But in the year since I’ve personally added gay bars back into my social repertoire, something about them has felt lukewarm. Two years later, some of the bars and clubs I loved did indeed close, while many others miraculously survived. The future looked grim back then, and the general consensus was that COVID would probably spell the end of many already-struggling gay bars. In the summer of 2020, I donated money to keep some of my favorite queer establishments open.
