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“It’s not packed - I just don’t want to do it anymore,” Splash owner and founder Brian Landeche told the New York Times shortly before it shuttered. Splash closed in 2013 due to a dwindling crowd as the gay scene moved away from Chelsea.
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Notorious nightclub the Limelight suffered a slow death, reopening as the Avalon in 2003 following a series of police shutdowns before closing as a club in 2007. The gay megaclub scene of the 1980s and ’90s - and its iconic institutions - have virtually vanished from NYC. “It is much harder to open a seven-days-a-week space, and easier to host a queer night at a preexisting space.” The Limelight disco in 1984 AP The death of the megaclub “There are more monthly parties due to rising rent and gentrification in NYC,” says Crown Heights resident and artist Gwen Shockey, 31, whose Addresses Project has mapped more than 200 venues important to NYC queer history. The growing cost of doing business in the city has also made pop-up events more practical. “It’s really hard to do that when you’re yelling over a DJ at a nightclub.” “Younger people want experiences they can document, something they can share on their Instagram,” says Anita Dolce Vita, 43, who has run queer style brand dapperQ since 1999. Millennials, no matter their sexuality, also show a preference for more fleeting, social-media-feed-friendly experiences, such as intimate pop-ups, over brick-and-mortar institutions. Revelers celebrate in front of the historic gay bar Stonewall Inn after the passing of a bill legalizing gay marriage in New York state on July 24, 2011. LGBTQ people are following suit, turning to wholesome activities such as knitting circles to meet people. The larger culture is increasingly wellness obsessed, with millennials drinking less. “Now with all these apps, you don’t have to do that anymore.”Īpps that make hooking up easy aren’t the only thing to blame - knitting hooks may also be an issue. “It used to be that bars were the only place you could go to meet people,” says Lisa Menichino, 53, the owner of Cubbyhole in the West Village. Hookup apps such as the gay-specific Grindr and Scruff - not to mention the omnisexual Tinder, Bumble and OkCupid - are also changing the way queer folk meet and party. Getty Images Apps are the new hookup spot “That has changed the climate.” Patrons celebrate at the Stonewall Inn on June 26, 2015, the day the US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have the right to marry in all 50 states. “There’s a lot of that in Bushwick, or Williamsburg even,” he says of the limited-time ventures. After 20 years in the neighborhood, Excelsior will shutter at the end of July, and Nayden blames the ephemeral “pop-up” venue trend. “We’re finding that with the younger generation of LGBTQ clients, their attention span is shorter,” Mark Nayden, co-owner of Park Slope gay bar Excelsior, tells The Post.
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The reasons behind the closures are myriad - and not entirely negative - from a growing acceptance of LGBTQ people and changing attitudes about alcohol consumption to the rise of dating apps. This 23 percent drop hit one segment of the community the hardest: There are only three self-identifying lesbian bars left in NYC.
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By 2018, Pride guide Metrosource could find only 49 to round up. In 1991, OutWeek, “the lesbian and gay news magazine,” listed 64 gay bars across the five boroughs. In the decades since the riots, the gay-rights movement has made huge strides in the US, from the legalization of same-sex marriage to openly gay candidates being elected to public office.īut, ironically, as the city remembers the 1969 riots that are credited with catalyzing the strides made toward equality, it’s home to fewer gay and lesbian bars than it has been in decades. On Friday, New York City - and the world - is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. Political donations lead Stonewall Inn to ban some beers How 'Drag Race All Stars' Jan and Scarlet Envy celebrate Pride weekend NYC's 51st annual Pride Parade virtual for second year in a row Wild brawl breaks out between Pride revelers and cops as iconic park descends into chaos