'Gay Bar' Tracks The Wave Of A Whole Culture — And One Life : NPR

Contents:

• THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI
• BEER IS SO GAY
• CHIGO GAY BARS AND CLUBS
• GAY BAR, MEET COCKTAIL BAR
• FOR THE LOVE OF GAY BARS
• WHAT IS THE GAYT DRK
• HOW TO BEE POPULAR AT A GAY BAR
• GAY MEN, WE HAVE A DRKG PROBLEM
• GAY BARS AND GAY RIGHTS
• 'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE
• CANNED CKTAIL ‘GAY WATER’ AIMS TO SH ON BUD LIGHT’S DYLAN MULVANEY DISASTER

THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI

When the bar fally reopened Sprg 2022, an entire borough’s worth of gays celebrated by floodg the new back pat all summer and Gger’s has been crowd wh queers ever sce.

BEER IS SO GAY

It began s life as a beer-and-we offshoot of the Metropolan Health Club, a gym that opened 1983 to serve the gay ctomers who’d been bullied out of other lol clubs at the height of AIDS hysteria. While you won’t fd any Pri flags at Farraguts, you will undoubtedly hear Cele Dn and Melissa Etheri blarg om the bar’s dty, old jebox and, hontly, isn’t that jt as gay? Live out your Brokeback Mounta fantasi at this verno club, where wboy stum are not nsired drag, and le dancg is not an explic exprsn of homophobia.

A gay gatherg spot sce 1939, and gay bar sce 1963, and the Bar Complex sce the 80s, s unassumg exterr beli a triple-threat treat of lounge, performance space, and a mirrored dance club reportedly moled after Stud 54.

CHIGO GAY BARS AND CLUBS

) The glorly lively bar and rtrant scene is enhanced by a black box theater downstairs, where farcil plays, lbian standup, and gay dance troup reign. If you want to get away om the typil scene at fellow gay bars Olly’s and Gregs Our Place, English Ivy is an ial place to meet iends: mature enough for a proper Ladi Lunch (or bnch or dner.

GAY BAR, MEET COCKTAIL BAR

It’s not a gay bar the tradnal sense, but a place where traed pianists play selectns om Broadway shows and all of the drama teachers and mil theater majors of the tri-state area nverge to sg along. It was the se of an early gay-liberatn “sip ” 1966, years before Stonewall, and has been a low-key haven ever sce, wh a diverse clientele, a small menu, classic cktails, and an extensive (and packed) 4:00-7:00 happy hour. The origal was burned down an anti-gay hate-crime a few years back, but the revival has jt opened across the street and is bigger and better, wh a new performance space.

FOR THE LOVE OF GAY BARS

CourtyWashgton DC: TraIn a town where n feel like every other bar is crawlg wh Capol Hill staffers lookg to talk shop, Tra is the rare, glorly gay dive where absolutely everyone is wele to jt kick back.

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.

One of Long Beach’s few, if not only, three-level gay bars, Executive Sue boasts a karaoke bar, vio gam, pool tabl for rent, and regular drag shows.

WHAT IS THE GAYT DRK

Dubbed by KCET as Montebello’s bt Lato gay bar, Chi is the sister to Club Cobra, servg as a groundg se for the queer Latx muny the suburbs of East LA.

HOW TO BEE POPULAR AT A GAY BAR

Gay Beer, Dyke Beer, and Queer Brewg are among the emergg group of beer producers that are centerg queer inty and queer muny, whether by highlightg queer brewers, donatg some profs to queer chari, or creatg queer third spac — munal spac distct om home and work — at a time when they’re disappearg. The pair were spired while drkg at Juli’, a historic gay bar New York Cy that was the se of early “sip-” protts, where gay men would drk at bars that refed to serve homosexuals.

Together, they were tryg to figure out why there wasn’t already a beer posned more for queer people, which led Moore and Pazmo to realize that gay beer was a project they uld take on themselv themselv.

“A lot of bars are not wantg to say they’re lbian bars, they’re wantg to say they’re queer bars — but a lot of gay male bars keep sayg they’re gay male bars, ” she says.

GAY MEN, WE HAVE A DRKG PROBLEM

For Moore and Pazmo, that meant an “Amerina whout the Amerin flag” sign, somethg that reflected the athetics of Juli’ Bar, and the gay men of the ’60s who participated the “sip ” protts. Wae says, “Many were pleased to see the lnch of somethg actively tryg to make change wh a stagnant and homogeno dtry, and queer and trans folk were pleased to see somethg that reprented them a way that hadn’t been done before. “It’s que different om earlier s, ” says Shepard, “pecially pre-Stonewall, when simply beg willg to serve gay men or lbians was enough to secure a grateful clientele, regardls of the qualy of the drks or the tablishment.

In the 1960s, early eratns of gay bars were often owned by straight people (many nnected to anized crime, who didn’t fear the illegaly of servg homosexuals), known for servg watered-down and overpriced drks, explog the sire any queer people had to jt be a safe (or safe enough) space.

As gay polil movements stood up agast opprsn—endg some state laws prohibg gay bars om existg, and th, makg gay bar ownership more accsible and approachable—the qualy and variety of drks served at the spac expand. “When you thk ‘gay bar, ’ you don’t thk they’re focg on cktails; they’re focg on a space that’s clive, somewhere you drk vodka-tonics, ” says Nobody’s Darlg -owner Renda Riddle. Our gay and lbian bars have a ltle b of somethg for everyone, wh late-night loung, dance clubs, burlque and drag shows, and long-standg neighborhood waterg hol almost every rner of the cy.

GAY BARS AND GAY RIGHTS

Come for trivia, the ee Sunday night buffet, and the themed dance parti — then e back the next morng for bnch at attached sister rtrant ClosetYou n’t talk about gay bars Chigo whout talkg about Northalsted (also known as Boystown). In a 2009 article for queer publitn Between the L, wrer Camper English laments the lack of “uture cktails” at gay tablishments, potg to the stereotype that “we’re supposed to be trendy people. ” Havg vered cktail culture sce 2006, English believ drks programs at gay bars have remaed remarkably static as the bar and rtrant dtry have drastilly evolved.

“It dawned on me that none of the gay bars were movg the same directn as other bars — they were jt dog the same old flavored vodka drks, most whout h juic or even drk men, ” English tells VePair.

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

While the mixology movement has brought well-ma Manhattans and Mojos to hotel bars, cise ship bars, piano bars, mic ftival bars, and, hell, even airplane bars, 20 years after the cktail revolutn lnched NYC, gay bars are one of the last plac Ameri you n’t always fd a good drk.

“We thk of cktail bars as a place to go and have a curated experience, ” says Alex Negranza, a gay bartenr and director of operatns at Tongue-Cut Sparrow and The Pastry War Hoton. Much has changed, and ntu to change, sce bars like San Francis’s Black Cat and New York’s Stonewall opened unrserved neighborhoods to provi refuge to gay muni the 1950s.

CANNED CKTAIL ‘GAY WATER’ AIMS TO SH ON BUD LIGHT’S DYLAN MULVANEY DISASTER

” Acrdg to the latt studi om Pntial and the Harvard Bs Review, the average queer Amerin — albe mostly cis whe gay mal — now earns as much if not more than their straight unterparts.

Then there’s the fact that today’s “gayborhoods, ” like Chelsea New York, Boystown Chigo, or Montrose Hoton, are among their ci’ wht and most affluent. Some queer bartenrs are hant to brg the craft cktail movement, wh s hand-cut ice and elevated price tags, to gay and lbian bars bee there are so few of them left.

“The gay bar isn’t nearly as ubiquo as we’d all like to be, so swchg the beverage program at even a uple of gay bars the cy mak accs to queer spac even more limed, ” says Yi Chen, bartenr at The Aviary NYC. “If gay bars are tly to rema about muny, the msage sent by cktail-specific gay bars is one of alienatn to those who n’t afford , which impli a culture that I personally fd problematic. Fortunately, early 2019, chef Angela Dimayuga, formerly of Missn Che Food, opened No Bar, a “new-wave gay bar” New York Cy’s Standard East Village Hotel.