Gay bars in London are closing down at such an “alarming” rate that the redevelopment of the Joiners Arms, an east London pub that counted Alexander McQueen, Rufus Wainwright and Wolfgang Tillmans among its regulars, will only get the go-ahead if it includes an LGBT club venue – and the mayor’s office will send an inspector to make sure it is gay enough.
Words fail me. What yardstick will they use? What standards are they to apply? What is gay enough? How will that work?
Truly, we are going collectively mad.
Perhaps the real reason for the “loss of Lesbian and gay bars”, is people just stopped going? Or more likely, the business rates and taxes heaped upon all pubs made the place unprofitable?
And they stopped going for much the same reasons everyone else stopped going.
Maybe but… gay pubs/discos were places in less understanding times where gays could go and be themselves, now that gay people are better accepted and can be more open perhaps the need gay bars fulfilled is no longer there.
I would imagine that the smoking ban hit gay bars much harder even than regular bars, given the much higher prevalence of smoking in the gay community than in the non-gay community. Insisting that there must be a gay bar on site doesn’t necessarily mean that there will be any customers if smokers aren’t catered for.
Accoding to article Mayor Khan is going to send someone to check it’s “gay enough”. Presumably if they return semi-catatonic with a wide open stare that will be proof enough?
On a serious point though, if all these LGBT clubs are closing, that must surely be because they don’t make enough money to survive?
Would there be any connection between the closing of these establishments and the growing number of Muslim shariah patrols targeting anyone who refuses to follow the teachings of some paedophilic, camel stealing, rapist, and the lack of action against them by the Londonistan Police Force?
*innocent face*
“Councillors for Tower Hamlets, which has lost seven of its 10 LGBT venues since 2006…..”
I know that TH is densely populated but TEN?! And I thought that few residents of TH would wish to (be seen to) frequent LGBT bars. Have the TH Councillors been finding reasons not to renew LGBT licences? Have London Mayors always taken it upon themselves to interfere in the provision of pubs or is Khan just dickering about because he’s too useless to do anything effective?
I think this might answer your question:
http://4freedoms.com/group/gays/forum/topics/gay-free-zone-tower-hamlets
It also suggests that the ‘Grindr doing away with the need for bars’ explanation – which seems logical on the face of it – isn’t the deciding factor as gay bars are opening in non-Islamic areas.
If I was gay and had been living in Tower Hamlets a few years ago I would probably be long-gone by now – and any custom I might have given to a local gay bar would have gone with me.
Before it closed, I believe there were some very serious homophobic attacks on the pub by gangs of Muslim men. Far as I know, they were not reported.
Dear Mr Longrider
No ‘we’ are not – they are.
I am not mad, collectively or otherwise. I’m guessing you aren’t either.
Our lords and masters?
Barking.
How do we get them off our backs?
How do we stop them stealing our wealth? Our lives?
We need a solution to this madness which does not involve violence. Unfortunately the mad will readily resort to violence to defend themselves against any solution.
Any ideas?
DP
“ … the mayor’s office will send an inspector to make sure it is gay enough”
Oops. I made a “Freudian” reading error on first reading this. I thought it said that the mayor’s office was going to send an “impersonator” to check the bars. Now that I’d like to see …