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His research shows that 37% of gay bars and clubs in the country closed between 20. And while most people were obeying mask mandates and social distancing rules, others were resisting health orders.Įven with such events, staying open before the pandemic was difficult for many such establishments, says Greggor Mattson, professor of LGBTQ+ social history at Oberlin. Social distancing requirements limited the number of people who could be served and fear of COVID-19 limited the number of people who wanted to be served. There have been new expenses – masks, disinfectants, signage.Įvents that bring additional customers and revenue to the city – like CLAW, the annual national leather event downtown – have been cancelled. But the reopening that followed in May brought other challenges. Like other gay bar owners in the city, Briggs and her husband had other sources of income to keep the lights on during the three-month shutdown. “The bills didn’t stop just because we were closed,” Briggs said. The Payroll Protection Program eventually helped cover the salaries of employees at Vibe and other gay bars in Cleveland, but business owners had to dip into their own pockets to cover other expenses: internet, utilities, maintenance costs. “You lose money, that’s one thing, but I was reallyįreaking out about my employees,” Kevin Briggs said. They often survived by exploiting federal Covid relief for small businesses and offering programs that appealed to customers’ desires for Covid-safe entertainment.īriggs remembers the anxiety he felt when he learned of the shutdown, long before vaccines were available. Vibe and Cleveland’s handful of gay bars and nightclubs in operation before the pandemic remain open. Would the pandemic add to these closures? Not in Cleveland. At the start of the pandemic, they didn’t know how long the shutdown would last or whether their fledgling business would survive it.Īccording to research by an Oberlin College professor, gay bars and nightclubs in Cleveland and across the country had been closing at a high rate for more than a decade before the pandemic. He and his husband John had owned Bar & Patio Vibes, a gay bar on Lorain Avenue near West 117th Street in Cleveland, for about a year only. When Governor Mike DeWine ordered the closure of bars and clubs in March 2020 to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Kevin Briggs panicked.