It's been just over a year since the pandemic arrived in Barcelona, and since then it has changed our lives, little or much, for everyone, although some of us have been lucky ---knock on wood and may it be for many years--- not to get infected. The coronavirus has forced us to adopt, from one day to the next, new habits that, although they were slowly approaching, we barely glimpsed on the horizon. I think of teleworking, remote medicine, home shopping and, of course, also virtual meetings with friends and family with whom, before covid-19, we used to go to bars or share a table on Sundays.
Some say that after the pandemic the world will no longer be as we knew it and that Zoom meetings and online classes are here to stay. If that is the case, this will inevitably have a strong impact on the economy and, by rebound, on the physiognomy of the city. Will we return to physical stores after having been forced to get used to buying with a click and receiving the order at home? Otherwise, the thousands of small and large stores that fill the streets of Barcelona with life would be doomed. And nightlife and social relations, will they again involve filling bars, pubs and discos to the brim until the wee hours of the morning?
I belong to a generation for whom a Saturday night locked at home was a defeat, but it seems to me that, even before the pandemic, people much younger than me could spend it in pajamas, lying on the sofa watching Sálvame and chatting with their friends without a hint of remorse. A few weeks ago, a guy in his early twenties for whom I must be a boomer confessed to me that the home confinement had not been heavy at all for him and that with a good Internet connection he practically doesn't need to leave home. Tremendous.
I belong to a generation for whom a Saturday night locked at home was a defeat, but it seems to me that, even before the pandemic, people much younger than me could spend it in pajamas, lying on the sofa watching Sálvame and chatting with their friends without a hint of remorseThis afternoon, walking through the streets of Gaixample, I was wondering, specifically, what the atmosphere will be like after the pandemic---understood as the set of daytime and nighttime entertainment venues especially focused on the LGTBI public---, since new generations seem to have less and less desire or need to go out and socialize in person. Going out to flirt, in fact, may have already become a thing of the past because it is much easier to do it through social networks orappsof quotes. This, I repeat,it is not a new phenomenon, but has been gaining ground for years and could partly explain the disappearance of many mythical LGTBI venuesin Barcelona, London or San Francisco.
There are people from the same LGTBI community who believe that the "ambiente" (scene/environment) has ceased to have a reason for being as society has increasingly accepted diversity. As if it were no longer necessary for the Gaixample to exist because they no longer run the risk of being insulted, mistreated or expelled from other establishments in the city simply for holding hands or kissing in public. Therefore, according to this theory, overcoming the "ambiente" ---understood as a set of safe places for a threatened community--- would be something positive, a conquest, a triumph.
There are people from the same LGTBI community who believe that the "ambiente" (scene/environment) has ceased to have a reason for being as society has increasingly accepted diversity. Therefore, according to this theory, overcoming the "ambiente" ---understood as a set of safe places for a threatened community--- would be something positive, a conquest, a triumph.On October 14 of last year, anthropologist and researcher Ignacio Elipidio Domínguez and architect Zaida Muixí, a specialist in urban planning with a gender perspective, reflected onUrbanism, democracy and queer feminismin a dialogue organized by the LGTBI Centre of Barcelona, within the framework of the Ciutat Oberta Thought Biennial. One of the issues addressed in the session is precisely whether LGTBI neighborhoods are still necessary (if you are interested in the topic, you will find the talk on YouTube).
The Observatory Against Homophobia has detected, in recent years, a resurgence of LGTB-phobia in Catalonia and particularly in Barcelona. Therefore, beware, we are not doing so well!, to put it in Jan Laporta's way. That said, I am one of those who think that the scene will have its role in the city even if it is not necessary. I think it is a great asset for Barcelona, an interesting and useful space for socialization ---yes, I know that there is a part of the collective that considers it elitist and that demands another type of LGTBI leisure and even a ghetto, but that would be another debate---. It is also an economic engine that has its own employers' association (Catalan Association of LGTBI Collective Companies-ACEGAL) and attracts, every year, thousands of visitors from all over the world to the city. It would be a shame if some mythical places that before the pandemic remained open soon followed in the footsteps of Dietrich, La Bata De boatiné, Satanassa or Martins and also disappeared.
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