Gay Bar

Why We Went Out

By: Jeremy Atherton Lin

Narrated by: Jeremy Atherton Lin

As gay bars continue to close at an alarming rate, a writer looks back to find out what’s being lost in this indispensable, intimate, and stylish celebration of history.

In the era of Grindr and same-sex marriage, gay bars are closing down at an alarming rate. What, then, was the gay bar? Set between Los Angeles, San Francisco, and London, Gay Bar takes us on a time-traveling, transatlantic bar hop through pulsing nightclubs, after-work dives, hardcore leather bars, gay cafes, and saunas, asking what these places meant to their original clientele, what they meant to the author as a younger man, and what they mean now.

In prose as exuberant as a hit of poppers and as dazzling as a disco ball, Atherton Lin conjures the strobing lights and the throbbing music, the smell and taste of tangles of male bodies, the rough and tender anonymous encounters, the costumes and categories—twink, top, masc, queen, tweaker, tourist, voyeur, exhibitionist—all the while tracking the protean aesthetics of masculinity and gayness. Along the way, he invites us to go beyond the simplified gay bar liberation mythology of Stonewall and enter the many other battlefields in the war to carve out space in which to exist, express, and love as a gay man.

Elegiac, sexy, and sparkling with wry wit, Gay Bar is at once a serious critical inquiry into how we construct ourselves through the spaces we inhabit and an epic night out to remember.

©2021 Jeremy Atherton Lin (P)2021 Little, Brown & Company

Why I Went Out

Overall, it was ok. But what appears to be a history of gay bars and why "we" went out is really more an account of why the author went out. The subtitle really should be, "Why I Went Out." Was hoping for a lot more.

The More You Know . . .

This was a great perspective on the history of LGBTQIA+ & the night life over the years.

It’s crazy that our history is so current.

So Impressed With This Book

The writing in this book is exceptional. A must read for the gay community. Will be gifting this book to many friends.

Artfully composed

Nuanced and beautiful. A walk through of what makes gay bars both sacred and banal for the author and culture at large.

Part memoir, part sociological study, all good

I enjoyed the book overall. I like both memoir and social science nonfiction, and this was both. The performance was good as well. I disagreed with one of the author's statements at one point, but this is a solid book, good story, good research, and important topic.

Our History

Excellent narration! Took me back to places I had been as a gay young man…

Gay Bar : A Review

I loved his voice tone and narration. I thought the book itself was an interesting take on the anthropological/social aspect of gay bars through the lens of his life/a memoir about his life. My only issue was that to me personally it wasn’t marketed as a memoir (or I didn’t know it was?) and that it was only going to focus on LA/NYC/LDN bars which obviously is because the writer will only write about places he experienced and visited. It was a very entertaining listen and one of the best nonfiction books I’ve experienced this year.

the story

it was just the story. I thought it would me more informational about the history of gay bars and where they went. instead of his sexual escapades.

Gay Culture

Great book about how the gaybar has contributed to gay culture, and the impact the loss of the gaybar can negatively impact young gays in the future.

Times past

Remarkably honest and engaging look at gay life. Well researched too, citing historical figures worth learning more about.