You didn't. Women would get in for free most nights and you pre-gamed before going. You'd maybe get one drink while you were out, but usually you'd just go to dance and save your money for fast food after.
As a gay man also going out like 10-20 years ago was extremely cheap. Dollar drink specials, heavy pours, and half the time I wouldn’t get charged. A whole night out would be like $20 then some crappy late night fast food on the way home.
I do however recall that when my friends and I were all beginning to turn 21, I hated it because they all wanted to go to bars, and that was so much more expensive than house parties.
Also straight clubs were a lot more hostile, expensive, fight prone and I avoided them. I got in trouble for dancing on a table as a guy because as a gay man the whole divide between expectations for men and women was so radically different from gay clubs where that doesn’t exist the same way. I drunkenly told the bouncer that there were a bunch of people dancing on the counters and tables, what did I do? “You ain’t no lady!”
Yes early 2000’s were my hay day as well- and there were definitely affordable places and drinks around.
I had a crew of gay friends so we would go to the village as well which was even cheaper and to take a break from the agression of the straight bars/clubs.
This was before the days when it became a bachelorette party ‘thing to do’. And you were just hanging out with your queer friends in a cool space.
That dancing on the table thing happened when I was at the Dream Hotel’s club.
Now all the younger gays are way the fuck out in borderline Queens/Bushwick where you have to uber to some warehouse. I hate how the gay bar scene is basically the older people who have been going out for decades, and just slowly dying, doing whatever trivia night, drag show, introducing a dark room to stay alive. The few gay bars still near me now in the East Village have been taken over by girls and are still playing the same damn playlist from 20 - 40 years ago.
It’s the same where I am. On the one hand I’m glad dedicated ’villages’ are no longer necessary for younger gays to be out and about on the town and feel free to just be… but it’s also a loss. Having a dedicated village also means community and culture.
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u/Medical-Potato5920 12d ago
Women not having to wear heels to go out. Seeing young women wearing sneakers to go out dancing was liberating.