like orthodox Jews or traditional Palestinians, a place like The Video is very important for them to be able to live the kind of life they want to.” “(For) a lot of people who are in the closet. “Before there was The Video, the hangout places for LGBTQ people were parks, public restrooms, you know, not the friendliest places,” he said. The Video Pub in Jerusalem is lucky to have a landlord who has waived rent, said owner Avi Goldberger, who emphasised its importance as the only LGBT+ bar in the divided Israeli city for the nine years it has been open. “The landlords are dictating what can happen, it really is luck of the draw,” said Jeremy Joseph, whose G-A-Y Group owns three venues in London and one in Manchester, with one landlord agreeing to forego rent and two others to rent reductions. Meanwhile, rents are proving a flashpoint expense. The money will target those “most in need”, said Amy Lame, the mayor’s night-time industries adviser, although the criteria for and timing of grants has yet to be confirmed. The mayor of London - which has seen its LGBT+ nightspots plummet to 56 this year from 124 in 2006 - has announced a 2.3 millon pound fund for cultural venues at risk due to the impact of the coronavirus, 10% of which is earmarked for LGBT+ spaces. Therapy closed and let go of all of its employees in mid-March.
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This week marks the 17th birthday of Therapy, a sprawling two-storey gay bar in Hell’s Kitchen, the hub of New York’s LGBT+ culture, home to many performers who found fame on the TV show “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” like Monet X Change and Bianca Del Rio.īut there will not be a party. Many LGBT+ venues said they could not afford to re-open at a lower capacity if social distancing rules were mandated.
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“Our long-term future is not clear at all, it’s a week by week discussion,” said Sizzle, who has put The Glory’s 11 staff on furlough. LGBT+ venues that have already closed for good include the DC Eagle, Washington D.C.’s oldest continuously operating gay bar, which opened in 1971, and the gay-focused hotel and bar Legends in the British seaside town of Brighton.Īs social acceptance of LGBT+ people has grown over the last decade, the number of gay bars in the United States fell by almost 40% to about 800, according to Greggor Mattson, a sociologist at Oberlin College in Ohio.īritain has experienced a similar decline and the remaining venues are under great financial pressure as they often operate with thin profit margins due to their “niche” market, said Sizzle, who sports a long blonde wig and moustache when in drag. Once-crowded bars and clubs fear they will collapse, despite government grants, if they have to remain closed for a prolonged period and have to adopt social distancing when they re-open. It’s where we form and nurture our community and the individuals within that,” said John Sizzle, a “Drag DJ” who co-owns The Glory, an LGBT+ bar in east London known for its avant-garde cabaret acts.Ĭountries across the world are feeling the human and economic pain wrought by the coronavirus, which has infected 4.2 million people and killed almost 300,000, and is likely to trigger a global recession.
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That will leave gay, bisexual and transgender people with fewer safe spaces to express themselves freely, meet like-minded friends and find respite from the discrimination they often experience in their day-to-day lives, bar and club owners said. LONDON/NEW YORK/BERLIN (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - From pulsating gay superclubs to basement drag cabarets and dimly-lit lesbian bars, the new coronavirus has shuttered LGBT+ nightlife venues worldwide, with some already forced to close permanently while others are scrambling to avoid the same fate.Īs strict shutdowns have dried up cash to pay vital bills and wages, the future of a vibrant nightlife scene - already hit by rising rents and competition from dating apps before the pandemic - now hangs in the balance, industry figures said.