The Gaythering

The ‘gayest hotel in Miami Beach’, which closed due to COVID-19, is now live streaming its bingo, happy hour, drag queen karaoke, and trivia nights on its social channels each week; the hotel’s first virtual trivia event saw 600 viewers tune in. Hotel Gaythering is also planning events to help the LGBTQ community remain connected amidst the epidemic. The hotel will host a conversation on the gay experience during coronavirus with a licensed therapist, as well as a virtual pub crawl: queer bars and performers in Miami will host their own events via Hotel Gaythering’s social accounts.

💻 VIRTUAL VILLAGE SQUARES 
It’s no surprise that the travel industry has been hit hard by this epidemic, indeed up to 50 million jobs in the sector are expected to be cut, globally. Yet it’s almost entertainment as usual at the Hotel Gaythering. The establishment is still working to engage guests, provide opportunities to drag queens and other freelance entertainers (who often work gig-to-gig), promote other local businesses that are also suffering, as well as support the LGBTQ community at large with these morale-boosting initiatives. 

But let’s put coronavirus aside for a moment. If you’re a regular Innovation of the Day reader, you may recall the (many) times we’ve touched on the need to fulfill one of the deepest of basic human needs: our need to connect with others. This is a need that has been under-fulfilled for a while now. It’s prompted the UK to institute a loneliness strategy and Cigna’s most recent Loneliness Index found that 3 in 5 adults consider themselves lonely. We’ve extensively covered those brands that have been responding to this by creating ‘village squares’, both physical and virtual, to bring their customers together. All of this is more urgent for groups like the LGBTQ community, whose members especially need safe spaces where they know they will be seen, heard and accepted. Indeed, like so many of the current COVID-related challenges, the underlying issues were with us long before the pandemic hit. The good news is that so were many of the potential solutions you can deploy, too.  

Stay healthy,

The TrendWatching content team


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