How Gay Bars Have Been a Buildg Block of the LGBTQ Communy - Curbed

Contents:

• ‘MY FIRST GAY BAR’: RACHEL MADDOW, ANDY COHEN AND OTHERS SHARE THEIR COMG-OUT STORI
• THE GAY BAR AS SAFE SPACE HAS BEEN SHATTERED
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF ATTACKS AT GAY AND LBIAN BARS
• HOW GAY BARS HAVE BEEN A BUILDG BLOCK OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNY
• THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI
• DISVERG NEW YORK'S 'GAY BARS THAT ARE GONE'
• IN HAVANA, GAY BARS HOLD THEIR OWN AGAST THE INTER
• WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A ‘GAY BAR’ BE JT A BAR?
• GAY DANCE CLUBS ON THE WANE THE AGE OF GRDR
• 25 VLENT ATTACKS AT GAY BARS THAT PRECED ORLANDO’S HORRIFIC NIGHTCLUB MASSACRE
• INDY'S GAY BARS: HEAD FOR EXTCTN?
• NEW YORK CY GAY SNAS AND BATHHO
• THE 5 BEST PROVCE OF MALAGA GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS PROVCE OF MALAGA

‘MY FIRST GAY BAR’: RACHEL MADDOW, ANDY COHEN AND OTHERS SHARE THEIR COMG-OUT STORI

Christian Hansen for The New York TimJune 22, 2016For generatns of gays and lbians, pecially those for whom walkg to the sometime secret and darkened doorway of one was often the first step the g-out procs, gay bars have long held a signifint place their personal was never more apparent than the days followg the mass shootgs at Pulse, the gay nightclub Orlando, Fla., which 49 patrons lost their liv, and which prompted many to rell the nights they had spent siar settgs, and the sense of muny they found there. Charl Syk/Invisn, via Associated PrsAndy Cohen Televisn host and producerI ed to sneak away om my straight iends at Boston Universy and go to Chaps (gay bars often have hypermascule nam) Boston’s Back Bay. They were an pe om the (often uniendly) outsi world, packed every night of the week, and everyone si was a Heisler/The New York TimLarry Kramer Playwright, thor and activistIn 1953, gay bars were sry.

It would still be a bunch of years before gay bars would start beg ls sry, and a lot of Beck/Agence France-Prse — Getty ImagJane Lynch ActrsThe first gay bar I ever went to was the Cubbyhole when was on Hudson Street the Wt Village.

Brendan Hoffman/Getty ImagRachel Maddow Host of MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” The first time I went to a gay bar was 1990, thanks to a fairly terrible fake ID that I bought for $25. Elizabeth Lippman for The New York Tim Honey DijonPerformerRialto Tap Chigo was the first black gay bar I went to, and what I really remember was the cracked tile dance floor. From that day on, “bakery” was our word for gay Hawthorne/Getty ImagKeh BoykBroadster and thorOn a Sunday night July 1991, at a sprawlg plex lled Tracks the District of Columbia, I found thoands of young black gay men and lbians.

THE GAY BAR AS SAFE SPACE HAS BEEN SHATTERED

For the first time my life, I felt not only siro of others but sirable to them as Counts/Getty ImagAlison BechlCartoonist, thor of the graphic memoir “Fun Home” My first gay bar was Satan’s, Akron, Oh. But that night, the large mixed crowd (there weren’t enough gay people to support a separate club for women), I experienced the profound existential relief, for once, of not beg the only queer. ” I remember the closeted aterny boys, who had jt dropped their dat at the sorory hoe — and the girls who loved to sp and gyrate on the dance floor, earng the attentn of adorg gay boys.

But ntrary to so many narrativ of relief at fdg a gay ntext, my ial experience was primarily of anxiety, bee to be where the least acceptable aspect of myself was the explic topic ma me feel more naked than the go-go boys. Ease and digny, however, had seemed patible wh my gayns until my sweaty June bar vis set me on a new path, one that much later led me to marryg my hband, havg our children, and beg an activist for L.

There, so we would go, and this time was me and my six iends — tryg to play ol as much as we Counts/Getty ImagJon Rob BazPlaywright and producerIt was the Roosterfish, a dgy ntil gay bar Venice Beach Los Angel. Provcetown was a ee and open space, lots of great performers, people out to have fun, and this is exactly what was to Bac/Getty ImagJoseph AltuzarraCreative director, AltuzarraThe first gay club I went to was Le Queen Paris when I was high school.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ATTACKS AT GAY AND LBIAN BARS

Wilson/Getty ImagJohn AmaechiPsychologist and former Natnal Basketball Associatn playerI’m om Manchter, England, so we have a very vibrant gay muny that is very well tegrated. The spe of the vlence is unprecented, but the fact is not: Past cints like the burng of New Orleans’ UpStairs Lounge, which killed 32 June 1973, have only emphasized the importance of strongholds where gay people uld socialize eely. AdvertisementSKIP Thornell/Associated PrsJune 13, 2016The lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr muny is no stranger to the 1969 police raid at the Stonewall Inn New York Cy that set off rts and helped touch off the morn gay-rights movement to the 1998 murr of Matthew Shepard to near-epimic levels of vlence agast transgenr women, the muny has been marked by flash of the massacre at a gay club Orlando, Fla., that left 49 ad and 53 others jured, Richard Kim, the executive edor of The Natn, wrote on Sunday that gay bars and clubs have often been sanctuari.

And sometim those sanctuari have e unr are a few signifint Orleans, 1973Thirty-two people died when a fire swept through the UpStairs Lounge, a gay bar the French Quarter, on June 24, 1973. ViotranscripttranscriptA Day of Mourng for the Gay CommunyIn support of the victims of the massacre at a gay nightclub Orlando, Fla., hundreds gathered outsi the Stonewall Inn New York, where a rt 1969 helped lnch the gay rights support of the victims of the massacre at a gay nightclub Orlando, Fla., hundreds gathered outsi the Stonewall Inn New York, where a rt 1969 helped lnch the gay rights movement.

”The New Orleans Tim-Piyune wrote 2013 that the lounge was “not jt any bar, but as a gay muny hangout where lols uld gather whout fear of social persecutn” at a time of tense anti-gay stigma. More than 700 people were the club at the time, cludg much of the cy’s gay and transgenr learship, but no one was Masmari plead guilty to arson and was sentenced to 10 years prison July 2014. Stonewall Inn, 2010 and 2016The Stonewall Inn played a central role the morn gay rights movement, but has also seen antigay and anti-transgenr vlence recent men attacked another man the rtroom 2010 after he rmed them that they were a gay bar.

HOW GAY BARS HAVE BEEN A BUILDG BLOCK OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNY

“The realy is, if people are lookg to perpetrate anti-gay bias and vlence, there are very few plac this world that are safe once that tent has formed, ” Sharon Stapel, the former executive director of the New York Cy Anti-Vlence Project, said at the time of the March this year, a transgenr woman said she was sexually asslted the unisex rtroom. Dpe the massive stris the lbian, gay, transgenr, bisexual, and queer muni have ma the last few s, the shockg horror of the weekend’s shootgs ma clear the ntued relevance and importance of the bars and nightclubs.

THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI

While the protts and march at The Stonewall Inn turned the bar to a symbolic headquarters for the Gay Pri movement, gay nightlife has always served as val space for muny buildg and pg societal persecutn. The people behd the plac have sparked polil activism (Joe Scialo, the late former owner of The Monster, supported employe the ‘80s fightg AIDS and even traveled to Mexi to brg back life-savg dgs) and have fostered mic and creative exprsn for s (gay clubs such as the Warehoe Chigo and Paradise Garage New York gave birth to hoe and var stras of electronic mic). Jt a ltle more than 60 years ago, famo police raids Miami attempted to shut down the cy’s gay nightlife, rultg newspaper headl such as "Perverts Seized Bar Raids, " "Crackdown on Deviant Nts Urged, " and "Great Civilizatns Plagued by Deviat.

The notor "Purple Pamphlets" dissemated by state Senator Charley Johns, who had led wch hunts agast gays state ernment and led vtigative mte that fired hundreds of gay schoolteachers, portrayed the culture as viant and dangero. The sgle-sex arrangement of ary life, as well as creasg pennce (and enomic advanc) of women workg on the homeont, offered many gay Amerins the abily to ngregate greater numbers for the first time. While this risg awarens helped create new gay rights anizatns, such as the Mattache Society and the Dghters of Bilis, was quickly untered wh a nservative backlash of nformy and Communist paranoia, exemplified by Senator Joseph McCarthy.

His vtigatns, part of an anti-gay wch hunt the feral ernment lled the Lavenr Sre, would persecute leftists for years, and along wh sual bigotry and wispread amement over terms such as ‘pixie, ’ would help falsely lk beg gay wh viance and anti-Amerin behavr the popular imagatn.

DISVERG NEW YORK'S 'GAY BARS THAT ARE GONE'

In Provcetown, Massachetts, the A-Hoe, a gay hangout, beme one of the landmarks of the northeastern vatn muny, famo for a nu photo of Tennsee Williams strollg a lol beach hangg on the wall. The Cab Inn, opened by Nat "Big" Ivy Chigo’s South Si Bronzeville neighborhood, put on regular drag shows featurg a chos le of black men, while Esta Noche, a pneerg Missn District gay bar, opened for a predomantly Hispanic clientele 1979. Durg the ‘50s and ‘60s, ps nstantly harassed LGBTQ tablishments, pullg cisers up near the entrance to disurage anyone om gog si, parkg police wagons ont of the door durg equent raids, and even sendg unrver ps to try and get someone to h on them—a daily occurrence every bar, gay or straight—which would trigger a lewd nduct charge.

IN HAVANA, GAY BARS HOLD THEIR OWN AGAST THE INTER

By 1964, when Bob Damron’s Addrs Book, a self-published gay travel gui, was first issued, ntaed more than 750 bars, rtrants, and clubs across the untry, all personally vised by the thor, a bsman who was equently on the road. In 1959, San Francis Mayoral ndidate Rsell Woln, a Democrat, attacked cumbent Gee Christopher, claimg he ma "homosexuals" feel so wele they moved their natnal anizatn to town.

Woln was cricized, lost the electn, and as was often the se when crics or moralizers attacked the LGBTQ muny, merely broadst to others that San Francis was a great place to meet fellow gay and lbian people.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A ‘GAY BAR’ BE JT A BAR?

By the end of the , that anonymy would be replaced wh mands for rights and regnn, as the gay rights movement began to achieve velocy, pecially the wake of larger lls for civil rights. After pourg their drks, a bartenr Juli's Bar ref to serve John Timms, Dick Lesch, Craig Rodwell, and Randy Wicker, members of the Mattache Society, an early Amerin gay rights group, who were prottg New York liquor laws that prevented servg gay ctomers, New York, New York, April 21, 1966. In 1962, a group of gay bar owners San Francis formed the Tavern Guild, a pneerg gay bs associatn, settg up a phone le to warn each other of police raids, and tablishg a bail fund.

" Wrer Daniel Harris noted that "assiatn … has profound ramifitns for the untry’s cultural life, which will be prived of a major source of artistic and tellectual energy as homosexuals are fally tegrated. That sense of openns, pri, and eedom, and the welg nature of plac that allow everyone, pecially the gay muny, to exprs themselv, was one of the reasons police believe that Pulse was targeted earlier this week.

GAY DANCE CLUBS ON THE WANE THE AGE OF GRDR

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.

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.

25 VLENT ATTACKS AT GAY BARS THAT PRECED ORLANDO’S HORRIFIC NIGHTCLUB MASSACRE

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. 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. 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. I wanted to hear more of are a few rmative books that aim to document the changg social landsp of New York's gay nightlife spots and the effect the spac had on both civil rights Ameri and mastream arts and culture.

INDY'S GAY BARS: HEAD FOR EXTCTN?

Gee Chncey's Gay New York and Charl Kaiser's The Gay Metropolis e to md, but for the most part, histori of LGBT nightlife are relegated to somethg like the ments sectn of a DataLounge thread. We weren't sure how many people would show up for a two hour journey of closed gay bars, but by the time the walk started over 80 people of all ag and reasons for g were signg their nam to a sign- sheet adhered to a Bt Ltle Whorehoe Texas rerd ver actg as a clipboard and wag for the walk to got everyone's attentn.

NEW YORK CY GAY SNAS AND BATHHO

Absolutely no one on the New York Cy Landmarks Commissn had given the thory, but armed wh a stencil that read "GAY BAR WAS HERE" a member of the walkg crowd marked the siwalk wh the bright chalk at each stop. We heard about the plac where dis was born, where Barbra Streisand ma her nightclub but, where gay New Yorkers protted prejudice long before Stonewall, and talked about the toll the AIDS crisis took on the cy.

Apparent too was the lack of opportuni for gays across generatns (and ironilly, outsi of a bar settg) to learn om each other and pass down memori like so many of our straight neighbors have historilly done wh much for opportuny and a lol bs New York Cy is hard enough now, pecially nsirg wh the cy's risg rents and creasg penchant for natnal retailers. Owners of gay bars are battlg even more onts: the creasg e of mobile apps for means of nnectn stead of a barstool and, credibly, the growg polil acceptance of the LGBT muny.

THE 5 BEST PROVCE OF MALAGA GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS PROVCE OF MALAGA

The importance of LGBT spac has only been heightened by the tragedy Orlando, where 49 people were killed si Pulse, a gay we celebrate LGBT historic prervatn ws like Print Obama namg Stonewall a Natnal Monument and Juli' -- se of the Mattache Society's "sip-" prott -- beg nomated for landmark stat, 's important to keep the prsure on elected officials to protect more LGBT historic s formally. In the meantime, whether be as historilly signifint as say Stonewall, culturally inic as someplace like Stud 54 or simply a rner dive bar that shows RuPl's Drag Race on Mondays, support your lol gay bar!