This History of Gay Bars Is Also a Tale of LGBTQ Liberatn

Contents:

• GAY BAR BY JEREMY ATHERTON L – A GOG OUT MEMOIR
• THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
• GAY BAR
• HOW TO BEE POPULAR AT A GAY BAR
• CATEGORY:GAY BARS
• GAY BAR IN LOS ANGEL
• GAY BAR

GAY BAR BY JEREMY ATHERTON L – A GOG OUT MEMOIR

On Irish televisn news, the headl rmed the natn that Panti Bliss, a brilliantly articulate mpaigner, had arrived at Dubl Castle, as ed she gay was all the rage jt then. Leo Varadkar, mister for health, soon to be taoiseach, had announced that he was gay, as did a former mister om the other ma party, as did a well-known TV news journalist.

That day would not have been surprisg had all the bishops of Ireland arrived their fery to let know that they, too, wanted to jo our Gay Bar, a brilliantly wrten and cisive acunt of gay life Los Angel, San Francis and London, Jeremy Atherton L quot the cric Ben Walters on gay history that is “agile om fear and fettg, too often wrten whispers and saved scraps”. I imaged a walk that two men of my generatn – I me to Dubl 1972 – might do to revis the gay plac that have gone, such as The Gym, a sna jt a stone’s throw om Dubl Castle, or Ingno, another sna, much favoured by prits. Photograph: Clodagh Kilyne/Getty ImagThe arrival of the big, loud gay venu Dubl me at the same time as other eedoms.

In Barcelona 1975, when Fran died, there was not a sgle bar that was clearly signated as gay the cy.

THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS

The explosn of gay bars both ci me wh mocracy. ” In gay bars, he beme someone on whom nothg was lost.

“Gays, ” he wr, “n relax a gay bar, people will say, but I went out for the tensn the room. ”His book is also hnted by the dotted le the gay story, the gaps the narrative.

He wr about a DJ his 40s lled B Statn John who “played ecstatic sets of arne dis … He was there to bear wns, to ttify, g rare tracks om what he lled ‘the goln age of gay’, the perd between Stonewall and Aids. We were nsc the discs on the turntable may have e om the llectns of ceased gay men.

GAY BAR

”But the ghosts his book are also those who created gay San Francis self, where there were 18 gay bars 1964 and “an timated hundred and eighteen wh a ”. Atherton L registers the nostalgia that me wh all this change, quotg Fouult: “I actually liked the scene before gay liberatn, when everythg was more vert.

Some thgs give him the creeps, like a gay thrift shop: “I crged when I passed , imagg the store to be filled wh stuff svenged om the hom of ad queens … I hadn’t found a way to nsir the multifar story of my people – and to read wh, but not through, the disease. When they stop shavg, their beards “were perverted, their bristl perfumed wh the sudor of scrotum” gay group, observed San Francis, “uld be tected om a distance by the stk … Each of them seemed to have a magnificent ass and be wrg a book. ”Atherton L wants to reimage a nnectn between “the goln age of gay” and the future.

HOW TO BEE POPULAR AT A GAY BAR

There were three bars that he and his partner lled the Triangle: “jolly Gee and Dragon, sordid Joers Arms and laid-back Nelson’s Head – a rpective five-, ten- and fifteen-mute walk om our buildg” wr well about another hntg the London years, the spectre of gay-bashg, quotg Neil Bartlett: “Those nights out were spirg – but the solary walks home were foolish. London, 1986, was not a safe place for a visibly gay man like my twenty-eight-year-old self to be out alone after dark – or even by daylight for that matter. ”The closg of Atherton L’s favoure gay venu London seems to make the cy e alive for him.

Today, people tend to equate gay bars as beg plac to party pecially hard. They’re fun spots if you’re gay, straight, or anywhere between.

‘Wild night out’ stori often clu or end at the neighborhood gay bar. It’s hard to overstate the importance of the gay bar wh the LGBTQ+ rights movement over the past uple hundred years.

CATEGORY:GAY BARS

In honor of Pri Month, we wanted to highlight the historil signifince of gay bars and their impact on equaly for all. Bee of the need for tense secrecy, the very earlit history of the gay bar has been mostly lost.

However, 1810, we get our first rerd stance of a gay bar—unr admtedly unfortunate circumstanc.

Although is nice to thk of gay bars as unanimoly safe plac, where the LGBTQ+ muny uld exist whout threat, that clearly wasn’t always the se. Stati, gay bars seem to have gotten their ‘start’ the later part of the 1800s, wh a New York Cy hotspot lled “The Sli.

GAY BAR IN LOS ANGEL

” Unfortunately, police reports and mastream media verage of a gay bar 1880 proved to be extremely unreliable and hyperbolic, fueled mostly by pearl-clutchg and fear-mongerg rather than actual rmatn. Over the next several s, gay and lbian bars began to pop up all over the untry, each one perhaps takg a cue om those before . Dpe their often short-lived nature, the early gay bars often served as hugely important battlegrounds the fight for LGBTQ+ rights.

In the 1950’s, San Francis hotspot The Black Cat was makg s name as one of the natn’s most popular gay bars. In rponse to this, the San Francis Police Department began a mpaign agast the bar and s gay clientele.

“ orr to tablish 'good e' for spensn of platiff's license, somethg more mt be shown than that many of his patrons were homosexuals and that they ed his rtrant and bar as a meetg place. It would be hard to go through the history of the gay bar Ameri whout mentng Juli Bar New York Cy. In 1966, the New York State Liquor Authory passed a law that prohibed servg alholic beverag to homosexuals.

GAY BAR

Jt as did California, this state law was short lived, wh urts eventually led that gays uld ‘peacefully’ assemble at bars, which paved the way for the inic Stonewall Inn to open 1967. The sign the wdow reads: "We homosexuals plead wh our people to please help mata peaceful and quiet nduct on the streets of the Village. Jt two years after the Stonewall Rts, gay rights groups existed every major Amerin cy, as well as Canada, Atralia and Europe.

The Stonewall Rts n be seen as a divir of sorts, between the “BC” and “AD” perds of gay rights Ameri.

“But that night, for the first time, the ual acquicence turned to vlent that night the liv of lns of gay men and lbians, and the attu toward them of the larger culture which they lived, began to change rapidly. In recent years, the role of gay bar has taken a more sual, fun place our non of nightlife, but that wasn’t always the se. Throughout history, gay bars have been flash pots for huge moments the procs of LGBTQ+ liberatn.