Sanna Samuelsson: do not Let greed crush our queer venues!

When the lgbt bar Bitter Pills recently announced that it will shut down went a sorgvåg by those more interested in culture, parts of the Stockholm queercommunity. The bar was opened five years ago by Lotta Nordlander and Anna Classon on Verkstadsgatan in Hornstull. The same duo is planning to open a new place, when the correct local pops up. But since there is no such right now, close the Bitter Pills already in the end of may (DN 26/4). The reason is the complaining neighbours and the height of the rent from the bostadsrättföreningen – an amount which increased with 17,000 crowns in five years. It does not have the small bars, queer or not, afford.

Stockholm, everything begins to look more like a gated community for housing associations. Things should look cute in the ads but must not be heard, disturbed, or live. The clubs do not want to accommodate activities that can lower the value of the house, at the same time it is attractive with low fees. A way to lower fees is to raise the rent for the business, which rents the premises in the house.

faced with a situation where the only chains that can pay such high rents, can exist. In the future, we will only have Vigårda, Espresso House, and the Pitcher's to choose from when we want to go out. This is something that even the most marknadsivrande of the liberal editorialists want?

the Closure of the Bitter Pills represent, however, a greater development, which is more about capital than about the queer. In the April issue of the magazine Ottar wrote Tomas Hometown on their San Francisco, where the city council, in an attempt to protect the city's lgbt history, now want to create a ”cultural district” for, inter alia, trans - and läderkultur. ”But it is possible to preserve a culture whose conditions no longer exist?”, write Hometown and recalls that many can't even afford to stay in San Francisco longer. He believes that the city needs a change of direction that ”gives priority to culture over the capital.”

Also in London, 58% of all lgbtq-places closed down in the last decade. Not that all the queers have moved out, but because of gentrification. But in London, it has organised itself. Groups such as Friends of the joiner's arms, and #WeAreTheBlackCap, has put pressure on property developers and politicians. They have begun to use the british term ”Asset of community value” in order to save their lgbt bars, a term that strengthens them legally against a ruthless urban development and describe the value of a meeting place in a way that politicians can understand.

the mayor of London Sadiq Khan recently took the initiative to survey of lgbt venues. He introduced the 2016 also a ”night czar”, which will help protect London's position as a club, and nöjesstad.

How would it be able to look in a Swedish context? Stockholm has as familiar a skönhetsråd, which also has a mandate to protect the ”historically valuable cityscapes ”. It can also apply to our venues? Would also lgbt venues, free theatres or the small bookshops to be able to be recognised as particularly valuable for a city? Or would it be able to put in place a trivselråd, which looks to the city's mångfaldsbehov?

the cultural committee in Stockholm city provides already support to community centers in the neighborhoods that Rågsved, Älvsjö, stockholm and Årsta. Can't support also be provided to community halls for minorities, that hang out over the stadsdelsgränserna? Can't lokalhyrorna just be regulated?

go a different route. There is a reason that so many lgbt persons move to a big city. It is because we believe it to be different than in Borås, Mjölby or market town, we moved away from. So was different, Stockholm, sweden. Please.