"SF’s oldest gay bar closes after five decades"

infopop · #1 30th January 2018, 09:45 AM

You see the headline from the San Francisco Chronicle, pretty much says it all: SF’s oldest gay bar closes after five decades

In this case, it's the Gangway in the Tenderloin. The article goes into a small tangle of ownership and liquor license transfer which result, for now, in the former bar about to become the "Kung Fu Action Theater & Laundry" - that is, unless it doesn't.

More interesting for cruising history:

Quote:

There’s a lengthy bar history at 841 Larkin St. The address has been home to a drinking establishment of some kind since 1910, 51 years before the Gangway began publicly identifying as a gay bar.

With its shuttering, the Gangway joins a long roster of now-closed gay bars in the city, a trend some attribute to changing San Francisco demographics, gentrification and, even more simply put, acceptance of LGBT people in the wider community.

While it was open, the Tenderloin haunt was treasured by the city’s older gay crowd. Filling seats at the bar were working-class patrons from diverse backgrounds.

So here's another datapoint in that long trend of LGBT establishments closing. Is it due to gentrification or assimilation/integration of (ahem! ungainly phrase!) "sexual minorities" into the mainstream? Or is it that patrons for these bars - people like me? - are simply getting older, going out less, and (gulp!) not so much into App culture for hooking up?

I don't want to recap discussions we've already had so I'll close here and move on.

Bob S. ~ Manager/Editor

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