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For the gays of Cleveland in particular that often means going out. In the year-plus since vaccines and boosters were made widely available and government health orders on businesses were lifted, people have begun doing more of what they used to do. “It’s like they were so bottled up for so long from all the restrictions. “I think people are going out more now than they used to,” said Jim Tasker, who has managed Cocktails, a bar in the Cudell neighborhood, for nearly three decades.
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Studio West 117, the newest addition to Cleveland's LGBTQ+ nightlife scene, actually opened during the pandemic and is already sporting a full slate of events in The Symposium, a "true gay dive bar atmosphere." The Hawk boasts a steady roster of regulars and Old Brooklyn's Shade is steadily building faithful clientele. Depending on the night, the dance floor at Twist is packed, the pool tables at Cocktailsare full, the stage at Vibe is booked, and the (heated) patio at the Leather Stallion Saloon is the place to be. Nearly two years into the pandemic, things have returned to some semblance of normal at Cleveland’s gay bars.
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“We’re in it for the community, not to make money, we’re just trying to do our best.” “A lot of people don’t understand that many of these businesses are labors of love,” Myers said. Ken Myers, who has owned the Leather Stallion Saloon, near downtown Cleveland since 2014 and officially the city’s oldest operating gay bar, said that keeping a gay bar afloat – even before the pandemic – could be difficult. The number of LGBTQ+ bars and clubs has dwindled from a high-water-mark of over two dozen establishments serving a wide array of community niches in the 1970s and 1980s, to just six gay bars, most small establishments, when the pandemic struck. That rate has been much higher in Cleveland due to population declines. His research shows that 37% of gay bars and clubs nationwide closed between 20. And while most people obeyed mask mandates and social-distancing rules, others resisted the health orders.Įven with such events, remaining open before the pandemic was difficult for many such establishments, says Greggor Mattson, a professor of LGBTQ+ social history at Oberlin. Social-distancing requirements limited the number of people who could be served and fear of COVID-19 restrained the number who wanted to be. There were new expenses – masks, sanitizers, signage.Įvents that bring customers and additional revenue to town – like CLAW, the national annual leather event downtown – were canceled. But the subsequent reopening in May posed further challenges. Like other gay bar owners in town, Briggs and his husband had other sources of income to keep the lights on through the three-month shutdown. “The bills didn’t stop just because we were closed,” said Briggs. The Payroll Protection Program eventually helped cover employee wages for Vibe and other gay bars in Cleveland, but business owners had to dig into their own pockets to cover other expenses: internet, utilities, maintenance costs. “We lose money, that’s one thing, but I was reallyįreaking out about my employees,” Kevin Briggs said. They’ve often survived by tapping federal Covid relief for small businesses and by coming up with programming that has appealed to patrons’ desires for Covid-safe entertainment.īriggs remembers the anxiety he felt when he first learned of the shutdown, long before vaccines were available. Vibe and the handful of Cleveland gay bars and nightclubs in business before the pandemic, remain open. Would the pandemic add to these closures? Not in Cleveland. Gay bars and nightclubs in Cleveland and nationally had been closing at high rates for more than a decade before the pandemic, according to research by an Oberlin College professor. Early in the pandemic, they didn’t know how long the shutdown would last or if their fledgling business would survive it. He and his husband John had owned Vibe Bar & Patio, a gay bar on Lorain Avenue near West 117th Street in Cleveland, for only about a year.
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When Governor Mike DeWine ordered bars and clubs to shut down in March 2020 to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Kevin Briggs panicked.