Midtown Village & The Gayborhood - Philalphia Neighborhoods

Contents:

• MIDTOWN VILLAGE & THE GAYBORHOOD
• GAY PHILALPHIA
• GET YOUR HISTORY STRAIGHT AND YOUR NIGHTLIFE GAY®
• THERE GO THE GAYBORHOOD
• GAY PHILALPHIA · CY GUI
• MOVG TO LGBT PHILALPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!
• WHERE TO EAT & DRK IN THE GAYBORHOOD
• GAYBORHOOD

MIDTOWN VILLAGE & THE GAYBORHOOD

And today, Philly visors n easily explore s where LGBTQ+ history was ma and where queer life ntu to thrive, pecially the cy’s Gayborhood and durg annual events like Philly Pri 365. The center of Philalphia’s gay rintial life and culture sce World War II, the blocks between 11th and Broad streets and Pe and Chtnut streets earned their nickname — the “Gayborhood”— durg an October Outft event 1995.

The group’s LGBTQ and Trans History tours reunt the stori of Gay Liberatn Front – Philalphia founr Kiyoshi Kuromiya, explore morn history and current social issu the neighborhood, and stop at important muny s like the Attic Youth Center, which supports LGBTQ+ youth experiencg homelsns.

GAY PHILALPHIA

The Gayborhood got a h new mural at the start of Pri Month 2021 when muralist Ash Ryan fished this three-story-tall tribute to pop star Lil Nas X.

In 1965, the Universy of Pennsylvania expelled Fryer om his psychiatric rincy program on the basis of his homosexualy, which was then classified as a mental illns by the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn (APA).

GET YOUR HISTORY STRAIGHT AND YOUR NIGHTLIFE GAY®

In 1972, Fryer, a faculty member at the Temple Universy School of Medice, offered an electrifyg anonymo ttimony that rulted the APA’s 1973 classifitn of homosexualy as a mental illns. Philalphia Gay News Marker: This marker stands ont of the first office of the Philalphia Gay News, one of the natn’s most award-wng weekly newspapers.

A pneer the LGBTQ+ rights movement, Gtgs, a Philalphia rint om age 18 and a lifetime activist, eded The Ladr, the natn’s first lbian magaze; -anized the Annual Remrs at Inpennce Hall (see above) and led charg both to promote posive LGBTQ+ lerature public librari and to change the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn’s classifitn of homosexualy as a mental illns. It’s where radil gay llective Gazoo found Philalphia’s Gay Liberatn Front and where bisexual blu sger Bsie Smh performed at the Royal Theatre, an early 20th-century Black-owned cultural center.

THERE GO THE GAYBORHOOD

Today, the street’s known for s Magic Garns, cheteak shops and hangouts, cludg dive bar extraordaire Bob & Barbara’s Lounge, home of one of Philly’s bt-loved drag shows; the punk art LGBTQ+ haven Tattooed Mom; and the eclectic, gay-owned boutique shop Workshop Unrground. The Gayborhood offers much the way of nightlife optns as well, and for those the LBGT muny, and other open-md people, the area remas rife wh possibili.

Enjoy the classic gay bar experience at Woody’s, one of Philly’s longt nng gay bars; get swervg on the massive dance floor at Franky Bradley’s; and, post-last ll, wrap up your eveng at Voyr, the swank after-hours club. Unsurprisgly, several of the biggt annual events the area are LBGT-themed, cludg the fantabulo PriDay LGBT Para and Ftival June, which begs the Gayborhood and eventually extends out to Penn’s Landg.

Standg directly across the street om Inpennce Hall, a historic marker honors the Annual Remrs, the monstratn held at this se led by gay activists on July 4 om 1965 to 1969, the last of which occurred jt days after the history-makg Stonewall Rts.

GAY PHILALPHIA · CY GUI

Philalphia was the first cy the Uned Stat to lnch a major marketg mpaign (“Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay®”) to wele LGBTQ+ tourism, and reprents a trove of cultural, culary, artistic and ethnic diversy.

Don’t miss a vis to the Gayborhood, a Center Cy neighborhood that sets self apart wh rabow street signs as well as rtrants and bars owned by and terg to LGBTQ+-intified clientele. “There go the neighborhood, ” I thought as the last illn I had of this part of the cy as an clive yet uniquely gay space dissolved before my the past few years, the “ath of the Gayborhood” — a phrase once uttered mock horror whenever a favore hangout changed hands or a well-known stutn screwed up — has taken on an air of evabily.

MOVG TO LGBT PHILALPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!

Two popular Gayborhood bars, Venture Inn and ICandy, have closed down, and Voyr and Woody’s have tried to broan their ctomer base by hostg bachelorette parti, exotic male revue shows for women, and even NFL watch parti.

Franny Price, the veteran producer of Philly Pri — one of the untry’s largt annual gay celebratns — is steppg down after more than 25 years, wh no succsor sight.

We saw this the polil arena 2018, when two openly gay black ndidat, Mallm Kenyatta and Alex Deerg, peted for a state Hoe seat the 181st District — a sectn of North Philalphia that’s both geographilly and enomilly distant om the Gayborhood. Cywi, LGBTQ visibily is siarly creasg the cultural realm: Large-sle LGBTQ-themed events have moved beyond the tradnal Pri weekend June and Outft October, and many former Gayborhood event producers and performers are bookg venu throughout the cy.

WHERE TO EAT & DRK IN THE GAYBORHOOD

For many Philalphians, the Gayborhood is no longer the sole place for an LGBTQ experience, but jt another optn a growg field of clive this 50th anniversary year of the Stonewall rts New York, which brought the gay rights movement the U. To mastream attentn, members of Philly’s LGBTQ muny are reflectg — some wistfully, some crilly — on what the Gayborhood means today, and wonrg whether there’s really anythg left to be lost by venturg outsi the neighborhood’s now-fadg rabow-pated crosswalks.

•In the 1950s, Center Cy the vicy of 13th and Loct streets, which we now ll the Gayborhood, was known as the Loct Strip — a red-light district full of strip and htler bars, some of which tered to a gay clientele.

The Strip also had another, more disparagg name — the “gay ghetto” — but at a time when people who equented gay-oriented bs faced public scty and harassment, was a lifele.

GAYBORHOOD

“Even before Stonewall, ” says Franny Price, who has lived the cy for 62 years, “the gay ghetto was an area where we LGBT people had a sense of belongg.

”“When the gay bars and shops were lumped wh the ‘unsirable’ elements of the ’60s and ’70s and threatened wh police raids, the attacks had the effect of galvanizg the muny, ” says Bob Skiba, a Gayborhood historian and curator. ”In the wake of extensive civil rights work by LGBTQ activists around the untry the 1970s and durg the AIDS epimic the 1980s, the openly gay character of the neighborhood was firmly entrenched by the time Cy Paper edor and lumnist David Warner scribed an Outft celebratn as “a betiful day the gayborhood” the early 1990s.