“The first time I went to a gay bar (in D.C.), I was called ‘Fish’ in line and my crotch was grabbed later that night,” Lisa Guraya, a 25-year-old account supervisor, tells me. In fact, it’s a huge plot point in the recently-released Fire Island movie. But you wouldn’t have an inkling about any of it within most gay bars, where the main concern among patrons seems to be who looks fuckable enough to take home.ĭon’t just take it from me: Many queer people know that if you’re not a specific “type” of attractive (cis, male, and white), you’re basically irrelevant or disrespected the second you enter a gay bar. LGBTQ+ rights are under attack, Black trans and nonbinary people are being murdered at unprecedented rates, and white supremacists are storming drag queen story hours.
![fucking beautiful gay men making love fucking beautiful gay men making love](http://www.cinemaqueer.com/movie%20images4/mentokiss6.jpg)
The problem isn’t that gay bars have changed post-pandemic it’s that they’ve stayed exactly the same - even though the world, or at least our collective conscience, has finally changed. In fact, just last week at a bar in Brooklyn, a gay white man made a bottom joke and pushed a cue stick against my butt cheek. The same, tired scene plays out pretty much every time I cross the threshold: Shirtless men with abs look me up and down, there are seldom any queer or trans women present, and people of color are often belittled. But in the year since I’ve personally added gay bars back into my social repertoire, something about them has felt lukewarm. Two years later, some of the bars and clubs I loved did indeed close, while many others miraculously survived.
![fucking beautiful gay men making love fucking beautiful gay men making love](https://66.media.tumblr.com/f1c7e6cc2b70d2325b341531c01bae1c/tumblr_mumax9dtJN1qguqlvo1_500.jpg)
![fucking beautiful gay men making love fucking beautiful gay men making love](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/attractive-kissing-young-couple-formal-clothing-129263705.jpg)
The future looked grim back then, and the general consensus was that COVID would probably spell the end of many already-struggling gay bars. In the summer of 2020, I donated money to keep some of my favorite queer establishments open.