Has the paradigm changed for gay bars?

[Borg69]

]Back in my younger days of bar and club life in the 80's and 90's, you could travel to any large city in this country on any day of the week and find a crowded bar and if it was the weekend, several that were packed and happening. During the week you can still do that in the very largest cities, but even there clubhopping from club to club is nothing like it was back in the day. Gay after hours, which was huge in the 90's, is difficult to find today. Times have changed. [/B]Of course the internet is part of it, but it is also a different world today. During the summer I live in suburban Detroit and within walking distance of my home is a lounge-type gay bar that consistently fills up with people more than any gay nightclub in the Detroit area. There is also a gay coffee shop in the area that transformed itself from being mostly just a gay bookstore, another kind of business suffering because of the internet. The coffee shop, that sells no alcohol, has drag queen shows on the weekend nights and is so busy you have to make reservations to get in. Although clubs can pack a lot of people in, lounges and coffee shops lend themselves to being more social. I'm glad there are more opportunities for gay people to meet others today, I just wish it wasn't the web replacing clubs because it is hard to believe that something came along that seems to have a poorer success rate in people going on a date and getting in a relationship than gay clubs had, but that is exactly what seems to be happening. I hear so many horror stories from single friends and online forums of being stood up and guys that just cut off communication with no explanation. I think the web is the means of communication that often makes it too easy to chicken out and not overcome the anxiety that comes with dating and meeting in real life.

This was pretty much my experience too... but I think also they've cracked down on drunk driving way more and stopped allowing smoking in bars, which IMO helped to contribute to bars being less desirable along with internet/apps.

I also think that back in the day less people were out of the closet and gay bars were private places where one could go in "public" yet still be hidden. Now days we don't have to hide in seedy, dark, back alley dives.