Has the paradigm changed for gay bars?

[LJay]

Have read a number of articles, in Slate.com amongst other places, that say that the day of the gay bar is definitely passing. One large factor: being gay is more accepted. Virge, you might want to search on Slate and see if you can find some of the articles.

If you knew any dancers who work in there places, you could ask for their experience...

[cunningluvr]

Well cunningluvr gimme some names of cities and the bars you would reccommend!

I'd be happy to if I could remember the names of the bars. I tend to just remember the times I had. In Grand Rapids there's a place I think called The Garden. Nice neighborhood joint, full of people. Grand Rapids does have a dance club downtown that's not bad, and I wish I could remember the name of the place I went most frequently; nice bar downstairs, and usually some kinky theme going on upstairs.

In Rosslyn outside D.C. there's a great campy little bar that also serves decent food. There's a leatherish bar in the District that's supposed to be great but I never have the appropriate attire when I'm there.

San Diego has always been a blur. Really great times.

Lansing has a stale-beer-smelling neighborhood joint (Esquire?) that is good for talk or sometimes a quick pick-up, and sort of around the corner is a dance club (Spiral?) that get's lively on weekends.

Several places in Ferndale ('burb of Detroit) and nearby, just pick up a copy of the Metro Times, or of course, Google.

Chicago and Toronto, don't know so much about the bars since the bathouses are more fun.

Wish I could be of more help, but I've always been better with location than names.

[Iceblink]

You snowbird (I envy the hell out of you)! Ditto your post IceBlink. So many bars are just gone from Michigan. Wasn't Gigi's a huge bar back then? What about the Tangerine Ballroom in Ann Arbor? Tramps is gone from Lansing. I'm not sure Paradise is still around either. My brother used to DJ at a bar in Saginaw called Tallulah's, but that is as dead as the dinosaurs too.

It was the Nectarine Ballroom in Ann Arbor. It is still there but it is now called Necto. They also still have the Aut Bar. I was at Tallulah's in Saginaw a couple times. I met my first serious relationship at Paradise in Lansing. He asked me to dance and I didn't really think anything would come of it as I was out of town, but it turned out so was he and lived about 4 miles from me. We went out for 7 years. Gigi's in Detroit is still in existence, but since I am not single, I haven't been there in years. I heard it is all drag queen shows now every night. I loved that place back in the day because the clientele was heavily Middle Eastern because of the area it's in and since a lot of them are hairy men, I find many of them hot. Before I stopped going there, the signs in the bar were in both English and Arabic. A few of the other bars (Menjo's, Goldcoast, RnR) from back in the old days in Detroit still exist, but there are some recent ones I've never been to.

[Iceblink]

I'd honestly have to put this one down as an "American thing" too... probably even going above what's a homo or hetero norm.

Back in the day, I was an extreme clubhopper and it wasn't just gay clubs, but straight and mixed nightclubs as well. Straight clubs are not where they were back in the club days. You notice it more with gay clubs because there were fewer to begin with and so when some go out of business it seems a bigger loss. Although I do not do clubbing anymore, I am still familiar where the club districts are and in those areas today I see a lot of lounges, standard bars, restaurants, restaurant/bars, sports bars, coffee shops, stores where there were once night clubs. There are still a lot of straight clubs, but nothing to the extent there was years ago. I think it probably is an American thing.