Over the past few years, London has lost over half of its LGBTQ+ venues. Discussions about the disappearance of these spaces have mostly blamed dating apps and cultural shifts that have ‘brought gay culture into the mainstream’ (Greenhalgh, 2015). As Jeremy Atherton Lin (2021) points out: ‘In Britain, the steep decline [in gay bars] came not long after civil partnerships were introduced in 2005’ (p9). Similarly, author June Thomas wonders whether ‘as gay rights move forward, the gay bar – the place where it all began – may get left behind’ (Thomas, 2011b). While their loss might be sad, LGBTQ+ venues are often seen to be relics of a past that queer people are in the process of leaving behind. Thomas herself, who has published an essay series on gay bar's riotous past and uncertain future, acknowledges that while she ‘feel[s] bad about abandoning’ gay bars, she rarely goes to these spaces anymore, mostly because she has been in a relationship for 14 years (Thomas, 2011b) (as if that's something that disqualifies you from going out) and because ‘they get going too late’ (Thomas, 2011b). As she explains, ‘[o]nce upon a time … gay bars were the only venues where gay people could let down their defences … [but] [n]ow, at least in urban centres, gay men and lesbians [sic] feel safe in scads of straight restaurants and bars’ (Thomas, 2011b). Thus, we are told that these spaces are important, or rather were important, at a time in which LGBTQ+ people were not accepted. Then, these spaces could serve as muster stations for queers to socialize, organize, exorcise their demons, be themselves, imagine a future. But now, these spaces are but remnants of a past: representative not of the promise for a future, but of a time that has come and gone, often for the better.

These accounts often reproduce linear narratives of inclusion and progress in which acceptance ‘in the West’ has meant that, while the closure of these spaces might be upsetting to some, it actually ‘points to a larger, and overwhelmingly positive, trend’ (Smith, 2016a). This trend points to a future of inclusion, same-sex marriage, kids, family, a job, and all the things that queer people have long been denied. The mere offer of such a future (for some) is taken as evidence of inclusion, while the existence of alternative (queer) futures beyond normativity is often erased.