Where, Oh Where Are You Tonight?

First of all I want to thank everyone for the e-mails and comments regarding my brother Gary's Open Heart Surgery. He is coming home today and is doing very well. Better than even the doctors expected. Thanks for the well wishes.

Now on for the posting for today; Last night I decided I wanted to go out. (See my post from last week). So DJ, Silver and I headed out for a night on the town. We went to Hamburger Mary's for dinner. Hamburger Mary's came to Cincinnati about three years ago, and has gained quite a following. But the crowd last night was very small. We found out that it was Pride Weekend in Columbus, hence the small crowd. We decided to go to PIPELINE for, after dinner drinks, only to find out that they had been shut down. The rumor mill has it that they got busted for serving minors. But when we went by the bar there was an eviction sign on the front door. So we then decided to go to our usual hang-out, SPURS. We found out that they had also been shut down, for lack of payment towards their electric bill. WOW, two major gay bars in Cincinnati, shut down. What in the hell was going on?? Of course everyone has their own opinion as to why. Is it the conservative city of Cincinnati shutting them down by finding anything they can to do so? Or could it be that the gay community in Cincinnati has turned against the gay business owners and headed to the straight bars instead? Or could it be that the gay community like DJ and myself, just do not go out anymore, causing the bars to not be able to keep their head above water? Who knows but for whatever reason, it's sad to see a large metropolitan city, such as Cincinnati have two, well known gay bars shut down.

We wound up going to Clifton, which is just about 4 miles north of downtown to GOLDEN LIONS for our night out. Which actually turned out pretty good, as they were having a benefit for the Health Resource Center in Cincinnati and we bought raffle tickets. I won a fabulous "kitty t-shirt" (Check out the original artist's work HERE) and Silver won a very beautiful boa. So the night was not a total loss. We had fun and went home with parting gifts.

But, if we will, let's go back to the gay community in Cincinnati. What is going on? After talking to a few of the bar patrons, it seems that even the Pride Events this year was not supported as heavily as years in the past. Even though there were record breaking crowds along the parade route, the actual sponsors were not as many. From the pictures I have seen from the event this year this did seem the case, as most of the pictures were of the crowds along the parade route, and not of the floats and parade marchers. I understand that Cincinnati is one of the most conservative, if not THE most conservative cities in America. And the gay community has been battling for years to get a name for themselves, and the rights that are due us. But I don't think that disappearing from the picture and from our gay owned businesses is going to help. I suppose that I'm just as guilty as everyone else. When I first came out and became single I was active in many of the gay organizations. I volunteered at AVOC, belonged to the Cincinnati Court, and attended most of the gay events throughout the year. But in the last two years I can count on one hand the events I attended, and as far as volunteering? Well I just don't seem to have make the time. I hope that this trend does not continue. It would be sad for the entire GLBT Community across the nation if this was the case.