Homo Hope and Glory
posted by on September 17 at 11:51 AM
I got to go out for drinks late last week—my son was away on a camping trip, Ecce, so no children were harmed during my drinking binge—and snapped this picture of Pony’s completely infamous, thoroughly nonfunctional glory hole at Pony, the temporary gay bar/vintage porn installation in the Cha Cha’s old space. The number in the clown’s mouth is scrawled on the wall of the bathroom on the other side of the glory hole. As we’ve pointed out before on Slog, the glory hole at Pony is really more of a peep hole—you would need a very thin, very long dick to actually get a glory-hole blowjob at Pony. (If you were using the glory hole, I should say.) The glory hole at Pony is more of an homage to glory holes than an actual glory hole.
What Marcus and his crew have created with Pony—and here’s hoping they find a space to move to when that block comes down later this year—is an homage to sleazy late 70s/early ’80s gay bars, the kind of dark, sleazy gay bars that were tucked up away in corners, in falling down buildings, with blacked out windows, spaced-out go-go boys, beat-up video games, and the odd glory hole. The only thing Pony lacks, if you ask me, are a couple of first-generation AIDS-before-it-was-called-AIDS awareness posters tacked up in the bathrooms, posters that were dismissed as panicky and alarmist when they went up. It turned out, of course, that those posters weren’t nearly panicky or alarmist enough.
Most of the bars Pony resembles went out of business in the mid-’80s, ‘round about the time that gay bars with windows that faced the street—windows that weren’t blacked out! bars you could be seen drinking in!—started opening. As more people lived full out lives, there was less of a need for walk-in drinking closets. At the time a lot of stories were written about these “open” gay bars, and how the growing acceptance of gays and lesbians made older, sleazier, more discreet gay bars obsolete.
Well, now a lot of those bars—the open bars, the bars that put the original Pony-ish bars out of business—are closing. Because the forces of openness and integration that put the Ponies out of business are undermining the need for gay bars, period. At least that’s the message of this piece in the Orlando Sentinal. Gay bars are closing left and right in Orlando, a city with a large gay population. Why?
To some, the loss of Full Moon, Faces, Lava and Southern Nights signals the end of an era in which bars served as the hub of social life in the gay community. They offered sanctuary, anonymity and intimacy in a world that was largely hostile toward gays and lesbians.“It was the community center. There were no other social places to gravitate to,” said Steve Tuhy, 54, a gay bar owner who moved to Orlando three years ago from Minneapolis.
But that changed as gays gained greater acceptance in society, older gays became more monogamous, and younger gays gravitated toward nightclubs that cater to a mixed crowd. “The larger percentage are in relationships, taking care of things at home. A lot have kids,” Tuhy said. “If you’re under 30, you don’t care. You just go wherever it’s a cool, hot bar.”
….
Orlando follows a national trend of long-established bars shutting down. In New York, it was the Roxy, where Madonna and Bette Midler performed. In Nashville, The Chute closed after 23 years. Four bars in Minneapolis shut down in the past year. The Suncoast Resort—St. Petersburg’s version of the Parliament House, an Orlando institution—closed to make room for a Home Depot.
“A gay nightclub is obsolete,” said Tuhy, who runs the Beer Bar, a gay neighborhood bar on Edgewater Drive. “It’s something that has served its purpose.”
Are gay bars obsolete? Maybe in some places, maybe not in others. But I remember what it was like to walk into the Bushes, a bar in Chicago, in 1982 when I was 17. There was a big, hostile world outside, but when the bar’s door shut behind you—when you were in a space where everyone was gay—you were free to relax, you could drop your guard. Can you get that feeling in regular clubs and bars in a city like Chicago or Orlando or Seattle today?
Seems that way—there’s still a demand for gay bars, of course. Orlando has seen a lot of its gay bars close, but not all of them. Despite the fact that you can be as gay as you like at “straight” bars like Smith or Linda’s or Re-bar or Cha Cha or West 5, etc., Seattle still has R-Place, the Cuff, Madison Pub, the Eagle, the Wildrose, etc. But all attempts to open second lesbian bar in Seattle have failed, and Sugar couldn’t make it as gay bar. Despite the success of Purr, it seems that demand for new gay bars in Seattle has been flat for a while—it’ll be interesting to see if Manray reopens somewhere after its building comes down.
But the success of Pony proves that a bar that offers up something different can succeed. And what does Pony offer? Well, basically the same thing the Crescent still does—a gay bar in the sleazy, pre-floor-to-ceiling windows, pre-sexually-integrated nightlife tradition. Pony, as a recreation and an homage, is self-aware in a way that the Crescent is not. Which is why the former is full of young people (except when I drop by and raise the average age by ten years) that want to live in the past for a few hours, and the latter is full of men that have been living in the past for decades.
I'm a slut.
What attempts to open a 2nd lesbian bar? The Easy was very successful for 5 years (ok, maybe 4 years - the first year, before they opened the separate dance area, was a little underwhelming). Word on the street at the time was that they were bought out by the guys who wanted to open yet another gay bar, not that they closed due to lack of patronage.
The end of gay culture. No one is sad to see it die. A man like Dan can be out in his publication and earn enough to finance a million dollar home, private school for his kid and snow boarding vacations to expensive resorts. What's wrong with that.
Gays need to assimilate into mainstream culture. They are no different than everyone else.
However young Jews should read David Mamet's new book which demands that apostate Jews return to religious observance as the only authentic expression of Judaism. Jews must resist every form of assimilation. And Campus Hillel groups are creating a new generation that is observant, informed and willing to make sure Jewish culture is stronger than ever.
Gay culture really never mattered. Now that gentile gay men can own a home and live mainstream lives, assimilation will kill off the sleezy bars and stupid parades. No one will miss gay culture.
It's Jewish culture that matters now, and it's beautiful to see so many young Jewish men renounce gay culture and return to Torah, Sabbat, and social groups that feed their Jewish souls.
The discreet, low-key neighborhood gay bar where I used to live closed this winter after over 30 years. From the Guapo last summer:
Much has changed in the three decades since Nutbush City Limits, one of the Chicago area's oldest suburban gay bars, was founded.
In the old days, owner and Vietnam War vet Mike Zych used a baseball bat to fend off people who came by to insult and threaten customers. He said he suffered three concussions from being hit on the head with bottles in the parking lot.
When the Nutbush celebrated its 30th anniversary on July 29, the mayor of suburban Forest Park and many other neighbors, gay and straight, came for drinks priced at 1976 rates: $1 to $1.50.
"My crowd is more acceptable now," said Zych, whose partner took the bar's name from a Tina Turner song about her home town. "There have been good changes," Zych said, in public attitudes toward gay men and lesbians.
But that doesn't mean business is booming at the saloon, housed in a building that once hid a speak-easy. Zych says the bar's "glory days" came when most gay people in conservative suburbs were in the closet, and people traveled from miles around to get to the discreet, welcoming Nutbush. Now, customers have more choices of gay-friendly venues, both in the city and in the suburbs. Gas prices, health consciousness and the risk of arrest for driving while intoxicated also keep customers away more than in the old days.
"Now people can go anywhere they want, and they also don't go out as much as they used to," Zych said. "I've definitely seen better times."
I don't think gay bars will ever fully close down. You still need places to go where you know you can hit on any guy in the place without risking assault, like Neighbours used to be before the frat boys started showing up and calling regulars "faggot." There's just something about the critical mass of gays.
Issur you are a pain in the ass - and not from a rousing fuck session.
Dim wit.
Bottleneck - lezzie joint two
Wetspot - lezzie bath house - who needs booze
i refuse to go to anything but gay bars, of course not in seattle.
Dan's comment about his age and the comment about under 30s made me wonder: are gay bars segregated by age? Bars for single straights are pretty much divided into under 30, 30-40, 40-55, and God's Waiting Room, so I wondered how it worked for gays.
@10
The best place to score hot daddies isn't a gay bar. It's 1200 Bistro. That's where I go when I'm crazy horny.
Gaybars? I'm for 'em! It saddens to see them slowly succumbing to assimilation. I think gay people are also disappearing. The more straight acting gay folk become the less we have any real claim to personal culture. There have always been bars that cater to group affinities: cop bars, biker bars, lawyer bars, and etc. Those places keep their identities because the clientele and management actively exclude outsiders with bad service and attitude. Gay bars though, have usually been more welcoming than not because we, as a group have been so desirous of being accepted. We have big "like me please" signs pasted all over us and all our events. Bring back exclusivity!
I'm with Gital.
Assimilation only goes so far. While I can go into almost any bar in Seattle and feel reasonably accepted, this is predicated on the assumption that I will not hit on the straight boys, even in liberal Seattle. And in a mainstream bar, it is sometimes difficult to tell the gay from the straight boys. And the drunker I get, the less accurate my gaydar gets (if it was ever accurate to begin with).
So there is still a need for a place where I can go, where it is totally safe for me to hit on any guy in sight without getting punched (turned down, fine, but not punched). And a gay bar is still that place.
I am with Gital as well. I go to more straight clubs than gay clubs but when I am at the mixed clubs even, I will not hit on someone I think is hot since I run the chance of having the shit beat out of me. So...if I want to hit on a guy I have to go to the gay clubs. Once straight men no longer have a problem with guys hitting on them (they have not figured out they can just say no thank you) then Gay clubs will go the way of the Dodo.
it's manhunt's fault...why go out and get drunk and make a bunch of fake friends when you can find what you want online...and then go out with the people you choose NOT because they help you get laid (improve your image)and are gay too but because you have something in common with them...
Pony certainly wins the award for Bar That Looks and Acts Most Like A Gay Bar, but to me it's really more of a "mixed" place, with so many straight hipsters hanging out there. Same goes for the Crescent. It's not a bad thing (most straight hipsters won't try to hit you for hitting on them), it's just another indication of the current state of things.
Speaking of, it appears that Sonya's downtown is no longer "gay in the back." Went there a couple of weeks ago and it's been completely stripped of all things gay, right down to copies of The Stranger and SGN. There was a football game on the TV and some horrible music playing that I could only describe as "Third Eye Blind."
And in other news, OUT Magazine recently named Re-Bar as Seattle's best gay bar. Which says a lot.
disclaimer: this is from a breeder.
BUT I think that I am at least partially right. One of the primary forces closing down sleazy gay bars is the internet. If you are trolling for anonymous ass it is no further than a click away. ( or airport restrooms if you're a closeted congressman) GLBT people who are looking for more than that generally don't want the risk of stepping on anonymous spooge and will go to a classier place. Now, they'll always be some demand, but it's getting smaller
Jesus fuck, what a bunch of sentimental bullshit--over a bar, of all things. Why don't you just join a gym for the sauna action, and have yourself a Lemon Party?
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