Gays won’t mourn the death of G

My colleague seemed surprised that I replied ‘no’ when asked if I was sad at the news that G-A-Y bar – a staple of Soho for decades – was closing. A more intelligent answer would be that the closure of any ‘gay space’ is sad, but the truth is this is not somewhere that many in ‘the community’ will mourn.

I tried to think about the last time I went to G-A-Y and I can’t remember. I texted a dozen friends and they can’t remember either. I guess that speaks to part of the problem. Jeremy Joseph, the owner of the bar, announced the closure on social media on Wednesday. But the speed of its closure this weekend, just days after the announcement, is surprising.

Joseph says that ‘Old Compton Street has lost [its] LGBT identity’. It’s true that G-A-Y used to have queues; nowadays they’re usually