A gay-owned Virgia rtrant is a dispute wh s neighbors - Washgton Post

Contents:

• 'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE
• A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
• ONE OF NEW YORK CY’S OLST GAY BARS IS NOW A HISTORIC LANDMARK
• HISTORIC GAY BAR SIGNATED AS NEW YORK CY LANDMARK
• 'I WANTED PEOPLE TO HAVE FUN.' AFTER 27 YEARS, LOUISVILLE SAYS FAREWELL TO INIC GAY BAR
• NYC HONORS HISTORIC GAY BAR WH LANDMARK STAT
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE

Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, Jeremy Atherton L. "We go out to get some, " wr Jeremy Atherton L his new book, Gay Bar. Gay Bar b memoir, history and cricism; 's a difficult book to p down, but that's what mak so readable and so endlsly fascatg.

Atherton L's book starts off a crowd room a gay bar where he's gone cisg wh his partner, whom he refers to throughout the book wh the Leonard Cohen-spired nickname Famo Blue Raat. That kd of gay bar — all kds of gay bars, really — are danger of closg, Atherton L wr, due to the populary of datg apps and risg property sts. He's ambivalent about the velopment, wrg, "I had to nsir whether gay bars promised a sense of belongg then lured to a trap.

In a gay bar, am I penned to mory stat, swallowg drks that nourish my opprsn — have gay bars kept me my place? " The prospect of losg gay bars leads him to reflect on their prence his life.

A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.

He wr betifully about his llege days Los Angel, where he went to his first one, though he n't rell the name, wryly notg, "Of urse I n't remember my first gay bar — I was dnk. " He's also spired to dig to the past: "Enough time has passed that gay bars, once a surge, have bee monumental their own way. " That history clus the famo 1969 uprisg at the Stonewall Inn New York, but Atherton L also div to other, lser-known bars, cludg on that endured police raids meant to put gay people their place.

Throughout the book, Atherton L scrib the gay bars that he equented, and his scriptns of the tablishments are endlsly evotive.

ONE OF NEW YORK CY’S OLST GAY BARS IS NOW A HISTORIC LANDMARK

" Atherton L explor topics like archecture and urban geography, as they relate to gay bars, betifully; he wr wh a real knowledge that's more than jt tellectual dilettantism. About the changg looks of bars before the turn of the century, he observ, "A new type of gay bar began to appear London's Soho the neti — airy, glossy, ntental. The gay bars were born that way.

HISTORIC GAY BAR SIGNATED AS NEW YORK CY LANDMARK

They were nceived specifilly to take gay men's money.

" Along the way, Atherton L dips to other topics related to the gay muny: the appropriatn of gay culture by straight people, mic, drkg, and the valu of the younger generatn of LGBTQ people. Gay Bar is a book that's beyond imprsive, and Atherton L's wrg is both extremely telligent and rehgly unpretent. And while succeeds on many levels, perhaps the most remarkable one is Atherton L's nstant qutng of himself, and the realizatns of how he's changed sce he walked to his first gay bar years ago: "Maybe, I thought, I'm a dis ball.

The bsman and his wife, Melissa, first plaed to the Front Porch proprietors about pre-dawn vendor liveri 2019, not long after the nservative Christian uple moved their fancial firm right next door to the rtrant, which fli a gay Pri flag. (Front Porch Market and Grill)What’s more, the Washers say, the ad rat was jt one more sult that the uple, who once planted an “all liv matter” sign their ont yard, have endured sce movg next door to a rtrant owned by a gay uple.

'I WANTED PEOPLE TO HAVE FUN.' AFTER 27 YEARS, LOUISVILLE SAYS FAREWELL TO INIC GAY BAR

They married 2020, five years after they opened the Front Porch, which quickly beme a statn The Front Porch has been flyg a Pri flag on s pat sce 2016, not long after a gunman killed 49 people a gay bar Orlando. Waybourn was print of the Dallas Gay Alliance when sued Parkland Memorial Hospal for failg to provi readily available medic to AIDS patients.

In 1991, he lnched the Gay and Lbian Victory Fund (now the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund) to elect openly gay policians to office. He served as managg director of the Gay & Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn, or GLAAD, which he helped turn to a natnal group.

He owned gay newspapers Hoton, Atlanta, New York and Washgton.

NYC HONORS HISTORIC GAY BAR WH LANDMARK STAT

“I had so many threats agast me that even the Dallas police statned squad rs outsi our home, ” Waybourn an activist, Waybourn says, his goals were clear: same-sex marriage, gays and lbians the ary, accs to lifavg medic. To the activist, feels like a step backward after a lifetime of fightg for gay pack the seats at the Board of Zong Appeals hearg hosted at Grace Epispal Church. “I have que a few gay iends, clients and a fay member, and I have patronized a gay-owned rtrant for years, ” he whether the Washers are tryg to remake The Plas to their image of Ameri — Whe, nservative, Christian — Melissa said, “I n see where you’re g om.

The bar is the se where three activists staged a simple act of prott 1966: openly announcg they were gay, then orrg a drk. They lled a “sip-, ” and the three men, members of the Mattache Society, an early gay-rights group, were hopg to challenge the New York State Liquor Authory’s ban on servg LGBTQ patrons.

A bar uld be raid, and s liquor license rcd, for servg gay ctomers, who were nsired “disorrly” unr the le.

THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

One of the cy’s olst gay bars, Juli’ had already been add to the Natnal Register of Historic Plac 2016—along wh nearby Stonewall Inn, the se of the famo 1969 protts that helped spark the Amerin LGBTQ rights movement.

The first bar on their planned circu, the Ukraian-Amerin Village Rtrant, knew of the prott and closed early; had a sign the wdow that read, “If you are gay, please go away, ” as the New York Tim’ Thomas A.