were. 

“Here in Manhattan, you can be out and gay in restaurants and stores and parks and dog runs,” Rothstein says. “It’s happening more and more to hang out in bars that are neither gay nor straight — that are just bars. If I want to hang out with a bunch of gay men, I don’t need to necessarily go to a place that’s self identified as gay.”

THE SAME PRINCIPLE working against gay bars in big cities could prove a boon for them in rural America. Small town America tends to be several steps behind its cities in tolerance for gays. As the metropolises increasingly allow gays to be out everywhere, the small towns may start to grant their gay residents at least one space that’s completely their own.

“As it gets more accepting, people won’t be as critical of opening bars in West Virginia or small towns,” says Dave Perruzza, manager of Cobalt and JR.’s. “Those people have no place to go. Right now no one is going out [to gay bars in rural areas] because they’re afraid they’ll get their asses kicked.”

Another factor in the feared demise of gay bars is the rise of the Internet as the main spot where gay men meet each other for sex. Whereas the best place to meet men used to be in bars on a Saturday night, a number of web sites have sprung up to satisfy that need more efficiently.

“The idea of [meeting] someone at the gay bar for sex just isn’t on my radar anymore,” Rothstein says. “It may be for some, although the kinds of bars that may be conducive to that are just diminishing. You walk into these lounges and it’s like someone’s living room — a bunch of guys of various ages hanging out with their friends.”

Whether or not they’re moving toward obsolescence, there’s a general agreement that gay bars will continue to evolve. As Rothstein notes, the spaces where gay men socialize have changed radically since the days of Stonewall. The cruising parks of the early 20th century gave way to underground clubs that were frequently raided by the police. Now, the model of a modern gay bar is more of a lounge, like Bebar, a bright clean space to chat, drink or dance.

A major proponent of that type of bar is Ed Bailey, one-time owner of the legendary dance club Tracks and 14th Street’s popular and trendy Halo. Bailey is also in the process of opening Town, a “very contemporary, shiny, high-end” dance club in the Shaw neighborhood. Investing time and money in the nightspot, Bailey believes that gay bars are not going anywhere any time soon.