Would the pandemic add to these closures? Not in Cleveland.
At the start of the pandemic, they didn’t know how long the shutdown would last or whether their fledgling business would survive it.Īccording to research by an Oberlin College professor, gay bars and nightclubs in Cleveland and across the country had been closing at a high rate for more than a decade before the pandemic. He and his husband John had owned Bar & Patio Vibes, a gay bar on Lorain Avenue near West 117th Street in Cleveland, for about a year only. When Governor Mike DeWine ordered the closure of bars and clubs in March 2020 to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Kevin Briggs panicked.
