{"product_id":"who-needs-gay-bars-bar-hopping-through-americas-endangered-lgbtq-places-hardback-9781503629202","title":"Who Needs Gay Bars?; Bar-Hopping Through America's Endangered LGBTQ+ Places (Hardback) 9781503629202","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eWho Needs Gay Bars?\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eBar-Hopping Through America's Endangered LGBTQ+ Places\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eGreggor Mattson (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781503629202\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 30 May 2023\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e448 pages, 9 halftones\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 3.7 cm, 0.614 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"A fun, thoughtful, and nuanced examination of the past, present, and future roles of the 'gay bar' as the demand for and economics of queer community space is wildly in flux.\"\u003cbr\u003e  —Hugh Ryan, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Women's House of Detention\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eWhen Brooklyn Was Queer\u003c\/i\u003e \"\u003ci\u003eWho Needs Gay Bars\u003c\/i\u003e offers a powerful collection of microsociological portraits of gay bars across the United States. It accumulates into a nuanced map of a queer world shaped by desire, social and political urgencies, and politico-economic pressures as diverse as the community—from large urban to isolate rural outposts. It is ambitious in its expanse and surprisingly intimate in approach.\"—Ramón H. Rivera-Servera, The University of Texas, Austin \"Breathtakingly intimate and yet vast in scope, this passion project balances sharp insights with the kind of lived-in details that make you want to pull up a stool and stay a while.\"—Samantha Allen, author of \u003ci\u003eReal Queer America\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003ePatricia Wants to Cuddle\u003c\/i\u003e \"With intelligent and easily accessible writing, this account stands as a testament to our community's resilience.\"—Alex Espinoza, author of \u003ci\u003eCruising\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Five Acts of Diego León\u003c\/i\u003e \"Queer bars have been a life-saving sanctuary for LGBTQ people over the last century, and they continue to serve as incubators, not just for queer and trans culture, but how we might also continue to build an even queerer future.\"—Honey Mahogany, Co-Owner, The Stud \"In \u003ci\u003eWho Needs Gay Bars?\u003c\/i\u003e [Mattson] paints a vivid and nearly comprehensive portrait of the current state of gay bars as an institution and as an important component of the LGBTQ community in all its unwieldy diversity. He also paints a personal journey that many LGBTQ readers will relate to.\"—Gary L. Day, \u003ci\u003ePhiladelphia Gay News\u003c\/i\u003e \"Mattson does his best to survey as many of the myriad issues as possible, faced by an equally myriad number of bars of a dazzling variety. It's also a personal journey by the author that many LGBTQ readers will identify with.\"—\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e \"[one of] the best queer American travelogues since Edmund White's \u003ci\u003eStates of Desire\u003c\/i\u003e was published way back in 1980.\"—\u003ci\u003ePassport\u003c\/i\u003e \"[\u003ci\u003eWho Needs Gay Bars?\u003ci\u003e] does an excellent job of addressing how both the LGBTQ+ community and the non-LGBTQ+ community are responsible for the decline in access to gay bars.... Recommended.\"—A. J. Ramirez, \u003ci\u003eCHOICE\u003c\/i\u003e \"This literary barhopping is simultaneously poignant, nuanced, fun, and revealing of the current complex and contradictory landscape of places for queer communities.\"—Emma Bosley-Smith, \u003ci\u003eSocial Forces\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eGay bars have been closing by the hundreds. The story goes that increasing mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ+ people, plus dating apps like Grindr and Tinder, have rendered these spaces obsolete. Beyond that, rampant gentrification in big cities has pushed gay bars out of the neighborhoods they helped make hip. \u003ci\u003eWho Needs Gay Bars?\u003c\/i\u003e considers these narratives, accepting that the answer for some might be: maybe nobody. And yet...\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eJarred 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. No longer the only places for their patrons to socialize openly, Mattson finds in them instead a continuously evolving symbol; a physical place for feeling and challenging the beating pulse of sexual progress. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrom 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 from Alaska or Oklahoma may be discovered. They are also fraught grounds for confronting the racial and gender politics within and without the LGBTQ+ community.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe question that frames this story is not asking \u003ci\u003ewhether\u003c\/i\u003e these spaces are needed, but \u003ci\u003efor whom,\u003c\/i\u003e earnestly exploring the diversity of folks and purposes they serve today. Loosely informed by the Damron Guide, the so-called \"Green Book\" of gay travel, Mattson logged 10,000 miles on the road to all corners of the United States. His destinations are sometimes thriving, sometimes struggling, but all offering intimate views of the wide range of gay experience in America: POC, white, trans, cis; past, present, and future. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eI: Ambivalence\u003cbr\u003e  II: Gay Bar Fundamentals\u003cbr\u003e  III: Safe Spaces for Whom\u003cbr\u003e  IV: Lesbian-Owned Bars\u003cbr\u003e  V: Cruisy Men's Bars\u003cbr\u003e  VI: How to Save a Gay Bar\u003cbr\u003e  VII: National Monuments\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Redwood Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52734359306520,"sku":"9781503629202","price":23.29,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/who-needs-gay-bars-bar-hopping-through-americas-endangered-lgbtq-places-hardback-9781503629202","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}