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It was a time before the internet and long before hookup apps. Logan Circle, Shaw, Columbia Heights, Buzzard Point.”ĭuring my first run in DC, most of the gay bars were located around Dupont Circle. At the news of the closing of Town, I joked to some friends that “the gayborhood is everywhere now. Matt Friedman says DC has lost a lot of gay venues, but new ones are always taking their place. a community with a lot of disinvestment but historical charm, gay people are the only ones not racist or otherwise prejudiced enough/desperate enough for a place to stake a claim to see the value opportunity and have the risk-tolerance to act on it, and so a gayborhood is born. In Mount Rainier, it's basically the suburban version of what is more stereotypically an urban pattern, i.e. Tracy Loh says it’s no surprise that Town led to other development, citing the example of other “gayborhoods.”Ī lot has been written before about the role of gay “pioneers” in jumpstarting growth in property values by incrementally investing in real estate and communities. I don't see the evidence for the city getting blander or more corporatized even if Chipotle is opening new stores in places you wouldn't have expected.” Obviously it sucks to lose a well-loved place but at the same time…I don't think the actual activity (whether its gay bar or DIY music shows) is disappearing necessarily though the landscape is certainly changing. “I've seen similar reactions to replacement of popular spots for DIY music shows. All that said, I hope that the owners of Town follow the lead of DC Eagle and Secrets, which found new homes so they could continue to welcome both people at a gay bar for their first time and people who experience it every week.Ĭanaan Merchant noticed a similarity between gay venues and DIY music venues: As an urbanist I celebrate many of the changes in our city because they signal a new energy and the type of incremental change that makes cities worth visiting and calling home. Still, I'm sad to see Town close not because of a lack of attendance, but because of market forces. Town was the first gay bar I ever visited, but I met my boyfriend of the last three years at a (straight) bar. Jared Alves notes that Town didn’t close for lack of visitors: What does Town closing mean for the city’s gay community? Contributors agree that the “gayborhood” isn’t going anywhere, but it won’t look the same in the future. But it did lead the gay community’s shift further east towards Shaw, ushering in a new generation of bars, like Dirty Goose, Takoda, and Uproar. When Town opened in 2007, the sleek, warehouse-style club seemed out of place at 8th and Florida, far from DC’s traditional “gayborhood” on 17th Street. Yet many of the places I frequented are gone: Phase 1 in Barracks Row, Apex in Dupont Circle, Icons in Fairfax (which wasn’t a gay bar, but hosted a lot of drag shows), not to mention all of the LGBT clubs in Navy Yard that closed to make way for Nationals Park over a decade ago. I came out twelve years ago, and like many queer kids in DC, I sought out gay bars as a refuge. The owner sold it to a developer who plans to build an apartment building in its place. Town, the massive gay dance club in Shaw, announced last week that it will close next summer after rumors to the contrary. Those spots and more sports bars, dance clubs, and cocktail havens are all included in Eater's round up of the District's gay-friendliest bars and hangouts. But another historic bar, DC Eagle, recently made a big move to a gigantic space on Benning Road NE. There have also been losses: Iconic Barracks Row lesbian bar Phase 1 shuttered its doors last year.
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Those new hangouts include Dirty Goose, Trade and Uproar. In February 2016, the Washington Blade noted an "unusual flurry of activity" with the opening of four new gay bars, the majority of which landed in the U Street/Shaw/Logan Circle area. But D.C.'s evolving gayborhood has shifted towards Logan Circle and U Street. Today Dupont Circle and 17th Street institutions such as JR’s, The Fireplace, Cobalt, Duplex Diner and Larry’s Lounge are still going strong. "Dupont Circle was like a little island where people would come and have a good time," a longtime District resident told the Washington City Paper last year. For decades, Dupont Circle was one of the centers of D.C.’s LGBTQ community.