Review of Long Live Queer Nightlife by Amin Ghaziani

The Gay and Lesbian Review, Jan-Feb., 2025

Stories about the decline of the gay bar had led Amin Ghaziani to expect his sabbatical in London in 2018 to be a dull affair. He was surprised to discover that queer nightlife was more lively, and more nuanced, than the drastic headlines would suggest. The big city still offers plenty of options for LGBT people out looking for fun. Endowed with research grants, Ghaziani, an American sociology professor at the University of British Columbia, interviewed 112 Londoners—from city officials to party organizers to party goers—over a period of several years. The result is a beautiful book replete with attractive photographs of London’s club scene just before the pandemic.

 Ghaziani argues that LGBT nightlife has partially shifted from the “bar scene” to thematic parties, or club nights, that cater to segments hitherto underserved by established bars. The bars’ heavy fixed-cost business model has given way to initiatives that rent out spaces (and their liquor license) by the night, and get the word out through social media. Ghaziani sees this trend as subversive and anti-capitalist, though I think it could also be seen as an example of Schumpeter’s “creative destruction,” exemplifying a gig economy dynamic. The more segmented, flexible market allows a variety of spaces to flourish that focus on the many subcultures that make up the mosaic of British society and its queer community.

That said, I was struck by the extent to which Ghaziani highlighted the specifically racial and ethnic characteristics of these LGBT events. At times in his interviews he seems to challenge some people’s claims that ethnicity was unimportant. When one man repeatedly states that “I just see myself as British,” Ghaziani seems determined to dismiss his efforts to distance himself from an ethnic category, commenting: “I wonder if our need to belong is so deep and so fundamental that it can motivate some who are multiracial to identify as White.” On the other hand, there is a curious deficit in this book of talk about sex, which is, after all, a lot of what “queer nightlife” is about.