(In a follow-up editorial, the magazine staff disagreed.) Stories of straight customers, from Minneapolis to Montreal, who were denied entry or targeted for discrimination at gay establishments have sprinkled the news.Īnd, last year, 77 percent of the respondents to a survey by the magazine The Advocate affirmed that gay bars should have a right to ban straight patrons. Two years ago, gay-rights activists complained to The Times of London after Britain announced regulations prohibiting gay bars from excluding patrons based on sexual orientation. Maybe this is forcing you to have an identity that doesn't ride on what a bar has laid out for you." "So many people in the gay community have felt that straights are always taking over their bars and they're not able to have their own identity," said the 35-year-old, who is gay - with roots in the punk-rock and hardcore-music circles. Younger gays are more accepting of mixed crowds in gay bars, said Scott Niemet, who a year ago founded the Sweatin' party.ĭespite the objections he has heard regarding the growing heterosexual clientele, he doesn't see it as a problem. "Some people get a little salty about it," Hoyt, of the North Side, said recently as he surveyed the Sweatin' dance floor, his arm around a young woman. Only occasionally does the uncertainty pose a problem, said Tony Hoyt, a 21-year-old who has fielded advances from men. Pretty girls sport short vintage dresses and pixie haircuts. Slim guys are clad in tight jeans and V-neck American Apparel T-shirts. Of course, when stylish crowds merge, discerning who's gay and who's straight might become difficult. That's so outdated."Įven places that don't align themselves with a particular sexual preference are attracting a mixed patronage, such as the neon-clad masses of "Ladies '80s" nights at Skully's Music-Diner and the urban imbibers at Bristol Bar. "There's no ad out there saying Union is a gay bar. "We've always made it a point to market to the general crowd," said Lahoti, a real-estate developer, 38, who also owns the Axis and Havana nightclubs. Union owner Rajesh Lahoti designed the restaurant, he said, with a broad focus, seeking brunch groups and business lunches by day and gay patrons and High Street club-goers by night.Ī video jockey plays show tunes on Sunday evenings drag queens give performances periodically. "If you get hit on by a gay guy, it means you're hot." "It's just another bar - but with more dudes," concurred his friend Mike Deaton, a 28-year-old in town from Toledo. "It's good to experience something different." "I go to straight bars all the time and help them pick up girls, so why not?" said Davis, 24. The four heterosexual pals accompanying Jon Davis of Gahanna didn't mind the change of scenery last Saturday night at Union Bar + Food, an upscale Short North lounge that draws a predominantly gay crowd in the evening. "They don't necessarily care about going to a gay bar as much as going to a bar with their friends." "I think we're seeing the post-Ellen (DeGeneres) generation: They've been growing up in a community that's always been mixed to some degree," said Chris Hayes, editor in chief of Outlook Weekly, a Columbus gay newspaper. More people, from straight couples who join gay friends to single women who want to clink cocktails without the "meat-market" overtones, seem to be venturing into a once-segregated scene. It's just people who want to have a good time."Īs younger generations benefit from increasingly diverse peer groups, night-life options that welcome all persuasions are prospering. This month, Axis hosted Sweatin' - a high-energy, agenda-free party that attracts gay and straight patrons interested in dancing, socializing and, perhaps, looking for a fling.Īs for the gay-friendly location: "Nobody seems to think about it," said Harris, a 24-year-old who lives near Ohio State University. They move together closely for a few songs, his hands on her hips.ĭespite the setting, with drag shows and male revues of "hot college jocks" making up part of the weekly schedule, a heterosexual presence (or even a pairing) isn't so strange anymore. Through smoke from a fog machine, she leads Peters to the floor. "Hey, are you guys gay?" she asks matter-of-factly.īoth shake their heads: They're straight. Seated in a dimly lighted booth at Axis, a gay nightclub in the Short North, Jordan Harris and John Peters sip cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon as nearby speakers blast techno music.