Queer Nightlife in Costa Rica (1984-2024): Documenting the Rise and Decline of LGBTIQ+ Bars in the Global South.

experienced a later expansion during the mid-1990's and a subsequent contraction beginning in the 2010's. The findings also reveal a distinctive spatial configuration. Alongside the historical concentration of venues in San José, queer nightlife developed in tourism-driven enclaves such as Quepos and Tamarindo, small coastal towns where international tourism fostered unexpected hubs of queer sociability. These results suggest that processes often described as the "death of the gay bar" may unfold differently in Global South contexts and may reflect broader shifts in the spatial and organizational forms of queer nightlife.