Long Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution

by Amin Ghaziani

Overview

It’s closing time for an alarming number of gay bars in cities around the globe—but it’s definitely not the last dance

In this exhilarating journey into underground parties, pulsating with life and limitless possibility, acclaimed author Amin Ghaziani unveils the unexpected revolution revitalizing urban nightlife.

Far from the gay bar with its largely white, gay male clientele, here is a dazzling scene of secret parties—club nights—wherein culture creatives, many of whom are queer, trans, and racial minorities, reclaim the night in the name of those too long left out. Episodic, nomadic, and radically inclusive, club nights are refashioning queer nightlife in boundlessly imaginative and powerfully defiant ways.

Drawing on Ghaziani’s immersive encounters at underground parties in London and more than one hundred riveting interviews with everyone from bar owners to party producers, revelers to rabble-rousers, Long Live Queer Nightlife showcases a spectacular, if seldom-seen, vision of a queer world shimmering with self-empowerment, inventiveness, and joy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691253862
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	03/19/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	34 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Amin Ghaziani is professor of sociology and Canada Research Chair in Urban Sexualities at the University of British Columbia. He is the award-winning author of The Dividends of Dissent, Sex Cultures, and There Goes the Gayborhood? (Princeton). His work has been featured widely in international media outlets, including the New Yorker, the Financial Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, USA Today, and British Vogue.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Are you worried about queer spaces closing? Me too. But guess what: they’ll never shut down all the queer pop-up nights. If you live to dress up and go out, but you also appreciate beautiful, thorough research, you’re going to love this book. Grab your leather choker and DM for the address—we’re going underground.”—Krista Burton, author of Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America

“With fluency and care, Amin Ghaziani brings us the voices and spaces of queer nightlife in the city. This is a book that listens closely, sees clearly, and dances freely. Against a sociology of loss, Ghaziani offers a counsel of joy.”—Fran Tonkiss, London School of Economics and Political Science

“Call your friends and get on the night bus! In Long Live Queer Nightlife, Amin Ghaziani takes us to London’s most exciting club nights—in places you least expect—to reveal how queer nightlife thrives even when capitalism crushes the gay bar. This is rigorous, thumping cultural analysis.”—madison moore, author of Fabulous: The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric

“Long Live Queer Nightlife is a hopeful and hugely generous book. Ghaziani demonstrates an openness to the diverse places and people he encounters, and he approaches other scholars in the mode of conversation rather than point-scoring critique. The result is engrossing, accessible, and intellectually astute, and we come to understand afresh why queer clubbing and counterculture matter. As Ghaziani shows, fun is both life enhancing and deeply political.”—Matt Cook, University of Oxford

“The gay bar is dead; long live queer nightlife! This delightful and illuminating book takes us out on the town—London town. It shows us that, despite a dominant narrative of the death of gay nightclubs, queer nightlife is thriving while becoming more inclusive and joyful than ever. A must-read for anyone interested in urban life, culture, and community!”—Abigail C. Saguy, author of Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are

“Beneath the surface of statistics bemoaning the closure of gay bars, Amin Ghaziani discovers the underground queer scene of London club nights. From pop up clubs to warehouse parties, these episodic events are ephemeral, but, as Ghaziani finds, the search for queer joy is durable. This book is a celebration of radical inclusivity and the remaking of community, and a rediscovery of the joy of a night out.”—Ashley Mears, author of Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit

Editorial Reviews

01/29/2024

In this eye-opening study, sociologist Ghaziani (The Dividends of Dissent) disputes the widespread notion that the queer community is suffering in the wake of an “epidemic” of LGBTQ bar closures over the past two decades. While acknowledging some problems stemming from such closures, rather than dwelling on “decline,” Ghaziani argues that queer night life is undergoing a hidden renaissance, outside of mainstream view. In particular, he points to the rise of themed club nights, which are often hosted by intersectional queer collectives in rented spaces on the outskirts of cities, describing these events as ephemeral, diverse, and potentially revolutionary. Usually inclusive of members of the queer community who were previously excluded from mainstream gay bars, these gatherings, Ghaziani argues, exemplify the radical type of community-building that emerges in disruptive political moments. Furthermore, they gesture to what society could look like in a more egalitarian and collective-oriented future. As examples, Ghaziani spotlights events such as Femmetopia, a bimonthly London club night celebrating feminine gender expression, and CAMPervan, a traveling free outdoor party for working-class queer people across Europe. Ghaziani provides an immersive view of these communities, profiling partygoers and event planners and participating in the club nights himself. It’s an invigorating and upbeat view of queer life. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"The sociologist Amin Ghaziani wants to turn a funeral into a party. . . . [I]n Long Live Queer Nightlife, Ghaziani makes the case that, though the shuttering of gay bars is sad, it prompted a renaissance for club nights, alternative dance spaces championed by people of color and gender-nonconforming people. Unlike the stationary gay bar that caters to the white gay man, these ticketed events are nomadic and inclusive, often popping up in warehouses on the industrial outskirts of sleepless cities. Save your tears, because queer nightlife is alive and well. In fact, it’s even better than ever, having evolved into a more progressive, sophisticated form. . . . Ghaziani shines as an academic.

"—-John Paul Brammer, New York Times Book Review

"The book feels like a satellite image of London at night, with far-flung parties gleaming mostly on the edges, bright nodes in a darkened expanse. Ghaziani renders a complex picture of how going out as a queer person is changing; his approach to the topic, at once intimate and meticulous, ultimately enables his own perspective to shine through. Refreshingly, Long Live Queer Nightlife refuses anguish—Ghaziani’s jubilation at the emergence of the new outweighs his sorrow at the molting of the old."—-Daniel Felsenthal, The Nation

"[A] refreshingly hopeful perspective on the changing nature of queer urban nightlife."—-Ilana Masad, them

"The book is a celebration of the resilience and reinvention of queer spaces, emphasising their vital role in fostering community, inclusivity, and radical joy."—-Max Shirley, LSE Review of Books

"This intelligent insightful inquiry on the state of LGBTQ nightlife is eye-opening, distressing, but, perhaps most importantly, optimistic, and future-forward."—-Jim Piechota, The Bay Area Reporter

From the Publisher

★ 12/01/2023

Ghaziani's (sociology, Univ. of British Columbia; The Dividends of Dissent) argues here that despite the shrinking number of gay bars around the globe, the effulgence of queer nightlife can be found in emergent alternatives. He sets the scene by providing detailed social and historical context and does so in the best ethnographic tradition, by visiting the underground queer parties of London, which some see as creative successors to gay bars. Opening with the Buttmitzvah, the book's argument is that a transformation has taken place; the gay bar has been replaced by queer parties, club nights, and episodic events. These gatherings, sometimes pop-ups, have variable venues—a basement, a camper, a warehouse—and welcome all comers, regardless of sexuality, gender, or ethnicity. Ghaziani shows that he's a good listener and quantitative sociologist who skillfully captures the stories of his interview subjects; his portrayals of attendees of these clubs and his sophisticated analyses of the statistics he gathers are captivating. VERDICT An accessible, absorbing look into an evolving form of queer culture, written by a brilliant sociologist.—David Azzolina

Library Journal

2023-12-06
A sociology professor examines why gay bars are shuttering in major cities around the world.

In recent years, writes Ghaziani, author of Sex Cultures and There Goes the Gayborhood?, a “global epidemic of [gay bar] closures” has occurred. Drawing on research, interviews, and his own work as “an urban ethnographer of nightlife,” the author explores the possible reasons behind this phenomenon as well as emergent trends in the world of LGBTQ+ venues. These closures, he argues, are “disruptive event[s]” that “have forced us to think about the significance of place.” Like the recessions, pandemics, and terrorist attacks that have characterized the early 21st century, they have altered routines and ways of thinking. Economic forces, such as skyrocketing urban land values and taxes, along with increasing income inequality, have catalyzed such closures. What’s taken the place of gay bars are pop-up clubs that happen wherever there’s (affordable) space, even if only for short periods of time. Symbiotic relationships have also emerged between remaining party venues and event-based nightlife. As one LGBTQ+ event habitué puts it, queer nightlife is far from dying; rather, it’s “thriving” through a period of rapid change. Ghaziani suggests that changes in the nightclub scene may also be generational. Traditional gay bars, for example, have tended to be bastions of whiteness that haven’t always provided a refuge for nonwhite people. Like the young people who tend to frequent pop-up events, in contrast, the new queer nightlife scene enthusiastically embraces “intersectional lives” lived at the crossroads of race, gender, ethnicity, and other identifiers. Thoughtful and well researched, Ghaziani’s book looks beyond the binaries and prejudices within LGBTQ+ communities to celebrate a more inclusive space of queerness that actively identifies and accepts difference in all its forms.

A wonderfully lively and open-minded intellectual inquiry.

Kirkus Reviews