What was the gay bar and how did it shape gay identity?

UnTextbooked | A history podcast for the future

The gay bar has long since been a locale of sexual expression, community, and most importantly, identity. If the gay bar was what Atherton Lin describes as, “a place where we hoped we could find ourselves,” what does it mean for queer identity when the spaces that once shaped and defined it are steadily vanishing in urban centers world-wide?

In his wistful personal and cultural memoir, Gay Bar: Why We Went Out (named one of the best books of 2021 by the New York Times, NPR, and Vogue), essayist Jeremy Atherton Lin speaks to the impact of the gay bar on his own identity development and how the gathering space created a generation of chance encounters that shaped his life. On this episode of UnTextbooked, producer Jenny Fan interviews Atherton Lin taking a closer look at what recent shutdowns of such spaces have meant for those who came of age in them and the new generations now seeking to define their queer identity.

BOOK: Gay Bar: Why We Went Out

GUEST: Jeremy Atherton Lin

PRODUCER: Jenny Fan

MUSIC: Silas Bohen and Coleman Hamilton

PRODUCTION: Pod People - Hannah Pedersen, Danielle Roth, Shaneez Tyndall, and Michael Aquino.

SHOW NOTES: Jeremy Atherton Lin’s playlists and sound essays can be heard on NTS Radio and Mixcloud, or by visiting his website.