Young Queer People Are Drinking Less. New York City Gay Bars Are Feeling It

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