But, I feel the need to point out something new, that needed some thoughtful evaluation before I could post it:

I was over near the entrance to the bar at around 10:30PM, and I noticed that the whole crowd of fifty or sixty laughing, chattering men was clustered tightly together, in one long grouping along the whole western wall. The rest of the bar (except for the two guys playing pool) was basically empty.  I've never seen this before, in 36 years of going to gay bars (yes, I went to underage bars before I turned 21), and it struck me as unusual at the time.

Now that I've had time to think about it, I'm very happy about what it means. Instead of being a loose, scattered assemblage of isolated and lonely men, everybody was TOGETHER. 

Everybody wanted to be unified… Close, personal and involved with each other, in one Tribe.  Nobody forced them to be that way - They did it naturally. It was the clearest symptom of true brotherhood that I've seen in many years.

So, the "problem" of a low turnout had the hidden benefit of bringing something new and wonderful into visibility.  It looks like everybody was honoring my request, and we can see that it works.  Good for us!