Focusing mostly on various spots in the UK and US, we trace the movement towards wider queer acceptance, and what this means for the clubs, bars and community spaces around them.

He also ably describes his own experiences at gay bars, sharing specific songs and feelings and moments in a way that the reader feels situated there with him. I'm glad that when gays became more exposed and less closeted, bars sprouted out all over to give people the place to feel acceptable and completely comfortable. One need only watch an episode of Pose or Ru Paul’s Drag Race to understand the community one can find in a gay bar.With rare exceptions such as bank holidays, the book group meets on the first Wednesday of every month at 7. While sex positivity is something that is something that has always been attributed to the gay community, it’s important to remember how narrow that community has viewed beauty and attractiveness: White, cisgender, masculine. But all of the dancers had on sensible work boots, for one does not take the plumbing of a gay-men’s bar for granted. Of which the number is startling, to say the least, and engaged in with a commitment to synaesthesia and general wanton abandonment that is, well, quite alluring. Travelling and experiencing queer spaces, their individual quirks, the shine and grime, meeting the people that live within them, is a favourite thing of mine to do - and it’s clear Atherton Lin feels the same way.

Journalists have been noting the rapid closure of gay bars for years and the economic strain of the past year's pandemic has certainly added to the demise of many more of these venues. There’s a camaraderie at bars that’s always fun to watch as an observer, as everyone goes to bars for different reasons, but the less enamored I became of crowds the less frequently I went. In fact, the traditionally Black and LatinX bars, from which much of mainstream gay culture is derided from, is only briefly mentioned in Lin’s otherwise fantastic history of gay venues. We want to be in a room full of penises wherein each contains the strong possibility that it is, to use the old-fashioned queer initialism, tbh – to be had. This book manages to weave together vast stories of the changing nature of queer nightlife, the joys and sorrows that it can bring, and a truly wide sense of history, but never loses its sense of fun.

His life, sensibility and values are very different from my own but I appreciate the intelligent and skilful ways he considers how experiences in gay-designated spaces can positively and negatively contribute to our personal and collective sense of gay identity. First, a travelogue about the various bars that Lin has frequented throughout the various stages of his life. Interesting insight about the evolution of gay bars and their role in LGBTQ culture — focusing mostly on London, Los Angeles and San Francisco, so the work is naturally of particular interest to readers with an interest in those cities. And some close or morph beyond recognition when the community shifts- either growing younger, older or less inclined towards a certain demographic.