Gay Bar Casualties (2018)
By Aaron Eske
In cities like San Francisco, the battle for gay bars was won. For decades, the fight went hand-in-cocktail-cradling-hand with the fight for gay rights. It’s where queers learned they weren’t alone. Where they learned to organize. Learned to talk in code and cross-dress in clothes that said I don’t give a fuck because I am free and good luck stopping me. Gay bars were where queers shouted and rebelled and rebuilt when the police took away their progress time and time again.
There was a good reason why America’s police force harassed gay bars. It’s the same reason why gay bars in anti-LGBTQ countries are targets today. Authorities aren’t scared of two women drinking a beer and falling in love. They’re scared of what else happens when a roomful of queers gets together. There’s power in assembly.
American LGBTQ assembly is fading. Or maybe the way we assemble is just changing. Twin Peaks Tavern turned a wall into a window in 1972. Grindr turned a window into a pop-up bubble in 2009.
The new neighbors and high rent that made lesbian bars go extinct in San Francisco aren’t all that have changed for gay bars in the 21st century. Going online has replaced going out. Tinder, Grindr, Facebook groups and Twitter hashtags now make it possible for queer people to find each other across an ocean or in their neighboring apartments less than 500 feet away. We don’t need barstools in a basement anymore to bond and belong.
The IRL gay communities of José Sarria and Rikki Streicher’s times do still exist. Yes, of course there are gay bars in San Francisco. But the community has recently shattered a final barrier. Queer couples on their first date now hold hands at non-queer coffee shops, theatres, bus stops, restaurants and bars.
Many LGBTQ people are living the kind of free life young Jim Kepner could only imagine in the World War II letters to his penpal. It’s an historic change – a change that both promises a future of LGBTQ freedom and threatens the future of LGBTQ places. When the battle for the gay bar is over, are gay bars over next?
There was a good reason why America’s police force harassed gay bars. It’s the same reason why gay bars in anti-LGBTQ countries are targets today. Authorities aren’t scared of two women drinking a beer and falling in love. They’re scared of what else happens when a roomful of queers gets together. There’s power in assembly.
American LGBTQ assembly is fading. Or maybe the way we assemble is just changing. Twin Peaks Tavern turned a wall into a window in 1972. Grindr turned a window into a pop-up bubble in 2009.
The new neighbors and high rent that made lesbian bars go extinct in San Francisco aren’t all that have changed for gay bars in the 21st century. Going online has replaced going out. Tinder, Grindr, Facebook groups and Twitter hashtags now make it possible for queer people to find each other across an ocean or in their neighboring apartments less than 500 feet away. We don’t need barstools in a basement anymore to bond and belong.
The IRL gay communities of José Sarria and Rikki Streicher’s times do still exist. Yes, of course there are gay bars in San Francisco. But the community has recently shattered a final barrier. Queer couples on their first date now hold hands at non-queer coffee shops, theatres, bus stops, restaurants and bars.
Many LGBTQ people are living the kind of free life young Jim Kepner could only imagine in the World War II letters to his penpal. It’s an historic change – a change that both promises a future of LGBTQ freedom and threatens the future of LGBTQ places. When the battle for the gay bar is over, are gay bars over next?