Gay Bars Aren’t the Same - My Brutal Reality at 63 4 28 2026

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:01]Hey y'all. Joer here, the cranky old gay guy.

[00:00:06]Oh boy. What are we going to talk about today? Well, you know what we're going to talk about? We're going to talk about gay bars. That's right. Gay bars and nightclubs. The ones we used to go to, but we don't go to anymore. Now, there are reasons for this.

[00:00:23]A lot of those clubs just are gone.

[00:00:25]They're out of business. They changed.

[00:00:27]They moved. they they just disappeared or they changed in a way that wasn't compatible with what she went out for. I remember some country dance bars.

[00:00:38]Country fell out of favor. So, one of them stuck around for a while, but eventually kind of turned more into a drag bar, a drag dance club where they would have country dancing and then there'd be a drag queen MC and then it went into just a dance music. But every 20 minutes, 15 minutes, they'd stop and the drag queen would get up there and talk about drink specials. Oh boy. And uh discuss whatever drag shows coming up down the road.

[00:01:14]And when they did this, the audience changed too. So the clientele of the club got a lot younger. What used to be a 35 to 50 year old dance crowd started getting younger and younger when they brought in the drag queens and it also became more twink. So those clubs got a lot younger and then a lot more women started coming in because of the drag queens and the whole vibe of the club changed.

[00:01:43]I am not knocking any of that. I've gone to drag shows. Sometimes I enjoy them.

[00:01:49]Sometimes I think, uh, this is getting old. But that's just me. Another thing is location.

[00:01:56]The clubs I'm referring to, we're all in the downtown core area, and parking down there is now miserable since the city has developed the entire warehouse district into high-end um, upper income level residences.

[00:02:13]It's driven some of the bars out, but it's also created parking issues that are up the wazoo. The city of Portland, when they build apartments now, when someone wants to build an apartment, you might put in 200 units. The city requires you to have, you know, 8 to 20 spaces for parking. As if no one who lives in those buildings are going to own cars. The city's reasoning is that, well, they live in the public transit corridor. So, we want to encourage public transportation.

[00:02:45]Well, that's great. Encourage it as much as you want, but what you're doing is destroying entire neighborhoods and you're also destroying the whole business area downtown. People will park on the street and take up all the spaces even though they're not shopping downtown. So, you're destroying the business climate because customers have nowhere to park their cars and no one's going to ride the train in and do a bunch of shopping and haul everything home on the train. And when I say train, I mean light rail or a bus.

[00:03:15]And when I say no one, I don't mean everyone. I mean most people. Okay? If you don't have a car, that's how you shop. You're going to do that. But for someone who normally drives, I'm not going to go somewhere downtown where I'm going to spend 40 minutes or more on a bus to get there and 40 minutes or more to come back. It all depends on the time of day with bundles and bundles of stuff. It's It's just not happening. So, the city screwed that over. Um, back to the gay bars.

[00:03:46]The change in the gay bars have chased away a lot of their clients. Also, rents. rents have gone up and driven the bars out of business or they have moved to a new location and the new location never took off and then they went out of business.

[00:04:01]Now, the bars that still exist, I think there's I don't think there's any in Southwest anymore.

[00:04:10]That's where several of them were. That when I came out, there were seven bars in a threeb block. Seven.

[00:04:16]Seven or 11? Which one was it? I think it's Just a minute. And I'm going to do a count. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. There were seven bars in a threeb block area. And that area was painfully called, get this, painfully called Vaseline Alley. And that was the three blocks or four blocks of Stark Street between 13th and 10th. And like I said, there were seven bars. You could go to a nightclub and if it wasn't your vibe, you'd move on to the next one and the next one and the next one. And at the end of the line was the Eagle, which was a leather bar, leather Levi bar. And that was usually an older crowd as well.

[00:04:59]Older as it wasn't the twink bar like uh one of the others like the dance clubs that were there. So at that time there were two male strip clubs on that strip as well. One was an actual bar on the strip. The other was in the basement of a bar on the strip. Um, it was all fun, but again, you could also drive down and park right, you know, within a block of the the bar. It wasn't an issue, but those days are long over, and I don't go down there anymore. The last bar that was in that area went under last year and uh several months later they opened the northeast branch of that bar here on the east side, actually over by me.

[00:05:48]But it proved to be a disappointment in that it's only a bar from 300 p.m. to 11 and then it's a familyfriendly gay establishment. I think that's what they call it. And it's still set up like the vegan restaurant that it is during the day.

[00:06:06]And uh I went opening weekend or a few days after they opened and it was very unprepared and the atmosphere was not not what anyone expected. And they say it's going to get better. They're going to build up outside and all that cuz there's a big courtyard. But I know people who have gone back since and they all say, "Oh, that was the first and last time I'm going there." So, I don't think that's going to be in business much longer.

[00:06:33]Um, I think if they had turned it into a a daytime coffee house and then go bar at night, at least if it was a gay coffee house, it would get clientele to come in and then they would come back at night. And I I don't know. I think someone just missed an opportunity there. And it would have been great if someone had consulted me first and I could have told them what to do because of course of course I know what to do, right? Yeah. Um yes, I'm being sarcastic. Don't take it as uh gospel.

[00:07:09]Uh next up, the bars that do exist. Why I go in and leave after just a few minutes. You know, I might stay 20 minutes tops, unless I run into someone I know and we sit and talk. Uh, and that is because there is nothing to do at these bars but drink. Drink and smoke.

[00:07:29]That's what happens at the bars. The bar I go to, the Eagle, I go to play pool.

[00:07:34]Now, I know bars are in business to sell alcohol. I get that. But I don't drink or rarely ever have alcohol, put it that way. And uh I just don't enjoy it and I don't smoke. So, I can't just sit with a bunch of smokers and giggle and laugh and to away. Um, and no, the bar does not allow you to smoke ganja on premise.

[00:07:59]You have to go out front off the sidewalk away from the building, but not in the back courtyard. That is illegal.

[00:08:06]Um, the one I go to, like I said, has a pool table. So, I will play pool. I went on Sunday and I played a few games, but when I finally got off the table, I'd been there hour and a half, two hours.

[00:08:22]The line was so long of players waiting to get on the table. It would be another hour and a half before I did that. And I went home. I wasn't interested in just hanging around. And I that's just not me. So, no, I am not the ideal client for a gay bar because depending on me to come in, you know, you're going to lose money and you're going to go out of business.

[00:08:49]But I do go in for the social aspect, but there needs to be something more than just standing around and drinking for me to be social. Um, there needs to be a competition, there needs to be a game, there needs to be something, even a dance. But, you know, unless it's a dance night, they don't really have dancing there at any of the clubs really. Um, the new ones downtown, they seem to come and go. They'll be around for a few months and then they disappear and then they pop up as something else with a new name.

[00:09:24]I'm not quite sure what's still available downtown.

[00:09:30]Not in Southwest, but in Northwest there were some as well.

[00:09:34]Uh on the east side there is I think call it's called Peacock now. It used to be called Crush.

[00:09:40]I've not been there since they changed their name and have new owners. Um there's the Eagle, there's Back to Earth, there's the Escape.

[00:09:50]And the Escape is kind of out in the BBs. It's on the 70th in Prescott and Sandy in a little strip mall. Um I've never been there. I've seen it in front area in the parking lot. has that outdoor structure like they put up during CO so people could sit outside and it's still up like a lot of bars. They left them up because it increases how many people can can be there and get out of the weather.

[00:10:19]So I drive by the Escape. I've never been in. Um I don't know anyone that goes there. It's my understanding that it's gay owned or lesbian owned. Um, I know that they've I've seen ads for fundraisers there. Um, downtown, let's jump downtown real quick to Northwest.

[00:10:39]There is Darcel's, which is a drag bar.

[00:10:42]But when you go to Darcel's, you go for the drag show. You don't go just to drink.

[00:10:49]So, the times I've been there, it's for a purpose, and that is for entertainment.

[00:10:56]Uh, Slaughters Dance Club, Drag Queens, the Rainbow Room, I think that's still what it's called. Next to Slaughters, they're connected. It's a cocktail bar.

[00:11:05]It's really, really loud. Um, Badlands used to be the Embers, which was a big disco and bar and drag club.

[00:11:16]Now, the Badlands, only been twice, it was so loud, I could not stay in the building, even with earplugs. I mean, really, really loud.

[00:11:26]So loud that the bartender will lean over the bar and you have to yell in his ear and he still doesn't hear you. And you don't hear what he's saying either.

[00:11:34]It's that loud. Kind of like now. I think this is loud right now. That's why I raised my voice. But this is nothing compared to the Badlands. So fix your sound system and you'll get the elderly myself to come back to your club. Um, I know it's not going to happen, but I'm just throwing it out there. Oh, what else is in that area? There's a strip club Silverado. It's in a large building, but it's in the basement. And the basement is really cramped feeling with a really low ceiling.

[00:12:06]And I've been there maybe three times since it opened in that location. And I was so unimpressed.

[00:12:13]Unless you're like two or three people back from the stage, you can't really see the dancers because the stage is so low.

[00:12:21]All you see is other patrons. Um, and then there is Stag, which is also downtown, which is a block or two from the Badlands, and it's also a strip bar, better setup, also a small club. Um, you know, strippers aren't my thing, so I haven't been down in years. I used to go to the old Silverado when it was in Southwest in a big big space with high high ceilings and I would go for karaoke night and to watch the strippers. I mean, you got to do something in between songs, right?

[00:12:55]But, uh, nowadays I'm at the Eagle and that's about it.

[00:13:00]And that's to play pool and I'll go in Sundays for their burger, hot dog, feed with and I but I play pool on those days. I don't go in and just eat and run. It's no. and I am social on those days in between games, but again I not someone who's just going to hang out all day waiting.

[00:13:19]That's not me. And I have rambled on and on and on about this stuff. So what I'm going to ask you all is to share your recollections, your nostalgia of the gay bars that you used to go to but you don't go to anymore and why. I also want to thank some people who it came up on my YouTube studio app that a couple people have been promoting me and I think that just means that you're sharing my videos. But I want to say thank you. I do appreciate the promotion. Uh the more eyes on this channel the better. And please let me know what you think about this channel, what you like to hear about on this channel. And as always, I'm going to leave you now. And I'm going to remind y'all. Yeah, I am going to remind you to stay cranky, my friends. Stay cranky.

[00:14:12]Bye-bye.