Rememberg the Lost Gay Bars of NYC - PAPER Magaze

Contents:

• THE HISTORY OF GAY NIGHTLIFE NEW YORK CY
• WHY BEG “GAY THE ’70S NEW YORK AND L.A. WAS MAGIC” — AND HOW HOLLYWOOD HAS CHANGED (GUT COLUMN)
• PRIVATE AND PUBLIC: GAY BARS NEW YORK CY BEFORE 1970S

THE HISTORY OF GAY NIGHTLIFE NEW YORK CY

The spac, whether always gay iendly or only durg certa tim of the day or week, gave LGBT people the eedom to be themselv a way they ually uld not be their personal or profsnal liv.

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. 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.

WHY BEG “GAY THE ’70S NEW YORK AND L.A. WAS MAGIC” — AND HOW HOLLYWOOD HAS CHANGED (GUT COLUMN)

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. 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. The June 1969 rebelln by patrons of the Stonewall bar agast police harassment helped to lnch a renewed and more activist natnal gay rights movement.

By the early 1970s, the wtern end of Christopher Street and the adjacent blocks along Wt and Weehawken Streets, long tablished wh seamen-oriented wateront taverns, beme a nucls for bars terg to a gay male clientele. It was the se of one of Greenwich Village’s most notorly homophobic crim, when, on November 19, 1980, a former trans officer fired to the bar, killg two men and woundg six others. Daniel Hurewz, Steppg Out: Ne Walks Through New York Cy’s Gay and Lbian Past (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1997).

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.

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC: GAY BARS NEW YORK CY BEFORE 1970S

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.

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. The most wonrful thg about those days was that the gay folks power lent a hand to young gay people tryg to get a foothold the bs.

There was a powerful work of olr succsful gay men like theatril agent Milton Goldman and entertament attorney Arnold Weissberger who troduced younger gay men to succsful showbiz typ at their betiful apartment on Sutton Place overlookg the East River. If he shone three tim, they lled the NYPD, who had a al wh the Mafia owners of the gay bars to arrt a quota of “faggots” each week.