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But their vastly undocumented history requires transcribing." That history includes the famous 1969 uprising at the Stonewall Inn in New York, but Atherton Lin also dives into other, lesser-known bars, including ones that endured police raids meant to put gay people in their place. He writes beautifully about his college days in Los Angeles, where he went to his first one, though he can't recall the name, wryly noting, "Of course I can't remember my first gay bar - I was drunk." He's also inspired to dig into the past: "Enough time has passed that gay bars, once a scourge, have become monumental in their own way. The prospect of losing gay bars leads him to reflect on their presence in his life. In a gay bar, am I penned into minority status, swallowing drinks that nourish my oppression - have gay bars kept me in my place?" He's ambivalent about the development, writing, "I had to consider whether gay bars promised a sense of belonging then lured us into a trap. That kind of gay bar - all kinds of gay bars, really - are in danger of closing, Atherton Lin writes, due to the popularity of dating apps and rising property costs.
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I'm the company I keep: a man over forty with a Friday night" erection, "passing as desirable in the dark." Atherton Lin participates in a sexual encounter with a stranger, and reflects on what sets him apart from the tough-looking crowd: "I saw these men as being in their domain, depraved and sketchy, whereas I was just passing through. Gay Bar combines memoir, history and criticism it's a difficult book to pin down, but that's what makes it so readable and so endlessly fascinating.Ītherton Lin's book starts off in a crowded room in a gay bar where he's gone cruising with his partner, whom he refers to throughout the book with the Leonard Cohen-inspired nickname Famous Blue Raincoat. The subtitle of Atherton Lin's book is Why We Went Out, and the London-based author offers plenty of reasons in this remarkable debut.
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We go out to return to the thrill of the chase. "We go out to get some," writes Jeremy Atherton Lin in his new book, Gay Bar. Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, Jeremy Atherton Lin