Manhunting Just Got a Little Harder
By: Arthur Keith
Tags: Pride Parade, Gay Pride, Gay, Covid 19, Chicago

Every facet of life as we know it has changed. Unlike the AIDS crisis, COVID has no boundaries. It strikes whoever and whenever.

Chicago Pride Parade. Photo: Author

Fifty-plus years after Stonewall, queer spaces are going away. Is it the fault of the apps, i.e. GrindR or Adam4Adam? Or is it just boredom? After all, it takes skill and finesse to find a man and take him home on the same night. I’m not sure if the telephone generation knows how to do that.

Gay life was about live encounters. The Bloomberg article went on to state there were 2,500 gay bars in the US in 1976. Today, according to Damron’s Gay Travel Guide, there are only about 1,400 worldwide.

COVID-19 has decimated small businesses, which is where most gay bars fall. These places are closing faster than you can get there for your last fix.

Chicago is the only real frame of reference I have for urban gay life, but it is influential enough to be representative of what is happening in the gay community nationwide. And the downfall of the gay bar has everything to do with online dating and apps. Consider these Chicago gay bar closings:

Girlbar, a lesbian bar, closed in 1999

The Eagle, a leather bar, closed in 2010

StarGaze, the last real lesbian bar and T’s as well, both in Andersonville

SPIN left a most desirable address (Halsted and Belmont) in 2014. It’s now a noodle shop.

Temptations and Hunter’s, both in the suburbs, gone

Halsted’s Bar and Grill closed in 2016

Little Jim’s, the oldest gay bar in the City closed this year, as did The Manhandler after a 40-year run.

Jackhammer, on the Northside, is closed indefinitely

All bars have to close at 10 or 11pm, which include the venerable spots like Sidetrack, Roscoe’s Tavern, Hydrate, and Berlin.

Chicago Pride Parade. Photo: Author

Many others have come and gone. Having a symbiotic relationship, there were several gay publications that the bars were dependent on for promotion. The publications needed the bars for advertising revenue. Gay Chicago and the Chicago Free Press went out of business years ago, and the oldest newspaper of them all, The Windy City Times, recently went online only. There are a couple left. They, too, come and go.

Most every holiday has its parade, but the Gay Pride Parades are especially colorful, risque, and a whole lot of fun. Nearly a million spectators have shown up for Chicago’s version in years past. Gone.

Even in my new hometown of Albuquerque, gay life has been dealt a blow. The Albuquerque Social Club, one of the three remaining gay bars in the city, shuttered in 2020. Advocate.com noted that the “Soch”, as it is referred to locally, is one of “60 (Dead or Dying) Gay Bars in the United States”.

“Do gay bars serve a purpose? “— Advocate.com

Reuters reported on the phenomenon on May 13, 2010: “You can’t run a bar (or restaurant for that matter) at 50% occupancy and expect to make money. Bars live on being crowded, being in close proximity to others, and being able to flirt”.

Like many other businesses, for gay bars, it’s either evolve or die a slow death. Online hookup sites such as the aforementioned GrindR and A4A continue to grow their audience, in part because they can offer immediate gratification at an arm’s length, which so many of us are wont to have. Click and you’re online, click and you’re off. Tap. Woof. Delete. Block. If these sites continue to eat into gay bars’ profits, COVID-19 will surely be the death knell.

Gay bars, as we have known them, may only exist in the future in gay meccas like Palm Springs, Provincetown, Key West and the like. Cruising the bars may revert back to cruising the streets, dangerous as they may be.

COVID-19 may be the breakdown of the gay community, which has depended on the bars for communal spaces in safe havens. Or has this forced assimilation? Maybe bars will no longer be “gay” or “straight”. They will just be bars. But how do you social distance in a bar? Will gatherings be held exclusively in private residences? Will there be limits to how many attendees you can have? Can occupancy in homes be policed?

Like every other piece of Americana, we’re all waiting to see what things will look like after the vaccine. Cities, as a place where people go to do things will have to reinvent themselves. What will replace those boarded up storefronts?