This came up last week in a review of The Country Club in New Orleans.

I'd meant to re-post it here sooner to get some discussion and opinions on the subject, but I'm slowly catching up. Part of this is also that people who want to respond to the general issue of gay or lesbian places becoming "trendy" and/or having more straight people should come here, since the page for The Country Club is meant to be for reviews of that specific space, not the larger picture.

So here's what was submitted on September 26 and edited and published by yours truly on October 1 along with some commentary:

Thinking further, it seems to me that NOLA may be becoming more restrictive than in the past in where and when and how the shall we call it "red light district" operates. My partner saw open cock-sucking on Bourbon Street at Mardi Gras years ago; he said that someone had had a liqueur poured into his foreskin and another guy sipped and drank and sucked. And of course, the display of breasts and sometimes genitalia is famous at the season.

We also saw public and semi-public sex acts at Southern Decadence when we went in 2005. Bourbon Street was not quite as flagrant and hard-core as, say, upstairs at The Phoenix. Same faces, different places, it was a bacchanal in motion. We didn't make it to the Rawhide, but again, the action there is said to be hot.

I'd mentioned Houston leather bars in my response to the reviewer. I've been to The Ripcord many times on club nights from different groups, sometimes where the clubs stage "demonstrations" of activities which do not involve nudity and comply with the liquor laws, but are more than suggestive in a leather/kink sense. Attendees may be gay, lesbian, bi, trans, straight, and on and on. There may be a few in drag, and there may be some pups, furries, and many other sorts. This is somewhat similar to what I used to at The Faultline in LA in the late 90s when I lived in California, except with greater diversity.

Essentially, our community values a sense that all are welcome with the understanding that it's important for each to accord others the same welcome, at least in the shared space, that everyone else accords you. It generally does not appeal to the "trendy," and sometimes I have to remind my partner not to make remarks under his breath.

I'd be remiss if I didn't also say that many are HIV+ and many are HIV-. Sometimes there is the issue of sex-shaming and HIV-shaming, and I would rather not see that proliferate. That's a separate discussion.

Side note: My partner is disabled and ill and a big part of his mind is focused on his "best days" in the late 1970s up to some time in the 1990s, even though he's been HIV+ since the test was first available. You all know what life for him and many others was like before that time and in the early years of HIV/AIDS, and now he's well into the "early-onset aging" symptoms. Particularly the cognitive impairment often takes him back to think of the good times and friends he's lost early on and even more recently.

In a very real sense, I deal with that issue of "this is not like it was before" and "this is not the old days" with him daily, sometimes hourly. It's gives one some something like a magnifying glass to examine the issue.

I could rattle on and on once I start writing, so I'll stop here. Your thoughts and comments are welcome.

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I agree that no one really likes being turned down at the door. I also think that 'welcoming everyone' sounds like a good, all-embracing concept. I also imagine that significantly widening the customer base must look very attractive to the business owners, too.

I also have the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change.

Sadly, the experience of a few popular gay venues that opened up their doors to the general public in Europe suggests that only the very big venues survived the loss of their competitive edge. The small, intimate gay bars and clubs simply went out of business. The 'old' patrons did not like having girls and straight men around, no matter how well-behaved they may have been, and the new, general crowd discovered only too soon that there was nothing much really for them to see, so, they, too, moved on, cutting the business's lifeline.

I have also come to believe that small bars and clubs have very strict limitations when it comes to their growth. They cater to a specific public which is always limited in numbers but loyal. So, you have your steady flow of income which is more likely to stay stagnant. Open up for whatever reason, even if it is something beyond your control, and you lose everybody and your business, too.

Now, very big venues benefit from the open doors policy. The non-gay public enjoys the sights, the glam, the unusual. So, they keep coming. The gay guys still find quite a few other gay guys around to make it worth their while, so they keep coming, too.

I really doubt that there is any successful business plan that would universally keep the small venues going. Their income reduces their abilities to stage attractive entertainment desired by the guys these days, so the numbers are steadily declining. In the end, it is 'you'll be damned if you do, and you'll be damned if you don't'.

The expectations have really changed. In the 'old days', you went to a gay bar, had a drink, looked around, tried to hook up with a suitable dude, had a couple of more drinks afterwards over a convo, and moved on.

This concept worked well for years. Enters the modernity, and we are having a 'theme night' and we all have to walk around naked, or we all have to wear white tube socks only. Or we have to have black sneakers only or whatever. Because some folks think that this is fun. For a while, it IS fun for some. And then the game gets upped, and a bar has a theme night 5 out 7 nights, and the guys run for the hills. The cycle is over. The novelty is no more.

KD

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Here's a related item from New Orleans that came up in one of my Google News Alerts this morning:

Bourbon Street strip club investigation: What is lewd conduct? | NOLA.com

So, the "morals crusade" has descended also on straight venues and even down on Bourbon Street. When I was last there it was still anything goes.

Most other commenters on the Times-Picayune NOLA.com site were derisive and critical, or as I would say, "Shocked, shocked," to quote "Casablanca." These New Orleans and Louisiana officials may share French names but have nothing in common with the film's Captain Renault.

This phenomenon of using liquor laws to crack-down on sexual behavior, sexual expression, and sexual orientation truly bothers me.

It happened just a few years back at the Rainbow Lounge in Fort Worth, although the publicity, backlash, and settlement between the victims and the State of Texas and the City of Fort Worth led to a better place for the LGBT community there.

Rainbow Lounge raid in 2009 is remembered as start to positive change | The Star-Telegram

Whether gay, straight, whatever we seem to be fighting these battles over and over again.

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I strongly doubt that people patronize strip clubs to read Bible there. More likely than not, the main reason for them to do so is to engage what most people would call 'lewd behavior' to some extent, regardless of its legal implications. If an authority licenses a strip club and expects that people will be reading homilies and occasionally playing dominos there needs a serious reality check.

As so many times in the past, a few hotheads with some executive power challenge the existing state of things. Inevitably, a reaction will follow, and lots of time, energy and money will be wasted on dealing with genuine non-issues.

I cannot think of any industry that happens to be more resilient than the sex-related services industry. No government in known history has ever won the moral, legal or judicial crusade against the service providers who cater to one of the very basic human drives.

But the tactics may be useful when distracting people from the real issues that the political elite may not be able to resolve.

KD

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Coincidentally or not, this is election season in Louisiana. Under their Open Primary system, a primary election with multiple candidates from Republicans, Democrats, and possibly three minor parties was held October 24. As is typical, no one received over 50% of the votes cast in many races, and the top two advanced to a runoff November 21.

Offices at stake are the Louisiana Governor (incumbent Bobby Jindal cannot be re-elected because of term limits), other State Executive officers, and the State Legislature.

There were also some local offices on the ballot but none of significance in Orleans Parish.

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