New data shows that the number of gay bars in the country is declining. Which some warn could lead to people from the LGBTQ+ community having less safe spaces to be themselves in public.
Professor Greggor Mattson, who teaches Sociology at Oberlin college, made some troubling discoveries in his research. In Chicago, more than a third of all gay bars closed between 2007 and 2019. This trend seems to have been accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic as there were 38 gay bars in 2019 compared to the 26 in 2021. Showing a 23.% decrease in gay bars in Chicago over the span of two years.
This is problematic as some argue that gay bars are some of the only places within our society where LGBTQ+ people fully can be themselves in public. However, the trend seems to affect bars that primarily target gay men. As 100% of lesbian bars survived the pandemic nationwide.
The research argues that the rising popularity of location based LGBTQ+ dating apps can be one of the reasons gay bars are declining in popularity. Also suggesting that more bars than ever that don’t list themselves as gay bars may be friendly to the community.
According to the researchers, the location of a bar that closes also affects the impact of its closing. As bars in gay districts closing may have less of an negative effect on the community compared to a gay bar closing in a suburb.