This story originally appeared on Them.
It’s hard out here for your local queer watering hole.
New York City gay bar owners have revealed that they are facing new financial hardships due to plunging drinking rates among younger customers, per a feature in Gay City News (GCN).
“The younger generation doesn’t like to drink, it seems,” Kurt Kelly, one of the Stonewall Inn’s owners, told GCN. “It’s hurting businesses — it’s hurting ours, too,” he added. “We’re surviving.”
Several bars have even admitted to having to close early due to low patronage. While bars are technically permitted to stay open until 4 a.m. in New York, and have since the state liquor authority was established after Prohibition in 1934, some management is choosing to close early to save money even if their license allows otherwise.
“We certainly saw a shift after the pandemic,” Daniel Tobey, general manager of The Monster, told GCN. “The late nights went from 4 a.m. to 2 a.m. For years and years, it didn’t work that way. We were open no matter what.”
The hit to gay bars’ bottom lines comes amid a crisis of gay bars permanently shuttering their doors nationwide. Threats to gay bars come from many angles, including rising operating costs, conflicts with landlords, and now, a turnaround in alcohol consumption habits.
Gallup polling released in August shows that rates of drinking among Americans are at a record low, with only 54% of adults saying they drink alcohol. For only the second time since asking Americans whether drinking is bad for your health, a majority of respondents agreed that alcohol is not good for you, up from 27% in 2001.
In both 2023 and 2026, when Gallup took polls on drinking, drinking rates were lowest among 18-34 year olds.
In 2025, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released a report linking even small amounts of alcohol consumption to several forms of cancer, including breast cancer and colon cancer.
Researchers have noted a myriad of reasons for the downturn in American drinking habits, including the lasting fallout from the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, according to researchers, drinking habits lost the social aspect and may have accrued a stigma due to the effects of drinking in isolation.
Reduced drinking habits have hit many others in the service industry, as well, including restaurants that rely on alcohol sales to meet their bottom line, per the New York Times.
For queer establishments in particular, owners and managers say that a rise in THC products and online cruising through tools such as Grindr or Sniffies have both reduced foot traffic to bars. (Of course, much has been written about the peculiar interplay between the gay bar and the use of hookup apps, which is already on the decline among gen Z, as well.)
Jason Carver, general manager of Nowhere Bar, told GCN that many patrons come to the bar to order water without spending money and that sales of non-alcoholic drinks have gone up, with many people avoiding pricey brands altogether.
“I’m in the process of getting rid of high-end stuff — Grey Goose, Mezcal, high-end tequilas,” he said. “People just don’t want to spend that much money on alcohol.”
The Monster, too, has adapted with a non-alcoholic menu.
“It used to be that people would ask for something sparkly and juicy — whatever was behind bar,” Tobey told GCN. “The trend now is to give people an experience. Literally, when you sell these drinks in a can, part of the marketing is to make it look like a cocktail because some people don’t want it to be obvious they’re not drinking.”
Carver joked that one demographic is reliable when it comes to dropping dollars.
“You still get certain crowds that will spend money, like the bear crowd,” Carver told GCN, joking that “the bear crowds are keeping bars afloat.”
“These guys are not afraid of a few extra calories,” he said.
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