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“Spaces like Lambda Rising were not just bookstores but were community spaces where there would be speakers and gay publications,” Sizemore-Barber said. Lambda Rising helped forge more communal spaces for LGBTQ residents, according to Sizemore-Barber. area and worked at Lambda Rising for a summer after college. Lambda Rising, the first LGBTQ bookstore in the District, opened to much fanfare in Dupont Circle in 1974 and became a favorite spot for the queer community.Īpril Sizemore-Barber, an assistant professor in the Women’s and Gender Studies program at Georgetown, grew up in the D.C. The geographic decentralization of the gay population throughout the District has also negatively influenced the community that it was rooted in.ĭuring the 1970s, the LGBTQ residents of the city began building a community in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, which became a safe space for queer people, according to the Washington City Paper. “It was such a staple, and I feel lucky to have had that for at least one year.” “The difference between my freshman year and my sophomore year has been staggering, with the biggest reason for that being the closure of Town,” O’Hara said.
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These closures have been frustrating for queer students on the Hilltop, according to Chris O’Hara (COL ’21), director of social affairs for GUPride. Town was relatively well-known among the Georgetown student body, as it allowed people 18 and over to attend on Friday nights - drawing a contrast to bars like Trade and Number Nine, which only allow attendees 21 and up. The shuttering of Cobalt closely resembles the close of another popular gay nightclub in the Shaw neighborhood, Town Danceboutique, in July 2018. Though Cobalt’s lease continues through 2021, this short-term lease made continued investment in Cobalt infeasible, owner Eric Little wrote in a Facebook post. The building that housed Cobalt was sold in 2018 to a real estate developer who plans to convert the space into residences, according to The Washington Blade, the oldest LGBTQ newspaper in the United States. Such closures represent the persistent struggle for LGBTQ students to find communities with which to celebrate their identities.Ĭobalt, a gay nightclub in Dupont Circle, abruptly closed its doors March 5, with no prior warning or announcement. Consequently, the centralized community that was historically established in the city is now scattering, and the reactions to this dispersion have been mixed.Ĭlub Closures DC TRIATHALON CLUB | Despite more LGBTQ-friendly spaces on campus, university students are regularly losing access to queer nightlife establishments in the city.
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has been losing iconic queer establishments and neighborhoods that, for decades, have functioned as safe places for LGBTQ individuals. With a community that makes up 8.6 percent of the population, the District enjoys some of the most progressive gay rights legislation in the country.ĭespite the increasing legal and social acceptance of the queer community, D.C. state or territory, according to a recent Gallup poll. Washington, D.C., has the largest proportion of LGBTQ residents of any U.S. As students left campus for spring break, Georgetown’s queer community lost another one of its dwindling LGBTQ nightlife establishments, calling into the question the state of safe spaces for queer individuals.