When Did Boston's Gay Scene Get So Straight?

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.

WHEN DID BOSTON’S GAY SCENE GET SO STRAIGHT?

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. 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.

GAYT PLAC IN MASSACHETTS FOR 2020

Formerly an old-school vio bar — Trophy Room also ed to host weekly drag bnch — the space is still a gay favore.

GAY PLAC TO HOOKUP NEAR ME

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. 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.

BOSTON'S BT GAY BARS

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. 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.

THE BT GAY CISG SPOTS LOS ANGEL

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.

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.

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

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.