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Shop nowWho Needs Gay Bars?
Bar-Hopping through America's Endangered LGBTQ+ Places
Narrator
Curtis Michael Holland
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Length
12 hours 46 minutes
Language
English
Gay bars have been closing by the hundreds. The story goes that increasing mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ+ people, plus dating apps, have rendered these spaces obsolete. Beyond that, rampant gentrification in big cities has pushed gay bars out of the neighborhoods they helped make hip. Who Needs Gay Bars? considers these narratives, accepting that the answer for some might be: maybe nobody. And yet . . .
Jarred by the closing of his favorite local watering hole in Cleveland, Ohio, Greggor Mattson embarks on a journey across the country to paint a much more complex picture of the cultural significance of these spaces, inside "big four" gay cities, but also beyond them.
From the historical archives of Seattle's Garden of Allah, to the outpost bars in Texas, Missouri, or Florida that serve as community hubs for queer youth—these are places of celebration, where the next drag superstar may be discovered. They are also fraught grounds for confronting the racial and gender politics within and without the LGBTQ+ community.
The question that frames this story is not asking whether these spaces are needed, but for whom, earnestly exploring the diversity of folks and purposes they serve today.
Greggor Mattson, PhD, is an author and professor of sociology at Oberlin College & Conservatory where he teaches courses on sexuality, nightlife, and cities. He is the author of The Cultural Politics of European Prostitution Reform: Governing Loose Women. His work has appeared in the Annual Review of Sociology, as well as in Slate, Literary Hub, Business Insider, and the Daily Beast.
Curtis Michael Holland has craved performing and sharing what he knows ever since he first experienced the adrenaline rush of a connected audience. With a mixed background that is Canadian-Greek, African, and Indigenous (Blackfoot and Cherokee), you could say that he emerges from a rich mosaic of storytellers. Then, there's the fact that he has lived across three different continents-four, if you count the Middle East as its own. Nevertheless, the world is his home and he loves exploring new corners of it. Along this journey, he has developed basic proficiency yet refined pronunciation in: Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, French, and Italian. Curtis's worldly adventure began once he left his home in small-town Canada to teach students theater around the world as soon as he earned his honors degrees. This member of the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities is proud to share his spirited, textured, and entertaining voice. On one hand he loves bringing authenticity to queer romances and young adult fiction; on the other, he enjoys flirting with stories of horror, thrills, and high tension. Whatever the tale may be, it is his ultimate goal to educate and entertain.