Want Vibrant Cities? Save Gay Bars.

London is a city that loves to dance after dark. These days, though, the music is fading. In the first two decades of the 2000s, the number of gay bars, pubs and nightclubs in the capital fell by a staggering 58 per cent—125 venues dwindled to just 53. The story is much the same in other places. In the United States, an average of 15 gay bars have closed every year since 2008. Today, there are 45 per cent fewer gay bars than in 2002. In 1976, there were 2,500 gay bars in just the U.S. Today, there are fewer than 1,400 worldwide.