The Queer Oasis of Jackson, Mississippi's Lone Gay Bar

Contents:

• THE GAY BATHHOE FIRE OF 1977
• A MEMOIR ABOUT QUEER INTY, TOLD ONE GAY BAR AT A TIME
• 'IN FDG EACH OTHER WE STARTED VELOPG POWER': A LOOK AT MIDWT’S LARGT GAY BAR
• 'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE
• KEY WT GAY BARS
• GAY MEMPHIS
• 'I WANTED PEOPLE TO HAVE FUN.' AFTER 27 YEARS, LOUISVILLE SAYS FAREWELL TO INIC GAY BAR
• THE 10 BEST TOKYO GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS TOKYO
• LONDON GAY BARS

THE GAY BATHHOE FIRE OF 1977

M., ne men — trapped si a buildg wh blocked-up wdows and no fire p — would not make out years after Stonewall, the tragedy at the Everard Baths — never vtigated as anythg but an accintal mattrs fire — marked the begng of the end of a brief, exuberant heyday of New York Cy gay life that was able to thrive part bee of cheap real tate and a cy ernment that was willg to look the other way when me to, say, S&M clubs like the Mhaft the Meatpackg District (drs clud no logne). But even as the '70s New York were a relatively open, excg time to be a gay man New York — pri paras, gay bars and clubs proliferatg, a mastream weekly gay newspaper, a gay rights prott at the 1976 Democratic Natnal Conventn New York — beg openly gay, whether on the street or the workplace, still me wh dangers.

A MEMOIR ABOUT QUEER INTY, TOLD ONE GAY BAR AT A TIME

The bathhoe had long been an anonymo space where gay men uld be themselv whout shame — but the fire at the Everard rerced the ia for many queer men that the few spac they thought were tly their own weren't always safe.

Everard Baths was not jt any gay bathhoe; the wrer Michael Rumaker, his acunt of gog to the baths (A Day and a Night at the Baths) for the first time the wter of 1977, lled Everard "the most venerable, loathed, and affectnately teemed baths all of New York Cy. Author Gore Vidal met his longtime partner, Howard Aten, at Everard 1950; over the years Everard was reportedly vised by the wrer Tman Capote, theater director Aled Lunt, the ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, and gay rights activist and wrer Larry his memoir Cy Boy: My Life New York Durg the 1960s and 1970s, Edmund Whe remembers the Everard as "filthy...

'IN FDG EACH OTHER WE STARTED VELOPG POWER': A LOOK AT MIDWT’S LARGT GAY BAR

"Ined, was an important and, s when much of gay life was lived secret, necsary space for gay men to associate wh each other — and, particularly for closeted men, a safe place to meet and have sex wh other men.

Bathho are private and exclive; whereas anyone generally has accs to other gay male spac, like bars and clubs, bathho were, and ntue to be, exclively for gay men — and th play a unique and signifint role gay life.

'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE

They generally existed on the g of lawfulns; the Everard, along wh other gay bathho New York Cy, were perdilly raid by police, wh a few people beg rted off to jail for lewd behavr now and then, but generally left alone — the ultimate "don't ask, don't tell. And the gay muny was quick to claim the tragedy: The pastor of the New York branch of the Metropolan Communy Church — the gay church found Los Angel 1968 that had held servic at the UpStairs Lounge jt prr to the fire — tablished a fund to help those jured the fire, as well as pay for the burials of the men who were aftermath was also vered the media. "Homosexuals Mobilize to Aid Fire Victims" was the headle a New York Tim article on May 26 that explaed that gay men "led up to donate blood" — which today, post-AIDS, they are still banned om dog, meang gay men uldn’t donate to their iends and loved on hospalized after Orlando — and "helped intify bodi and promised to raise money on behalf of the jured, " and that "telephone appeals for help volved a work of 15 homosexual relig anizatns as well as activist homosexual polil groups.

KEY WT GAY BARS

" In this way, the Everard fire serv as a kd of pre-AIDS era timtamp: Gay men uld still donate blood, bee AIDS hadn't happened yet; gay polil groups were actively advotg for gay rights a way that was startg to be supported by the mastream media. They had been a uple for six years— teachers their mid-30s, jt returned om jobs the Middle East" — and prience, wrg the same article that the Everard Baths were "a kd of 'Marlboro Country' among homosexuals' gatherg plac... " Bce Voeller, a -executive director of the Natnal Gay Task Force who would go on to be a leadg AIDS rearcher and activist (and die of AIDS 1994), told the Tim that "you uld often meet an off-duty p or fireman at the Everard.

Today, the sh to claim the Orlando tragedy as "human, " as opposed to a specific attack on queer Latx people, the real danger that people of lor and queer people still face this untry n get lost — the first versn of the Tim' story about the Orlando shootg didn't mentn that Pulse was a gay club; the #AllLivMatter movement elis the fact that vlence by police agast black people is an tractable problem.

" The pot of the article seemed to be to reassure the Tim' rears that the gay populatn was not jt "terr rators, Fire Island and bars wh a leather motif" — although "this world do ed exist and flourish some neighborhoods.

GAY MEMPHIS

"Of urse, this scriptn nveniently leav out the thoands of gay men and women who were not upper-class and not whe; race is not mentned at all, jt that "there are ser divisns wh the homosexual populatn New York... " The article also highlights the ternal polil nflict wh the gay rights movement between "ant" groups and "morat": "Milant groups like the Gay Activist Alliance ntue to stage monstratns — more than a dozen the last month — which some morat feel are unterproductive.

'I WANTED PEOPLE TO HAVE FUN.' AFTER 27 YEARS, LOUISVILLE SAYS FAREWELL TO INIC GAY BAR

Only a few bathho survived Mayor Koch's purge, cludg Manhattan's East Si Club, opened 1976 — "New York's Premier Social Relaxatn Club for Gay and Bisexual Men, " acrdg to s webse — and s newer siblg, the Wt Si Club, which opened 1977, the fire at the Everard Baths was a remr that there was no such thg as real safety — which felt all too faiar last weekend. Micky’s WeHo has long been a staple on Wt Hollywood’s strip of gay nightclubs and bars on Santa Moni Boulevard, known for s open-walled two-story buildg where passersby n see the party ragg om the street. Though Sweetwater isn’t officially known as a lbian bar, the humble tablishment has long been the go-to spot for queer women the lol gayborhood, which featur nearly half a dozen gay bars that le Broadway Long Beach.

AdvertisementSKIP Jeremy Atherton LWhen you purchase an penntly reviewed book through our se, we earn an affiliate 9, 2021GAY BARWhy We Went OutBy Jeremy Atherton LHistory, as is tght, is a straight le of domo fallg — the relentls clack of fact htg fact, an orrly que of aly stretchg on forever.

THE 10 BEST TOKYO GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS TOKYO

History, as is lived, is a reelg spiral of flight and return; the erative reawakeng of new selv faiar plac; a never-endg terrogatn of our own nfed and nfg motiv; a msy slather of dots on a graph where the center n be plotted only Atherton L’s betiful, lyril memoir, “Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, ” cloaks this lived history that learned history, examg an objective subject — gay bars — to create a highly subjective object: a book about his life, flensed down to jt the bs that ma past the chapter foc on one particular gay bar (jumpg om London to Los Angel to San Francis and back), s history and s place the trajectory of Atherton L’s life. Atherton L himself is renred only relatn to the bars he walks through; you’ll fd yourself hard-prsed at the end to say where he was born or how many siblgs he has (and you won’t re) Atherton L has a five-octave, Mariah Carey-que range for discsg gay sex. “Gay Bar” is well crafted (which is pecially pleasg nsirg this is a memoir about stctur), wh a strong thorial hand that mak the rear feel refully shepherd through the text, even as Atherton L jumps s and ntents.

When he discs an important 1966 prott at the historic Greenwich Village gay bar Juli’, he c a New York Tim article to talk about the “tr of activists” volved — not realizg that the article left out a fourth man, Randy Wicker (the only one still alive, cintally enough) a half page later, though, Atherton L warns that spe the activist claim that gay bars “should be kept open to facilate knowledge passg between generatns, ” he himself had never really received gay wisdom “on a barstool. ” This book is not about history, the subject you study, but history, that thg you have wh that guy by the jebox whose name you n’t the fal chapter of “Gay Bar, ” Atherton L grappl wh gog to a new generatn of bars, created by very different forc, meetg very different needs.

LONDON GAY BARS

Sitrack has been ont and center as a fundraiser, donor and anizer for LGBTQ 15, 000 square feet spanng two stori and more than eight storeonts, Sitrack is believed to be the largt gay bar the Midwt. ” That was s only plard – along wh a gay slur, which some hospable neighbor had graffied on the ont door as a wele gift li of the ctomary baked then, Chigo’s Boystown neighborhood – which recently changed s name to “Northalsted” – was a rough-and-tumble area blighted by gangs and crime.

Then, a ar iend me to them wh a novel ia: He wanted to open the Midwt’s first gay “vio bar, ” and he wanted Peña to n for vios were jt begng to arrive on the scene – MTV buted 1981 – so Peña had to create many of the vios himself by aggregatg tertg visuals om films and settg them to popular mic. When she vised Chigo a week later, she was greeted by 5, 000 members of the LGBTQ muny who had turned out to prott – cludg Johnston and Peña, who were so spired that they subsequently joed efforts to secure passage of the Chigo Human Rights Ordance, a landmark law protectg lbians, gay men and bisexuals om discrimatn hog, employment and public 2022:LGBTQ fns every ally should know for Pri Month (and all year long)'Stand ' support:How one TikTok vio started a movement to help LGBTQ upl on their weddg day“Bee Chigo is a Catholic cy, people thought we’d never be able to pass a basic gay rights ordance here. " That history clus the famo 1969 uprisg at the Stonewall Inn New York, but Atherton L also div to other, lser-known bars, cludg on that endured police raids meant to put gay people their place.