Legendary nightclub’s absence at Orlando Pride shows the importance of gay bars
Orlando venues. Unfortunately, this revelry will once again not include beloved queer establishments Pulse and Parliament House.Pulse, notorious as the site of the 2016 mass shooting that resulted in the death of 49 people, has since been converted into a memorial for the victims.
Parliament House, a sprawling ten thousand square foot queer resort complete with bars, a theatre, and over 100 motel rooms, shuttered in 2020.
This establishment, which for years suffered financial woes, met its ultimate demise during the Covid quarantine, a fate shared with myriad other gay bars and nightclubs across the country.
But even before the pandemic upended LGBTQ+ nightlife, and every other aspect of human existence, gay bars were already in decline.According to Greggor Mattson, a professor of Sociology at Oberlin College who conducted a study examining the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns on queer spaces in the United States, 36 percent of gay bar listings disappeared between 2007 and 2019.
