Can you still have a community if everybody likes you?

Minnesota Daily:

The face of the gay community worldwide may be changing, according to a University researcher's recently released study.

Epidemiology professor Simon Rosser said he learned that "while the gay population is stable or increasing," in all but the world's largest cities, "the size of the physical gay community appears to be contracting."

This means the number of gay bars, clubs and bookstores appears to be thinning or becoming more mainstream.

Rosser credits it to a changing culture.

"What we think is happening is that, in the '60s, '70s, '80s, gay men came together out of a sense of oppression, a desire to meet similar others," he said. "Now, some of the reasons that brought them together are very different."

Rosser cited the Internet as a possible reason for the change in the community.

"There comes an economic tipping point where the bars and clubs are all reporting they're somewhat quieter than before the rise of the Internet," he said.

Is it just the Internet, or is America going post-gay, as a friend of mine surmises? My best guess as to his definition of post-gay is that it's the gay version of going metrosexual. You're so comfortable with people of the other sexual orientation, and yourself, that for all intents and purposes you might well as be one of the other guys.

Is it becoming so easy to be gay in so many places in America that many younger gays no longer feel the need to go to a gay bar, or any other majority-gay-clientele environment, in order to feel accepted?