90s gay club old bridge

Not just any gay bar, but one in the suburbs, far from his Northeast Philadelphia home and the eyes of anyone in his large Irish Catholic family. New Hope had three. No more. Suburban gay bars have all but disappeared. New Hope supports only one gay bar now, the Raven.

The decline reflects major shifts in American attitudes — among both gay and straight people — and the emergence of online sites for dating and hooking up. It also illuminates the obsolete business model of the traditional gay bar.

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Simply having a gay clientele is not enough and has not been for a long time. Our dollars are welcomed everywhere. Can you imagine today a couple not feeling comfortable going to almost any bar there? InEntrepreneur magazine listed gay bars — along with newspapers and record stores — among 10 businesses facing extinction in 10 years.

InSlate magazine noted a Brett Bumgarner, who is writing his dissertation on how gay men meet, said gay bars are perceived less as singles places now, their original purpose replaced by cellphone applications such as Grindr that signal users when another interested gay man is nearby.

Younger people in particular — both gay and straight — are more interested in mixed settings. Straight bars, for instance, are offering gay nights. They proliferated with speakeasies in the s. In the s, ownership of these bars shifted from underworld types, who often paid off police, to gay proprietors.

More suburban bars opened up around this time, Skiba said. New Hope still had the Cartwheel, Prelude, and the Raven. Trenton had Buddies, Casa Lito, and Club A lot of weird people. A lot of nice-looking people. It was fun. But it was. A lot of his regulars did not feel safe in Philadelphia in the s.

But many people have grown older or moved back to the city, he said. The suburban bars started to die out in the s. Most were gone, except for the Raven, by the mid s, although not necessarily for business reasons.