Boston’s Bt Gay Bars and Nightclubs - Eater Boston

Contents:

• THE BT GAY BARS BOSTON
• WHEN DID BOSTON’S GAY SCENE GET SO STRAIGHT?
• GAYT PLAC IN MASSACHETTS FOR 2020
• GAY PLAC TO HOOKUP NEAR ME
• BOSTON'S BT GAY BARS
• THE BT GAY CISG SPOTS LOS ANGEL
• THE 10 BEST MASSACHETTS GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MASSACHETTS

THE BT GAY BARS BOSTON

The bt of Boston’s gay bar scene n be found around the South End, Dorchter, and beyond. The nversatns about Boston’s gay nightlife scene often center around the closgs of cherished tablishments and rapid gentrifitn of once-gay neighborhoods. Sectns of Dorchter, once the epicenter of Boston’s Irish Catholic workg-class, are now miature gayborhoods — plete wh Sunday tea danc.

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. Wh a proud history of supportg gay rights and a large LGBTQ populatn, Boston is unsurprisgly one of the most clive metro areas the untry. It is te that gay people n feel fortable galavantg anywhere, om Eastie’s wateront to Somerville’s Davis Square.

Still, there is a need for gay-specific spac, and a new generatn of social are ensurg that Boston remas a statn for LGBTQ people. Wh Pri Month gettg started, here is a look at the cy’s gay bar scene and all has to offer. Legacy, n by Royale Entertament Group, has taken the mantle om Paradise as one of Boston’s most hedonistic gay nightlife statns.

WHEN DID BOSTON’S GAY SCENE GET SO STRAIGHT?

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. Formerly an old-school vio bar — Trophy Room also ed to host weekly drag bnch — the space is still a gay favore. This upsle cktail lounge opened last fall on Tremont Street, where the Eagle, a gay dive bar staple nearly every major cy, ed to be loted.

GAYT PLAC IN MASSACHETTS FOR 2020

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. Brian Picci’s Dbar has been a gay favore for years (along wh s siblgs Boston Chops the South End and Dxave Back Bay). Dbar After Dark throws some of the most bacchanalian events on the Boston gay nightlife lendar, attractg hors of pleasure-seekers for s glow party and r Sunday outdoor tea dance.

GAY PLAC TO HOOKUP NEAR ME

Blend has bee a go-to spot for Dorchter gays lookg to dance the night away, or tch up wh iends their roomy bar area or outdoor pat. Blend is hostg a number of events for Pri, notably s “GAYHEM” dance party on Saturday and pop star drag bnch on Sunday.

The cy’s gay bars are disappearg, the sgl actn is now onle, and married upl keep headg for the ’burbs.

We didn’t know Buzz was a gay club, but the wrhg bare torsos, smell of sexed-up sweat, and anthemic mic quickly clued . I began to appreciate their stori, and stopped takg Boston’s scene for granted—cludg s gay bars.

BOSTON'S BT GAY BARS

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. Ours was the send state to add sexual orientatn to s anti-discrimatn statute ( 1989), and the first to legalize gay marriage ( 2004). Our former state Senate print, Stan Rosenberg, is gay, as is Attorney General Mra Healey.

THE BT GAY CISG SPOTS LOS ANGEL

Given the iendly climate, you might expect to fd more gay bars here now than ever. 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. 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. Likewise, Sporter’s, a Bean Hill bar, hosted fundraisers for Elae Noble, the first openly gay person elected to any state’s legislature.

THE 10 BEST MASSACHETTS GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MASSACHETTS

Boston’s gay bars served as facto muny centers throughout the early AIDS crisis, providg support and tn when the outsi world offered neher. Miltone by tone, the world slowly opened up to gay people—and one by one, the bars closed. 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.

” It certaly didn’t help that gay dollars also started migratg Buddi would make a very bad gay bar. 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.