by Georgia McClellan
Dating is hard. Trying to find time to maintain a relationship while also working or going to school can be tedious; dating in 2016 is harder.
With Tinder and text messages, it can feel challenging to make a connection with anyone. There isn’t much face-to-face communication anymore and that can lead to shallow relationships.
Dating when you’re LGBT is even harder. Consider all the previously mentioned problems with modern dating and then add the fact the LGBT pool of compatible partners is incredibly small, especially in a smaller community such as Grand Junction.
Also consider with such a small community, a majority of your potential partners have dated each other and even dated your friends. Sometimes it feels as if you could approach any LGBT person and ask them about an individual and they have either dated them, or their very close friend has. I wish I were joking.
So this creates a difficult scenario for the dating scene in the LGBT community. Sure, there are gay bars and specific LGBT dating apps, but a majority of them are geared to gay men and not the rest of the community.
Commonly, most people have heard of Grindr. It’s an app similar to Tinder but strictly for gay men or men seeking other men. For women seeking women there is an app called Her, however it is rarely used and simply isn’t up to par with Grindr. It’s a little disappointing.
Some people might say if you’re looking for a LGBT relationship you have to go where those people are. A gay bar might be the first thought, but it’s hard still to find a potential mate.
A majority of gay bars are, again, geared toward gay males rather than females. This could be for a number of reasons, but the most common one is that gay men like to party and live that bar lifestyle while most LGBT women do not.
Throughout history there have been famous lesbian and gay bars, but in the recent years the lesbian bars are going out of business simply because not enough women go. It’s a tragedy really. Sure, there are just blanket LGBT bars, but even then you’re more likely to meet men than women.
It can get frustrating at times not knowing when or where you will find a good LGBT partner. Some may get lucky and find love on one of the two available dating apps, others might dance their way into someone’s heart at a gay bar.
However, it seems most of us will have to work the old fashioned way; opening our mouths really wide and releasing a giant rainbow to attract a mate.
It seems to have worked well for me.
