Since 2020 alone, Machine and Ramrod, The Boston Eagle, and inclusive venues like Bella Luna have all announced their permanent closing.
Nearly 40 percent of LGBTQ people work in industries where they are at high risk of contracting COVID-19, according to a report by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. Along with other public health crises and gentrification over the last 50 years, this pandemic has hit the LGBTQ community particularly hard. I love them all so much and this past year has been incredibly difficult, especially navigating what it means to be a tipped economy worker during a pandemic.” “It becomes your family and a family system so quickly. I met some of my best friends working in this space,” says West. “I met my partner on my first night working in this space. But it quickly became much more than that. For the artist, community leader, and educator, this wasn’t just a typical job it was research for their upcoming film, called 'Playland,' about what would be Boston’s oldest gay bar had it not shut down in 1998. Georden West started working at Club Cafe in Boston’s South End the year before the pandemic hit.
