By Preston Witchell

Contributor

Recently, I have seen an increased push to create LGBT bookstores, coffee houses, churches and theaters to replace bars as centers of community, places to meet people and LGBT rites of passage.

Some agree with this suggestion from a standpoint of exclusion of LGBT youth when events are held at bars or other 21+ venues. However, there are some who express disdain toward bars as “sex-centric LGBT spaces”, and suggest that it is in our better image to abandon them. This normalization of minority communities is appalling. Why should we seek to conform to puritan standards of “sexual morality”? Why should we seek to abandon our history?

I agree that we should also seek to build inclusive spaces that are able to establish community for younger people; however, I do not agree with the notion of erasing spaces that have become a community staple. In some parts of the country, bars are the only safer outlets for the exploration of identities. They are the foundation. They are where friendships have been formed; outside is where they have been built stronger.

I would like to ask those who seek to de-sexualize identities that are directly related to sexuality why they feel this way. In relation to my identity as queer, I do not seek to make anyone but myself comfortable with my expression of sexuality. The relentless push towards heteronormativity seeks to depoliticize our sexual-political identities, in hopes of easily categorizing us to be more palatable to mainstream society.

Can’t you see that the popular culture, as an institution, is providing false incentive by dangling hetero goals like monogamy, marriage and children as a carrot towards the goal of conformity?

While I support the desire and push for LGBT bookstores, coffee houses, churches and theaters, erasing spaces such as bars would do our community a disservice. Recently, long established LGBT bookstores have closed their doors in major urban areas, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, because the community cannot sustain them. It is unlikely that a gay coffee house would be able to thrive in a small town; however, an unmarked bar, on the outskirts of town, can serve as a rite of passage—a place of discovery. While some individuals within the LGBT community may seek to abandon bars as community centers in pursuit of their heteronormative goals, those of us who do not share these same values ask that our sex-centric sanctuaries remain intact.