As someone who lived it and watched it happen over a three years time span, I found this article posted on the Boston Herald website about the death of the gay scene in Boston very interesting. The reasons they cite for the decline of the Boston gay scene seem pretty spot on, now that I think about it:
“Everybody meets online. I would rather,” said Jonathan Young, a 23-year-old makeup artist who lives in the South End. Though Young met his fiance at a club in Manhattan, he said singles no longer cruise the bar scene. “On the Internet, you can screen. It’s not as aggressive,” he said.
If the Internet slowed the gay-bar scene, the law for same-sex marriage, enacted five years ago, brought it to a snail’s pace. “Once gay marriage became legal, people were more comfortable mixing (in straight environments),” said Jim Clerkin, also known as “Gay Jim” the music director and producer for “Matty in the Morning” on WXKS-FM (Kiss-108).
Also, check out what my buddy, and current Bostonite, Clint has to say on the matter as well. He argues that the new generation of gays (Gay 2.0s as he likes to call them) might not want or need gay bars.
Anyway, luckily down here in New York we have a plethora of options on any given night that cater to every different kind of gay and scene. It’s definitely fascinating how the epicenter of the gay marriage movement’s gay night life is changing. Speaking from personal experience, my favorite nights out during my last year in Boston were at the monthly Boston Guerilla Queer Bar nights where the gays would take over a different straight bar each month.
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