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The 17 entries include restaurants, personal trainers and financial services, among 139 businesses owned by women, people of color, veterans, people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of Portuguese descent. One business featured is Diesel Café in Davis Square. Pop-up events happen too; “Kiss Me I’m Queer” was held March 17 as a St.
Patrick’s Day alternative at Central Square’s Lower Level, the basement of an Elk’s Lodge.
Other social spaces
A pride sticker on the front door of Diesel in Somerville’s Davis Square. Trophy Room also proudly supports local farmers and the purchasing of organic and sustainable products.
GF = Gluten Free
V = Vegetarian
Campus, seen June 15, is the Thursday LGBTQ+ night at ManRay in Cambridge’s Central Square.
The night itself is informal compared with some others at ManRay that cater to specific, alternative subcultures and come with dress codes. (Photo: Luciano Cesta)
As for the crowd at Campus, he said that somebody described it as “very Cambridge.” He said that was a compliment – that people of all ages go.
“I think we’re trying to reflect that with the music,” he said.
It’s just a very cool blend of very cool people.”
While ManRay is not strictly an LGBTQ+ bar, Ewen described it as a safe space.
“We want ManRay to be a gathering place for members of a variety of communities that don’t really have a home in other places, or feel like they don’t have a home in other places,” Ewen said.
ManRay owners and managers intend it as a safe space for a variety of communities.
It’s just some of these things just take a very long time to change,” she said.<
Greggor Mattson’s “Who Needs Gay Bars?,” published last month by the Stanford University Press, estimates that half of all gay bars in the United States closed between 2007 and 2021, with 16 percent of that decline due to the Covid pandemic.
“How that 50 percent hits depends on where you stand. In addition to being founded by two members of the queer community in 1999, Park said that Diesel is a “safe haven” for LGBTQ+ people.
It’s important that there are spaces for the LGBTQ+ community that don’t center around nightlife, Lewis said.
“We should make sure that anyone who walks in off the street knows that we’re an inclusive and safe space,” she said, and stickers with pride colors were affixed to the businesses’ doors this year to make them more visibly LGBTQ-friendly.
Like Joselow, Lewis believes Somerville and Cambridge should encourage more diversity among business owners.
“I think that the cities are definitely moving in the right direction.
In neighboring Boston, spaces have been disappearing too: Machine in Fenway closed to make way for a condo development, and Bella Luna and the Milky Way in Jamaica Plain closed during the Covid pandemic.
One of the spaces that remain in Cambridge is Campus at ManRay, a club night that happens every Thursday. patty | bacon | white cheddar | american cheese | lettuce | tomato | onion | fry sauce | brioche bun
The businesses can list affiliations with multiple groups.
Similarly, Somerville publishes a Diversity Catalog. “Now there’s a lot of bars that are deemed safe by the queer community and they’re not really officially queer bars.”
Nationwide issue
The spaces have been closing all over the country.
“The nights that I’ve gone to are jam-packed with people, which is what you would find at ManRay back in the day.”
Driscoll said that during ManRay’s original incarnation, Campus was one of its most popular nights – and was its own bar for two years before ManRay replaced it on Brookline Street in 1985.
Looking for causes
The lack of dedicated LGBTQ+ spaces could be attributed to two factors, Driscoll said.
“The misfits and the broken toys, we need a home,” said Keith Bennett, the club’s head of security. For all inquiries, please email us with all the relevant information and we'll respond as soon as we can.
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Prepared in a kitchen where nuts and gluten are present. Pride flag stickers are a dime a dozen on store and café windows, and nobody seems to mind bold proclamations of gender or sexuality. Please advise your server of any food allergies prior to ordering. (Photo: Annie Schugart)
In Cambridge and Somerville, you would be hard pressed to find a place where members of the LGBTQ+ community are not welcome.
“But it might mean the loss of all the bars for people of color, as happened in San Francisco, or the only club for 18-year-olds, as happened in Cleveland.