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.

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."

Dim wit.

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.

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.

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.