The police raid on the Rabow Lounge has rocked the world of Fort Worth gays | News | Dallas | Dallas Observer | The Leadg Inpennt News Source Dallas, Texas

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The Rabow Lounge raid occurred the early morng hours of June 28, 2009, at the Rabow Lounge, a newly opened gay bar Fort Worth, Texas.[1] The raid was rried out by members of the Texas Alholic Beverage Commissn (TABC) and the Fort Worth Police Department.[2] Several ctomers were arrted for public toxitn and…

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THE POLICE RAID ON THE RABOW LOUNGE HAS ROCKED THE WORLD OF FORT WORTH GAYS

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Event Details6pm - 11pm / $25MON, July 31stTranSexualX - Trans Men/ Women, CDs, Gay / Bi(FREE b4 8pm for Tgirls/ CDs wigs, makp, heels, fem undi)MON, July 31stTranSexualX - Trans Men/ Women, CDs, Gay / Bi. But on a recent Sunday, any panther lookg to tch a tnap would have had a tough time as a stream of 300 gay and lbian protters marched down the middle of an otherwise quiet Ma Street en route to Cy Hall. It was an odd sight for Cowtown's gay muny, normally not a ant bunch.

Thanks to the now famo June 28 raid on a gay bar south of downtown—on the anniversary of the birth of the gay rights movement, no ls—Fort Worth's gays seemed ready to make some noise. The July 12 monstratn was one a seri of protts followg the police raid on the Rabow Lounge which six Fort Worth officers and two Texas Alholic Beverage Commissn agents hled 20 people om the bar and arrted six of them for public toxitn; one was treated tensive re wh a severe head jury, the rult of police tactics that gay rights activists would label btaly. The cint was followed by a blz of media acunts, thoands of angry e-mails and a gay rights outcry that unfortably thst Fort Worth to a natnal and even ternatnal spotlight.

WHERE DID FORT WORTH GAY BARS GO?

The police raid on June 28 has set off a polil uproar and galvanized gay advot Fort Worth, who have tradnally kept a low profile. * rainbow gay lounge *

Takg--to-the-streets protts are new to Fort Worth's gay muny, which has rarely appeared on the radar and has generally adopted Cowtown's low-key, live-and-let-live approach to life. Unlike Cedar Sprgs Dallas or the Montrose Hoton, there is no gay ghetto, no place where flntg one's gayns is not only untenanced but fortable.

Fort Worth gays were perfectly fe livg their tranquil liv, that is, until the raid jolted them to activism, stirred the passns of the ntented and perhaps changed their get-along agenda forever. Rally anizers om Queer LiberActn—a group of gay rights activists om Dallas mted, as their Web se says, "to directly, visibly and publicly nontg queer equaly and opprsn"—sport pk bandannas a more shockg sha.

A RAID AT A CLUB TEXAS LEAV A MAN THE HOSPAL AND GAY ADVOT ANGRY

There is new hope that the Gold Coast's "disnnected and sttered" LGBTQI+ scene will fd a greater sense of muny after the return of gay bar after more than two years whout one the cy. * rainbow gay lounge *

Guttery's tentn provis a glimpse of the harsh view one officer at the scene held toward the Rabow Lounge and the gay-leang South-si neighborhood where 's was a new bar, open for jt more than a week and different om the five other gay bars town. "The officer that let me go said that cy employe shouldn't be hangg around this part of town, which I took to mean the gay area of town, " Guttery reunted. The genero ntributns to the LBGT Rourc and Programmg Fund help ensure a safe and supportive mp-wi muny where lbian, bisexual, gay, transgenr, qutng dividuals, and their alli are all weled as equals..

The ash pile of the Rabow Lounge, Fort Worth’s most inic gay bar and an epicenter of the town’s then-burgeong “gayborhood, ” took wh paful and joyo memori of a gay scene the cy hasn’t been able to replite sce. There are only about half a dozen gay bars Fort Worth.

Jt a few years ago, there was a growg gay bar scene an area south of downtown. When the inic Rabow Lounge burned down 2017, the "gayborhood" permanently changed.

A GAY BAR FALLY RETURNS TO THE GOLD COAST WH HOP TO UNE 'DISNNECTED' MUNY

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Lol police and TABC agents raid the then recently-opened bar on the 40th anniversary of the raid at the Stonewall Inn Greenwich Village, which set off the Stonewall Rts and gave birth to the morn gay rights movement. The timg of the raid censed the lol gay muny and s supporters. When the Rabow Lounge burned, the number of gay bars the cy was already paratively low.

Back the early ’80s, the town boasted nearly 20 gay bars. Todd Camp — a lol gay rights activist, -founr and former artistic director and executive director of QCema, Fort Worth's Gay & Lbian Internatnal Film Ftival, the state's longt nng gay film ftival — said the lack of lol gay bars isn’t necsarily a bad sign for the cy.

RABOW LOUNGE, A BAR THAT ME TO SYMBOLIZE GAY RIGHTS FORT WORTH, BURNS DOWN

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“The gay muny is the dog that ught the r, ” he said. You n walk to almost any bar the cy of Fort Worth on any given night and fd gay people beg openly gay, kissg, beg emotnal, engagg public displays of affectn wh no fear of repercsns bee, for the most part, people feel fortable. Camp has been rearchg Fort Worth’s gay history datg back to the turn of the 20th Century for a book he’s wrg.

GAY HISTORY: THE RAID ON THE RABOW LOUNGE – FORT WORTH, TEXAS, 28TH JUNE 2009

Acrdg to his data, there have been more than 100 gay bars Fort Worth and nearby Arlgton, wh 651 Club the longt-tenured at about 35 years (and the Rabow Lounge was later hoed the same buildg), and a club lled Trixx lastg only one weekend. When prohibn end, gays and lbians were forbidn om drkg bars.

Other gay clubs opened spe police crackdowns, Camp said. “All the gay men would grab a girl and they would start dancg so that when they ps me , they wouldn't be arrted, ” he said. Homosexualy, he said, only really beme taboo the ’50s and ’60s.

Though the gay muny wasn’t tegrated then, lived alongsi the heterosexual muny peacefully.

DIRECTOR OF FILM ABOUT 2009 RAID OF FORT WORTH GAY CLUB: 'IT COULD BE RIPPED FROM TODAY'S HEADL'

“No one really had a problem wh gayns.

One of the reasons the Fort Worth gay bar scene has been slow to grow sce the 1980s is the lure of Dallas’ thrivg gay scene drawg away people — particularly young people who prefer a more up-tempo dance scene rather than Fort Worth’s more languid e-as-you-are vibe.

“There was a parkg lot downtown that was famo, bee that was where gays would meet and they would all park and then drive to Dallas bars.

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Dallas always had a much more thrivg gay scene.

Countls publitns have spent wells of k opg the ath of the gay bar general. San Francis recently lost The Gangway, that cy’s olst, longt-nng gay bar. The cycle is now a faiar one: Gays move to a downtrodn area, build up, create a muny, and velopers swoop and price them out of the neighborhood.

While the area surroundg the Fort Worth gayborhood has veloped at the pace of the Game of Thron openg, the buildgs and bon of the cross-sectn are still mostly tact. Newly opened Liberty Lounge, though not a gay bar, is very LGBTQ-iendly. The longt-tenured gay bar Fort Worth isn’t the old gayborhood.

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“I still firmly believe that the role of the gay bar is still important, bee I still believe that the g out procs is paful, ” Camp said.

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The police raid on the Rabow Lounge has rocked the world of Fort Worth gays | News | Dallas | Dallas Observer | The Leadg Inpennt News Source Dallas, Texas .

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