Gay Bars, Bachelorette Parties Make for Unhappy Marriage

Halsted Street becomes popular venue for brides-to-be

It's apparently a trend: straight women holding bachelorette parties at gay bars.   Who knew? 

As the trend becomes more evident, so too do the problems relative to it. It seems that California's Prop 8 has put a damper on the festivities at local gay establishments, Dawn Turner Trice writes in Monday's Chicago Tribune.

A sign on the front door of Cocktail, a gay bar in Boystown, now reads "Bachelorette Parties Are Not Allowed."

"The women come to celebrate without having to worry about straight men pawing them. The gay men are there because, well, they don't want to be around a lot of women," Turner Trice wrote. 

Geno Zaharakis, owner of Cocktail, said the fact that gays aren't allowed to get married makes the celebration of a woman's upcoming wedding somewhat less than mutual in the bar.

Cocktail stopped hosting bachelorette parties a couple of years ago when he noticed his gay patrons weren't just complaining about the women being minor irritants but about them "flaunting" their right to marry.

"The women are a hoot, and some can be just delightful," Zaharakis said. "But because not everybody can get married, watching them celebrate ... it's such a slap in the face. Prop 8 just reopened the wound."

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