D.C.'s Bt Gay Bars and Hangouts - Eater DC

Contents:

• WASHGTON DC GAY DISTRICT: DUPONT CIRCLE
• D.C.'S BT GAY BARS AND HANGOUTS
• D.C. NO LONGER HAS A CENTRAL GAY NEIGHBORHOOD. DO THAT MATTER?
• THE BT GAY BARS WASHGTON, D.C.
• GAY BARS DUPONT CIRCLE WASHGTON, DC
•  DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS
• FROM THE ARCHIV: IS DC BEG THE GAY CAPAL OF AMERI?

WASHGTON DC GAY DISTRICT: DUPONT CIRCLE

Larry’s Lounge is a gay neighborhood pub, wh always-affordable drks, solid happy hour specials, mouth-waterg pub fare (see: sweet potato tots) and one of the cy’s iendlit pats (you n brg your dog, too!). While some might thk that the cy’s gay bars are all loted the more well-known neighborhoods like Logan Circle or Capol Hill, Dupont Circle has a thrivg gay scene that’s often overlooked. In an age where g out was more dangero than ually is now, when beg openly gay often triggered prejudice and srn, books and newspapers like the Washgton Bla, tablished 1969, played a ccial role creatg muni.

In a sign that Dupont was reifyg s reputatn as a queer “ghetto” like the Village New York and Castro San Francis, Gay Pri Day 1979 attracted 10, 000 people and stretched three blocks.

As Rick Rosendall, the executive director of the District’s Gay and Lbian Activists Alliance, reunts, rints and around Dupont Circle fought to repeal an anti-sodomy law, a ban on gay domtic partnerships, and the supprsn of queer marriag.

D.C.'S BT GAY BARS AND HANGOUTS

The 46-year-old entertament profsnal (who also promot events and performs as a drag queen named Summer Camp) says when he first arrived the District 1998, much of gay men’s nightlife radiated wt of Dupont Circle, near P Street NW. You end up wh an LGBT clientele that’s more open to the ia that we don’t have to go to a bar that’s been a gay bar for a very long time s history… [and is] cur to venture farther afield. “Speakg om my own experienc, I’ll look out at the dance floor of the parti I throw—let’s say MIXTAPE specifilly—and tends to be gay, cis, whe men as the majory, ” Van Horn says.

D.C. NO LONGER HAS A CENTRAL GAY NEIGHBORHOOD. DO THAT MATTER?

In the kd of “crossover” now apparent along the U Street rridor, Ross says she would like to see more rpect for the norms of the queer muny (no homophobic ments or starg, please) as well as a greater unrstandg of D.

Ross, who moved to the District 2006 and lived Dupont for four years, fondly rells makg gay iends on 17th Street NW by chance: “I would end up at Annie’s at the end of every night, which was awome. ” As an epicenter, gay drkers n fd no shortage of optns, om sports bars to cktail bars to dance clubs, many of which are ncentrated near Dupont Circle and 17th Street, where gay bar-hoppg is prime. Perhaps the most unr-the-radar gay bar to outsirs, as well as the most polil of Washgton's gay bars, the Der is home to high-profile Democratic and Republin operativ who regularly put asi polics when they arrive for the party.

Grab a Lemon Squeeze (the bar's mastay cktail), a pile of tater tots and ntle to a booth to see and be INFO →KNOWN FORfull menucheap datebar foodCobaltCobalt has long been a mastay on the District's gay-centric 17th Street Corridor. In keepg, beware: It n get INFO →KNOWN FORcraft beeroutdoor / patbar foodDo's Bar at FlorianaIn the basement of an Italian rtrant off the very-gay 17th Street, Dupont Circle, is Do’s Bar.

THE BT GAY BARS WASHGTON, D.C.

He's been servg drks and hostg at the ty hiaway for a now, and is beloved by the gay and straight crowds INFO →KNOWN FORcheap datefull menuJR's Bar & Grill The “grill” part of JR's Bar & Grill is mostly absent.

For years, the bar banned dancg but fally relented after a of prsure by patrons—not that there's much room to dance; between trivia nights and happy hour, n be packed cheek-to-cheek most of the INFO →KNOWN FORcheap datedancglive micLarry's LoungeYou won’t fd Larry’s Lounge listed on any gay bar map of Washgton, D. They’ll merely check on you om time-to-time to make sure you’re still alive and to brg you ee INFO →KNOWN FORcheap datebar foodoutdoor / patNellie's Sports BarWhen Nellie's first opened 2007 at the rner of 9th & U Street, NW, some wonred if a gay bar uld thrive a lotn so far removed om the center of Washgton’s gay nightlife scene.

Though 's billed as a sports bar—and ser sports fans fely e here to tch a game—the TVs rarely factor on DJ nights when crowds pack Nellie's rooftop INFO →KNOWN FORsportscheap datelive micdancgfull menuNumber 9When the owners of the wildly popular gay nightclub Town Danceboutiqe set out to open a cktail bar, they named honor of their nth venture together.

GAY BARS DUPONT CIRCLE WASHGTON, DC

In the past five years pecially, there has been an explosn gay fluence here that startl olr homosexuals who grew up havg secret of the tremors om this explosn n through lol polics. Not only were gays a key to the aln that put Barry the DC mayor’s chair; they also have won one of the natn’s strongt anti-discrimatn laws, they have earned the support of much of the DC cy uncil, and many of them now serve on cy boards and missns. ” I’m not so spend several weeks si Washgton’s gay world—to hang out the bars and diss, talk to the lears and the rank-and-file, to observe s stutns and big events—is anythg but monotono.

Consir a few other extrem: You first meet a health specialist who tells of his tective work tryg to fd a young drifter who has personally set off a venereal-disease epimic wh a strg of “tricks” at a gay bath. Out ont are 10, 000 or so gay men and women listeng to the mayor first tell them to register and vote to protect their rights, then apologize that his new baby boy isn’t prent bee he is too young to “e out. ”• In an office buildg on Capol Hill, a fundamentalist preacher who has been prayg for the repentance of homosexuals ris om his kne and bellows to the televisn meras: “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.

”• A wealthy gay hairdrser is stg on his terrace, slicg a b of pâté that his Brazilian hoeboy has brought down om the kchen, and gazg to his swimmg pool, which is rated on the bottom wh a mosaic of Marilyn Monroe.

 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS

One rd shows a group of men-all drsed jt like the ctomer wh the Laste alligator on his cht wh the words “Christopher Street” script above their rds are signed for the gay market—Christopher Street is a famo gay strip Greenwich Village and the Laste alligator is rigur a portn of the gay muny.

Gay whe mal, many of them affluent profsnals, have renovated many of the ho the neighborhood and they have been followed by entreprenrs who regnize the money-makg gay bars and rtrants—Mr. Below Dupont Circle, another theater is featurg Can’t Stop the Mic, a vehicle for the Village People, the group that has done most to popularize macho gay styl wh s h songs “Macho Man, ” “YMCA, ” and “In the Navy.

If he wants to announce to the world that he is gay, there is silver jewelry shaped like the Greek letter lambda, the accepted symbol of gay liberatn, or black buttons wh pk triangl, which are a remr of the tags the Nazis pned on homosexuals. It has scholarly quiri to the still largely hidn history of homosexualy and studi by social scientists who are attemptg to plumb the mysteri of jt who is a homosexual and why. A number of hairdrsers, travel agents, real tate people, ntists, psychiatrists, terr signers, stockbrokers, and lawyers are eager to meet gay of the are needs that straights might never thk of.

FROM THE ARCHIV: IS DC BEG THE GAY CAPAL OF AMERI?

Nan Hunter, who practic wh a “femist law llective, ” reprents lbian mothers child ctody s, fends other lbians agast voluntary discharge om the ary, and seeks upgrad discharg for those who have been turned out of the ary wh “ls than honorable” discharg and are th nied veterans’ this crease gay bs are several factors that would warm the heart of any entreprenr. The same is te for a lol weekly entertament magaze lled their pag you will fd ads for clothg stor that specialize styl popular wh gays, ads for gay rorts Key Wt and Provcetown and Fire Island and Rehoboth Beach, as well as ads for baths, rtrants, theaters, and bars. Ten years ago, the GAA didn’t exist as an effective polil anizatn, homosexuals were barred by feral policy om all ernment employment, and the ia of anized gay clout at the polls was not dreamed of by even the most visnary activists.

A ngrsman om Nebraska, who also was a physician, poed to the prs the theory that homosexual sire followed the same rhythm as the female menstal cycle, and uld be rtraed only by “large dos of sedativ. By whatever route, your name might eventually end up on a list of’ “spected homosexuals” that floated around among lol and feral law-enforcement agenci, and you might be lled by your agency and nonted. How many reers were affected durg the postwar perd will never be known, although a Senate mtee reported 4, 954 s between 1947 and who didn’t go quietly was Frank Kameny, a man who was eventually to bee the champn of gay polics the cy.

When he got back, Civil Service vtigators lled him and told him they had “rmatn” leadg them to believe he was a homosexual, th eligible for a feral job, and asked for his ment. Four years later, after appeals to the Whe Hoe and Congrs and the lower urts, the Supreme Court settled the matter by refg to hear his the fall of 1961, havg cid that an dividual uld not fight alone, Kameny helped anize the cy’s first gay anizatn.