The gay bar is dying. In Portland, with only one explicitly LGBTQ+ bar left in town (and many folks in the queer community getting sober), some may say it's already dead. Whether it's a temporary generational lull or permanent trend, one thing is for sure: queer space in Portland looks much different than it did 20 years ago.
At least, that's according to Wendy Chapkis. Chapkis is a USM Professor of Women & Gender Studies and faculty scholar at the Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine. As part of her work with the Center, she has been working with filmmaker Betsy Carson for the last two years on a series of oral histories from the LGBTQ+ community titled "Querying the Past."
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