Gay Back When | | Santa Fe Reporter

Contents:

• CHASG ‘PHANTOMS OF THE PAST’: 8 GAY AND LBIAN BAR ARCHIVISTS ON PRERVG LGBTQ+ NIGHTLIFE HISTORY
• THE 50 BT GAY SONGS TO CELEBRATE PRI ALL YEAR LONG
• THE GAY WAY: HISTORY OF LBIAN BARS SOUTHEAST WASHGTON, D.C.
• GAY BACK WHEN

CHASG ‘PHANTOMS OF THE PAST’: 8 GAY AND LBIAN BAR ARCHIVISTS ON PRERVG LGBTQ+ NIGHTLIFE HISTORY

“Straight people were clumsy and had no rhythm, whereas gay men were right on. Manco’s crowd, which clud many gay men of lor, bellowed out the chos, refigurg the song’s addrsee as a new kd of Shore Commissn, ‘Free Man’ (1975)D. -led dance spac that were exclive to gay men — ually whe, middle-class gay men — started to open Manhattan late 1972.

Valento, ‘I Was Born This Way’ (1975)The first rerd to feature lyrics about beg an out-and-proud gay man me om the mil performer Charl “Valento” Harris, who released “I Was Born This Way” as an apparently one-off release on Gaiee. ” “The lyrics were perfect, ” she told me Summer, ‘I Feel Love’ (1977)Gay male dance crowds were drawn to rerdgs that featured Black female volists, often intifyg wh their emotnal exprsivens and strength the face of adversy, often to the surprise of the artists, who were ually gospel-traed. A pneerg reprentative, Gloria Gaynor was crowned the first queen of dis by gay D.

THE 50 BT GAY SONGS TO CELEBRATE PRI ALL YEAR LONG

Patrick Cowley, ‘Mutant Man’ (1982)Patrick Cowley fed his reputatn as one of the world’s most progrsive synthizer players durg rerdgs wh the dis pneer Sylvter, cludg “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), ” perhaps the ultimate gay male anthem. ”A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn D, Page 5 of the New York edn wh the headle: Sp Some Gay Dis. New York's Lost Gay BarsWe've known for many years that too many of our cherished gay bars and clubs are shutterg, fallg victim to risg rents and the ubiquy of apps like Grdr and Scff.

There's a walkg tour New York to memorate beloved gay bars and clubs that have closed down. There will always be gay bars, but will they be as vivid, sexy, and subversive as the hnts of yore?

THE GAY WAY: HISTORY OF LBIAN BARS SOUTHEAST WASHGTON, D.C.

The history of NYC nightlife is studd wh the memori of fascatg boît that attracted gays sperate need of nnectn, then ultimately fell away as newer spots and trends emerged. Once a year—for three years a row—they've done Gay Bars That Are Gone, an rmative walk as part of Jane Jabsftival, May. Kyle: My favore is probably the Nth Circle (a fab Wt 10th Street steakhoe-turned-gay-bar full of leather clon, twks, htlers, and celebry drop-s, all eher cisg, playg pool, dog dgs, or bbg agast each other.

We try to ver different typ of plac--gay dance clubs, leather scene, piano bars, Rose's Turn, the old Duplex space. Michael: It was a bohemian bar, so we don't have the language to put "gay bar" explicly.

We were outsi the Me Shaft [a rnchy 1970s/'80s gay sex club on Washgton Street]. Now you n stay your hometown and live your gay life, you don't have to e to a metropolan cy and have that nnectn. I've been gog out Jackson Heights a lot recently and that's a totally separate gayborhood.

GAY BACK WHEN

The gay bars are spac that seem a ltle more tertg to When I go to Boston or other smaller ci, the people are more open and willg to talk to each other.

Sie la Croix didn’t set out to be one of the prolific ctodians of gay bar history Chigo. For six years, the Brish-born la Croix published weekly 1, 000-word lumns documentg the Wdy Cy’s gay nightlife scene for lol paper.

Turng barfli’ memori of the cy’s shuttered gay and lbian bars to publishable reports posed challeng, and la Croix often found himself tryg to rencile nflictg ntributns.

The mob may have relquished Chigo’s gay and lbian bars om the vise-like grip tablished on those bs (and their New York Cy unterparts, too) durg Prohibn.

“It’s been a strange time to try to do this rearch, ” says Lus Hilrbrand, a profsor of film and media studi at the Universy of California-Irve who is workg on a book about gay bar history. For Pri Month, VePair terviewed eight gay and lbian bar archivers around the untry about the challeng and urgency they’re currently facg documentg Ameri’s gay and lbian bars while they still n.

“I don’t know if there’s gog to be, 30 years om now, a tegory that we ll gay bar or the lbian bar, ” m Frank Perez, thor and -founr and print of the LGBT+ Archiv Project of Louisiana. After a brief uptick the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, the total number of gay and lbian bars the Uned Stat crted around 2, 000 lotns, acrdg to rearch published by Oberl associate profsor of soclogy Greggor Mattson based on listgs the Damron Guis, a proment LGBTQ+ nightlife guibook seri published annually throughout the back half of the 20th century.

The soclogist’s figur dite the untry has lost 45 percent of gay and lbian waterg hol sce 1977 — and those were only the lotns well tablished enough to be xed the first place.

”There has ed been a cle, the cle has been acceleratg, ” Mattson, who operat the Twter handle @WhoNeedsGayBars, tells VePair. The panmic has only exacerbated the factors, puttg btal fancial prsure on already beleaguered gay and lbian bars across the untry. Whenever a gay or lbian bar’s uncerta future turns to a certa mise, the clock starts tickg to pture rmatn about before disappears to the ether.

For gay and lbian bars that closed the distant, Facebook-ee past, no such nostalgia flurry is forthg. And given that gay and lbian bars were at their statistil height four s ago, those patrons are, by flt, gettg on years. Between fadg memori, patrons passg away, and the ongog threat of closure, pturg stori om Ameri’s gay and lbian bars is ted, tail-oriented work.