Boston’s Bt Gay Bars and Nightclubs - Eater Boston

Contents:

• THE BT GAY BARS BOSTON
• WHEN DID BOSTON’S GAY SCENE GET SO STRAIGHT?
• THE LGBTIQ+ TRAVEL GUI TO BOSTON: THE BT GAY BARS, DRAG EVENTS AND MORE
• THE PROUST GAY NEIGHBORHOODS BOSTON
• GAY BOSTON BOSTON CY GUI
• GUI TO BOSTON'S GAY AND LBIAN SCENE
• BOSTON GAY MAP
• GAY PROVCETOWN TRAVEL GUI

THE BT GAY BARS BOSTON

Over the years, though, one club after another has shuttered—and lol gays gmble that the scene simply isn’t what ed to for good reason: There were at least 20 known gay bars Boston 1977, acrdg to Andrew Elr, chair of the History Project, a nonprof that archiv documents, photos, oral histori, and ephemera related to Boston’s LGBT history.

Indtry vets I spoke wh chalk the loss of gay bars up to the price of progrs: As Massachetts helped normalize LGBT cln faster than jt about anywhere else the untry, bs that origated as safe spac suffered; the rise of onle hookup s and mobile apps livered the fatal blow. Meanwhile, gentrifitn changed the face of gay ghettos: Yuppi wheeled expensive baby strollers, helpg shoo away the lorful queer artists and others who gave neighborhoods such as the South End their appeal. As a rult, the bars and venu that rema feel ls edgy, say some old-timers, and the spotty scene no longer cultivat a hive-feelg gay of this is part of a larger trend, affectg ci om San Francis to New York, and should set off alarm bells regardls of whether you’re gay.

Gay bars have long been spac that prop up muni who play on the g, generators of subversive cultural movements that eventually go mastream, and bulwarks agast the sterilizatn and homogenizatn of cy life. He’d left his wife and started dippg his to to gay bars, followg exhilaratg but terrifyg cursi down alleyways and to dark, barely marked dive bars, where he found solace others wh siar stori. Today, the clash is wily regnized as the first shots of the morn gay rights movement, and the Stonewall Inn is a natnal monument, the first signated specifilly for s role LGBT history.

WHEN DID BOSTON’S GAY SCENE GET SO STRAIGHT?

In 1983, the first meetg of the AIDS Actn Commtee (AAC)—a rponse to ernment actn as the epimic cimated gay men—took place at Buddi, a popular Back Bay bar. At first, the shift was imperceptible, but once the new lennium rolled around, felt apparent those shuttered spac weren’t g the early ghts, says Frank Ribdo, who found the popular South End gay bar Club Café 1983, Boston’s gay bars battled through a particularly rough patch as patrons took advantage of greater acceptance more-mastream spac. Headquartered East Cambridge’s tech and life scienc hub, Onle Buddi is the parent pany behd Manhunt, the proudly horny progenor of gay hookup webs, as well as Jack’d, a mobile app that is ls strintly sexualized and aimed at Generatn Z and the lennial market.

Office visors expectg to fd go-go boys dancg the acuntg partment, however, would be sorely disappoted: Onle Buddi looks much like any other major web many say this is what’s replaced the gay bar.

In talkg to club owners, DJs, drag queens, and other fluencers Boston’s LGBT social scene, I’m told that, as much as anythg else, hookup webs and apps supplanted gay gatherg spac by renrg moot their utily as a place to meet for muny support, fun, and isks. But he claims his crics miss a bigger pot: Datg apps are the new sgl bars for gay and straight folks alike, and pecially for the younger generatns.

THE LGBTIQ+ TRAVEL GUI TO BOSTON: THE BT GAY BARS, DRAG EVENTS AND MORE

/ Portra by Tony LuongEven whout the digal disptn, assiatn was already acceleratg the cle of the gay bar scene, pecially here Massachetts, which blazed ahead of the natn wh legal rights and protectns. Wh much of gay culture built on the tensn between sexual self-exprsn and social reprsn, ’s no surprise that gay bars have shuttered as that tensn has eased. Enter: Mastream Ameri, wrapped pk feather boas, and rryg plenty of door of tegratn swgs both ways, so as gay dollars left gay-specific spac for mixed on, straight dollars started rollg like never before.

Club owners and performers say that straight folks creasgly began slippg to historilly gay spots to ham up for a night, and that many bars beme unexpected statns for (heterosexual) bachelorette parti—pecially the wake of the smash TV h RuPl’s Drag Race. Jacqu, which is snug and charmgly ayed, still looks like an old-school gay bar wh gr—a far cry om the verno Lansdowne Street super-clubs such as Avalon and Axis, where Knievil and her cht-paddg posse cut their teeth the late ’90s, back before the Fenway’s nightlife bacchanalia got a slick and sterile makeover.

THE PROUST GAY NEIGHBORHOODS BOSTON

But they n also e across as vasive, and drive out the already dwdlg gay clientele a stctive (for the bars) feedback first, the terlopers treated queens “more like circ clowns than performers, ” Fijal says.

But there’s still a mon plat circulatg, among drag queens and gay men, particular, that straight women too often crash LGBT scen ways that center around themselv, actg like cultural tourists who don’t learn the lol language and I talk to Fijal, he’s “boy drag, ” as the queens ll , sellg wigs, fishs, and feather boas at Dorothy’s Boutique the Back Bay, a go-to stume and accsori statn for lol drag queens. “People are so negative about straight people and straight women our spac, and I get if they feel entled to touch and aren’t as nnected to the gay muny, and don’t have manners about how to teract wh , ” says Nathanael Bluhm, who DJs at Club Café and other spots. Fahful fans have flocked together to watch the -later reboot, Super Bowl–style, here at one of Boston’s few remag gay bars—and arguably s most popular.

GAY BOSTON BOSTON CY GUI

In fact, an crease bs at gay bars may be one area which Tmp is actually helpg the LGBT Mrage, general manager of Club Café, started workg at the popular Boston gay bar 1996. / Portra by Tony LuongIt’s hard to nvey to those who’ve never stood the crosshairs of nservative culture, but there’s an atmospheric shift gay circl when bigots are newly embolned and socially sanctned. Veterans of the gay scene say the current nservative admistratn feels remiscent of the Moral Majory era, and the changg climate is galvanizg renewed attachment to gay spac, revigoratg a certa kd of mararie, and rercg the need and sire for clive public spac.

GUI TO BOSTON'S GAY AND LBIAN SCENE

It’s also a rponse to a toxic culture which the print jokg about his VP wantg to “hang” gay people is barely a blip the 24-hour news ’t thk New England’s blue-state bubble is some safe zone, eher. Attene bags were stuffed wh promotns for a book tled The Health Hazards of Homosexualy, produced by Waltham-based MassRistance, another SPLC-noted hate group.

DJ Brian Halligan is remd of a set he played at Club Café last year, on the night immediately followg the anti-gay massacre at the Orlando nightclub Pulse that left 49 ad.

In 2014, Frz Bar, a 30-year old gay sports pub, transformed self to the Trophy Room, an Amerin brasserie wh a bar scene that feels buzzier now than, cultivatg succsful gay nightlife is a challenge. In November, Porter hosted the fal stallment of her 10-year-nng “Send Saturdays” party at Mache, one of Boston’s few regular nightlife events aimed at gay women.

BOSTON GAY MAP

“They’re not aaid of AIDS anymore, ” says Ribdo, whose bar has been a hub of HIV/AIDS activism ever sce the disease first ravaged the gay muny—cludg his former partner, who died Ribdo’s arms 1986.

GAY PROVCETOWN TRAVEL GUI

Y, there has been some loss of unique gay culture exchange for broad cln, but if the rponse to our regrsive print is any ditn, some sacred spac will always fd a way to his post-Pulse dance, Halligan says he was stck by the many younger guys who thanked him for playg a set filled wh fiant dis anthems by old-school idols such as Donna Summer and Diana Ross.

The nversatns about Boston’s gay nightlife scene often center around the closgs of cherished tablishments and rapid gentrifitn of once-gay neighborhoods. The Theater District is home to multiple clubs that regularly host big-name DJs and queens om RuPl’s Drag Race (season 15 wner Sasha Colby performed at Legacy this wter), and Back Bay remas filled wh gay-iendly neighborhood hnts.

Around for more than 30 years, Club Café is one of the olst gay bars Boston, but you wouldn’t be able to tell om the throngs of Gen Z-ers and lennials who wrap around Columb Avenue on Friday and Saturday nights to get si (pro tip: buy a yearly VIP pass to skip the le. Wh s spac bar and numero high-tops, Harp and Bard has bee a statn for Dorchter gays who want to enjoy a lorful selectn of cktails or chow down on fort food favor like turkey tips and meatloaf.