Antwerp: a gay mt-vis statn Belgium!

Contents:

• GAY ANTWERP ANTWERP CY GUI
• EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS ANTWERP
• THE BEST ANTWERP GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS ANTWERP
• ANTWERP: A GAY MT-VIS STATN BELGIUM!
• GAY DISTRICT ANTWERP
• GAY VILLAGE ANTWERP
• ANTWERP GAY PRI
• GAY AREA ANTWERP
• GAY GUI OF ANTWERP (ANTWERP PROVCE, FLANRS)
• A GAY NEIGHBORHOOD OR MERELY A TEMPORARY CLTER OF “STRANGE” BARS? GAY BAR CULTURE ANTWERP
• A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
• DIPLOMATIC TENSN REPORTEDLY RISG BETWEEN UNED STAT AND JAMAI OVER GAY AMERIN DIPLOMAT
• GAY AND GAY-IENDLY HOTELS ANTWERP
• ANTWERP GAY SNAS

GAY ANTWERP ANTWERP CY GUI

We have been to a fair number of gay pri events over the past two years – four last year and five this year which we later learned was unimprsive pared to the ten pl pri events another Amerin expat livg Germany had attend this year – but we have never seen a cy so cked out rabows before.

For those who aren’t rmed of this event (and to be hont we weren’t eher until now), the Outgam is geared toward LGBT athlet and overseen by GLISA, Gay and Lbian Sports Associatn, focg on sports, culture, and human rights.

EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS ANTWERP

By the end of the weekend we realized that although Antwerp is a morately known cy often bypassed for Bssels a morately vised untry that’s often overlooked by s more prodig neighbors, s abily to appeal to the gay muny as a travel statn is imprsive and somethg we won’t soon fet. Gay rtrants, shops, and clubs are loted the same lotn so for the not so outgog dividual, is nohels probable to be tered to by such tablishments whout havg havg to go far out of your fort zone the most popular Gay District Antwerp. As fed ponents of ci rather than separate rerv, gay regns spire a sense of cln and acceptance for LGBT dividuals who may well really feel victimized other areas exactly where heterosexualy guil the muni are ubiquo the ma populo ci of the world wh multiple gay areas creatg the siar cy to ter to the optn way of life mands of the LGBT muny.

Gay District Antwerp Veilig Vrijenlijn Antwerp [Antwerp]Functns are always greater wh close iends so, if you ci to check out Veilig Vrijenlijn Antwerp, try appear well outfted but not too formal, selectg clothg that have you feelg secure and don't keep you om nveyg yourself or movg easily and attempt to get some pany before headg. PADI - Indonian Food Antwerp [Antwerp]PADI - Indonian Food Antwerp ntu beatg your petn of gay spots Antwerp to be the bt gay spot the neighborhood, bee of s way of alg wh dividuals and dog bs durg the last ten years.

THE BEST ANTWERP GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS ANTWERP

10, Antwerp you won't be alone, 's probably the most crowd gay areas om the area due to the number of gay plac they provi, a number of them are sellg weird thgs which perhaps you have never experimented wh well before. Toys 4 Boys Antwerp [Antwerp]Go wh a suable gay spot, particularly when 's your first day wh that dividual, which is actually a ntral place however, not too much om home livg the area and when 's not too noisy uld be perfect. Bar TwentyOne Antwerp [Antwerp]If what you need is undoubtedly an practil experience at open lotns on a mystil path, you n disver numero lotns and gay spots on this kd jt around the boundari of jt about every major cy at Belgium.

ANTWERP: A GAY MT-VIS STATN BELGIUM!

Any Gay Village Antwerp is not fay members-oriented wh solutns beg set up for adult upl and sgl lookg to turn to upl which is some thg that numero visors of the cy but pecially the plac lote Menspac you n disver all the nearby shops and servic the gay area of your town, which clus bars, clubs or rtrants. Regardls of whether you're a tourist, you are new to the cy, or you're a extend-time rint, there are several gay bars and nightclubs to explore any Gay Village Antwerp for the to the night lotns exist as a oute of a shift perceptn of LGBT om gettg a ‘sexual viance' to an ‘alternative liftyle' wh the transn om the nightlife bars and clubs to day life particular neighborhoods. Gay Village Antwerp Veilig Vrijenlijn Antwerp [Antwerp]If you opt to go to Veilig Vrijenlijn Antwerp, nsir appear well outfted although not too official, selectg clothg that make you feel secure and don't stop you om articulatg yourself or relotg easily and then try to lote some pany prr to gog, events are ually far better wh close iends so.

GAY DISTRICT ANTWERP

PADI - Indonian Food Antwerp [Antwerp]PADI - Indonian Food Antwerp keeps on whippg petn of gay meetg plac Antwerp to bee the bt gay spot the muny, due to the method of healg folks and nductg bs over the past ten years.

The Kky's Antwerp [Antwerp]The Kky's Antwerp uld possibly be the gay meetg place you are searchg for, 's satisfyg and ol, se you have a time and you also don't know which the ial gay meetg place is signed for the day. 10, Antwerp you won't be by yourself, 's jt about the most populated gay lotns wh the area as a rult of selectn of meetg plac they feature, many of them are providg strange thgs that maybe you have never experimented wh prr to.

Bar TwentyOne Antwerp [Antwerp]If the thg you need is fely an practil experience at wi open areas on the strange urse, you are able to fd out numero gay meetg plac and gay spots of the form jt the borrs of almost every ma town at Belgium. Twilight Bar Antwerp [Antwerp]Antwerp gay lotns normally appear beach lotns, areas, forts and other plac downtown areas to disver the numero means of posssg a fun some time and gog through new and trigug dividuals. Any time you appear a gay regn si a specific cy you're gog to fd distctive folks who're lookg to meet other people and create meangful areas n give all the required solutns you may need whenever you move to a brand new regn are lookg for somethg specific or excg to do on a Friday night.

GAY VILLAGE ANTWERP

The greatt way to beg you huntg for a gay lotn is ually to look over the ter through certaly one of the many different web pag that is available and look for jt what you are seekg time you go you go to a new gay area you n expect to certaly fd somethg new and thrillg to do that is gog to bee different towards the area you're . If you are lookg for a good Gay Area Antwerp you may unt around the most beneficial plac beg found at Menkarta wh the ponents listed regns n prent all the required servic you'll need when you move to a brand new lotn are on the lookout for anythg particular or fun to do on a Friday are actually gay lotns every signifint cy or town where you possibly n vis meet new nsumers and disver all the daily thgs and solutns you need to survive. Ok Club Van Schoonbekeple [Antwerp]Facilatg pri ocsns every sgle year, and gettg an exhilaratg hot spot, Ok Club Van Schoonbekeple may be among the top-vised statns by gay upl huntg for a spot to unrstand new people.

If you are a gay vegan may be difficult to get a gay rtrant your lotn which is iendly for your requir, however the gay guis on this webpage are sure to posss somewhere where you uld get one thg that taste really good to gay datg is necsary to posss a gay gui of Antwerp (Antwerp Provce, Flanrs) out there an effort to get any gay districts and areas exactly where you may meet other gay guys. Gay gui of Antwerp (Antwerp Provce, Flanrs) Toerisme Antwerpen [Antwerp]It is extremely easy to disver the Grote Markt 13, Antwerp on the ter for the reason that every person is speakg about as a nsequence of s fame for beg a well-known area town. 1 IntroductnThis chapter propos to vtigate what historgraphers would ll the “long twentieth century” of lbian and gay neighborhoods the specific ntext of Antwerp, the largt cy Flanrs (the northern, Dutch-speakg part of Belgium).

ANTWERP GAY PRI

Footnote 1 Although Antwerp has e to be reprented as the “gay pal” of Flanrs, we will show that never veloped a full-fledged gay neighborhood the Anglo-Amerin tradn of the ncept—that is, a neighborhood characterized by the historil clterg of a wi range of urban functns for sexual mori (social, cultural, rintial, sexual, mercial, wh service and hospaly dtri as well as entertament venu). As several other Wtern European natns (and many non-Wtern untri bis), the clterg of sexual mori Antwerp has been limed largely to the enomic, social, and cultural bs of (nightlife) entertament, wh lbian and gay meetg plac historilly ncentratg particular neighborhoods that, moreover, have shifted over time and dissipated aga. As the inty of morn-day “homosexuals” me to be shaped and solidified (roughly as of the send half of the neteenth century), people who intified creasgly as members of this mographic created private, semi-public, and public meetg spac for themselv, startg larger ci such as Berl and New York (Beachy 2014; Chncey 1995).

Belgian urban neighborhoods tend to be more fely graed and mixed, more plex their stratifitns and ls homogeneo, and as a rult do not ve the same strong sense of dividualy and inty as do many of the inic neighborhoods the English-speakg world, which are unrwrten by a more outspoken logic of martn and differentiatn. A self-chosen, not-enomilly enforced rintial clterg of one segment of the populatn one specific area—lbians and gays our historil shorthand scriptn—has th never seemed as necsary or enticg as much bigger ci this should be add a larger cultural ntext: Flanrs as a whole is a nsely populated regn which pecially the triangle Antwerp-Ghent-Bssels has sometim been scribed, parative ternatnal terms, as a sgle extend nurbatn (GUST 1999: 32–38; Albrechts and Lievois 2004). This cultural pattern is so eply graed that appli even to lbians and gays the days of massive anti-homosexual hostily ral Flanrs, when one would have expected a great many of them to engage the same kd of “reverse diaspora” (Sfield 1996: 281) to central ci that has been historilly characteristic of sexual and genr mori other untri.

They did not build most of their liv around a specific, regnizably gay neighborhood, but ma ocsnal e of the clters of bars that over time beme available we are able to embark on the followg narrative and analysis, is also necsary to reflect methodologilly on how our vtigatn is shaped (both enabled and rtricted) by s hristic ndns. Bee the larger ntext for our subject remas to be wrten, will be necsary, first, to unrtake a relatively substantial and panoramic survey of the emergence of gay nightlife Antwerp durg the early half of the twentieth century. This will provi the amework need for a more tailed analysis the send part, which will zoom on an area the immediate vicy of the Central Statn and will take as s emblematic foc one sufficiently long-term and inic gay bar, lled Café Strange.

GAY AREA ANTWERP

Neher the French penal of 1810 that was adopted Belgium after the untry’s pennce 1830 nor the Belgian penal of 1867 prohibed homosexual acts between nsentg adults private, although public displays of homosexual tert and sire uld be prosecuted for “asslts on honor and public cency” (Vanhaelewyn 2008: 248). This impli that for much of the neteenth and twentieth centuri, Belgian homosexuals were not as strongly persecuted as many other European untri, though the fact that they were not actively opprsed by the State may also have slowed down lbian and gay inty formatn and social activism, pecially the largely Dutch-speakg and voutly Catholic Flanrs, where a nservative social value system persisted well to the send half of the twentieth century (Dupont et al. Partly as a rult, gay life remaed very much unrground and has bee hard to retrace om official sourc equently ed by historgraphers other untri, such as police fil (Dupont 2015), the most important source of rmatn that we have about everyday lbian and gay life the early to mid-twentieth century nsists of a number of tobgraphi and oral history terviews wh lbians and gays.

GAY GUI OF ANTWERP (ANTWERP PROVCE, FLANRS)

”Although visibily and silence th reigned supreme mastream Flemish society, om the early twentieth century onwards some form of gay subculture did start to emerge tentatively out-of-the-way pockets, and was Antwerp, particular, that began to velop somethg that might qualify as a gay nightlife (Hellck 2002: 6). For those who uld fd their way to them, the semi-public spac of a handful of bars me to offer a haven where patrons uld be more at ease, meet other lbians and gays, explore non-normative genr exprsns, make iends, and fd lovers. Loopmans and Van Den Broeck (2011) have fact traced the roots for such typil harbor prostutn much further back history, llg the area one of the olst red-light districts Europe, whose origs lie the fifteenth is here, near the river and the harbor, that Antwerp’s gay nightlife most probably first took shape.

A GAY NEIGHBORHOOD OR MERELY A TEMPORARY CLTER OF “STRANGE” BARS? GAY BAR CULTURE ANTWERP

Yet, while we may be certa that same-sex sexual practic took place there, is not so clear whether the area already wnsed a mimally anized form of homosexual subculture durg the late neteenth century, and if so, whether this was then tegrated the tablished bs of heterosexual prostutn.

1(Source Imag by Bart Eeckhout, April 2020)The visible gay history of the Skippers Quarter: where for most of the twentieth century Danny’s Bar ed to be (until the mid-1990s), today a stretch of new-built rintial ho and a brasserie are to be found (left), and the historilly narrow alley where the Crystal Palace ed to be (until the buildg llapsed the 1960s), bland archecture now reigns supreme (right)Full size imageThe gay clientele of the Skippers Quarter steadily grew; on the eve of the Send World War, the neighborhood had apparently acquired a distctly gay nnotatn to those the know. Whereas Shakpeare had a female bartenr, Jackie, and attracted a mostly female crowd, the bars near the tra statn had male bartenrs and clientele: “Dikke Piet” (Fat Pete) was the gay bartenr of Fortunia, “Miss Banaan” (Miss Banana) served at Week-End, and the drag queen “Eddy”/“Edh” at La Ron (Wters 2011: 56–58; Kegels 2008: 37–38, 64, 89–90) of the 1950s, the nam of such new bars more often ntaed d referenc to homosexual culture.

A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.

Olr bars’ nam the Skippers Quarter that had already been operatn before they attracted a gay clientele would sometim refer to the harbor lotn (De Lichttoren [The Lighthoe]), to a regn (Café Normandie), the bar’s owner (Danny’s Bar), or the venue’s terr sign (Crystal Palace).

DIPLOMATIC TENSN REPORTEDLY RISG BETWEEN UNED STAT AND JAMAI OVER GAY AMERIN DIPLOMAT

When one of the gay bars the vicy of the statn, Week-End, changed owners the late 1950s, was renamed as La Vie en Rose (Pk Life), thereby alludg not only to the eponymo song by Edh Piaf, the French sger who was then beg a cult diva among homosexuals, but also to the growg symbolism of the lor pk, which, unr the fluence of Amerin cloth manufacturers, had e to be rerved almost exclively for young girls and th rried a strong feme nnotatn (Paoletti 2012). As before, such slight geographic displacements were relevant only to the lotn of bars and clubs, bee the lol lbian and gay populatn as a le had not sought to move to any of the neighborhoods and had not set up a muny life, service sector, or cultural dtry them (Fig. Sce 1993 has also been hog a gay(-iendly) fé/club terg to a younger crowdFull size image3 The Paradigmatic Case History of Café Strange the Central Statn AreaSo far, we have limed ourselv largely to a bird’s-eye view of the permutatns of twentieth-century gay nightlife Antwerp as origated the Skippers Quarter and, the send half of the century, moved to addnal neighborhoods.

Bee of the venue’s longevy, moreover ( still surviv), prents a sufficiently extend se study that allows to ponr the twenty-first-century cle of gay bar life Antwerp as 1955, a gay-iendly bar the Dambggtraat, a street loted near the popular neighborhood Seefhoek, was reopened by the gay uple Bno and Julien (Kegels 2008: 112–113). At the time, the epicenter of gay life was probably still the Skippers Quarter, yet by then the Dambggtraat also happened to host the gay bar Fortunia, and the street was nveniently wh walkg distance om the statn, wh s daily crowd of natnal muters and ternatnal travelers, as well as one of the largt and most notor public toilets ( ont of the statn), where men were known to hook up and/or have sex wh other men (Kegels 2008: 75–79) Shakpeare, Café Strange was one of the lol pneers when me to alludg to the kd of patrons targeted, and the nature of the bar, through s very name. Acrdg to the current proprietor, Armand, the first gay owners, Bno and Julien, ma a great effort to change the place when they bought , and is likely they replaced the ma entrance to adapt the bar to the sir of patrons.

GAY AND GAY-IENDLY HOTELS ANTWERP

Instead of stickg to the tradnal jebox, they acquired a profsnal DJ set wh turntable, hired DJs to ensure that a ntuo flow of mic was beg played durg parti, bought new rerdgs on a regular basis, and advertised both natnal and ternatnal LGBT media—for stance, the much-read Dutch Gay Krant and ternatnal guis such as Spartac. Bis theme parti, there were more regular and ordary events, such as “tea danc” (thé dansants) on Sundays, when, acrdg to a 1985 ad the Flemish gay newspaper De Homokrant, a DJ would play “goln hs, film mic, and poprn oldi” (ed.

The majory of visors to Café Strange appear to have been gay, lbian, or bisexual, although natnal and ternatnal gay guis show that the mographic shifted over the years, om a relatively wir range age and genr durg the 1980s to a crowd of mostly gay men durg the 1990s, and then morphg to a mix of gay and gay-iendly patrons a bar stayed fancially que profable until the 1990s, when the number of patrons began to dwdle. 4 The Decle of Gay Bar Life AntwerpThere are many different reasons why mercial gay bar life the area to the north of Antwerp’s Central Statn started to cle toward the end of the twentieth century until has by now—two s to the twenty-first century—all but disappeared. A handful of gay-iendly mega clubs, mercial party formats, and mastream mixed bars, such as Hsenhuis and Red & Blue (both loted the reveloped part of town to the north of the Skippers Quarter), ma sure to expand their bs by seekg to seize a big part of the pie of LGBT leisure culture.

Several of the buildgs on the left ed to hoe the gay bars that gave the street s nickname of Vasele Street and that have sce gone out of bsFull size imageWh enomic petn th g om two sis—one activist, one mercial—and the reputatn of the area and s gay venu beg ever more dub, the bars the statn area me to seem old-fashned, uneventful, sleazy, and unsafe, wh dire nsequenc for their mercial viabily. Although Antwerp went through a procs of mornist urban planng the perd after the Send World War, which also affected the Skippers Quarter (Loopmans and Van Den Broeck 2011), the streets harborg the gay bars near the tra statn remaed largely untouched by (Loopmans 2008). Yet even then, the actual material effects of such cy-planned upgradg seem to postdate, by and large, the mise of the lol world of gay bars, which was more driven by the logic scribed the prev paragraphs than by any form of cy planng or gentrifitn phg the bars out of of the micro-chang on the ground wh the cy of Antwerp should obvly be amed aga a larger cultural ntext—that of the relatively quick shift attus toward sexual and genr mori wh Wtern European societi overall, a shift that has arguably been even faster Belgium (and pecially Flanrs) than most of s neighborg untri.

ANTWERP GAY SNAS

In the quickly transformg circumstanc, the relatively exclive, niche-specific, semi-public spac of lbian and gay bars that promised a safe haven a largely hostile environment lost their raison d’être faster than anyone would have expected a few s ago. In recent years, even center-right polil alns that have seized power Antwerp have embraced their LGBTIQ populatn and gone out of their way to market the entire cy, rather than any particular part of , as a gay-iendly tourist statn.

The bsman and his wife, Melissa, first plaed to the Front Porch proprietors about pre-dawn vendor liveri 2019, not long after the nservative Christian uple moved their fancial firm right next door to the rtrant, which fli a gay Pri flag. (Front Porch Market and Grill)What’s more, the Washers say, the ad rat was jt one more sult that the uple, who once planted an “all liv matter” sign their ont yard, have endured sce movg next door to a rtrant owned by a gay uple. “I had so many threats agast me that even the Dallas police statned squad rs outsi our home, ” Waybourn an activist, Waybourn says, his goals were clear: same-sex marriage, gays and lbians the ary, accs to lifavg medic.

“I have que a few gay iends, clients and a fay member, and I have patronized a gay-owned rtrant for years, ” he whether the Washers are tryg to remake The Plas to their image of Ameri — Whe, nservative, Christian — Melissa said, “I n see where you’re g om.