Jeremy Atherton L discs his award wng book Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, which trac the cultural history of the gay bar, om pubs, to darkrooms, to dive bars.
Contents:
- THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
- RAISG THE BAR: A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY BARS
- A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
- GAY RIGHTS
- A CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE GAY BAR
- HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE
THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
In honor of Pri Month, take a ep dive to 200+ years of gay bar history and how they paved the way for the LGBTQ rights movement. * history of gay pubs *
” Unfortunately, police reports and mastream media verage of a gay bar 1880 proved to be extremely unreliable and hyperbolic, fueled mostly by pearl-clutchg and fear-mongerg rather than actual rmatn. “ orr to tablish 'good e' for spensn of platiff's license, somethg more mt be shown than that many of his patrons were homosexuals and that they ed his rtrant and bar as a meetg place. Jt as did California, this state law was short lived, wh urts eventually led that gays uld ‘peacefully’ assemble at bars, which paved the way for the inic Stonewall Inn to open 1967.
“But that night, for the first time, the ual acquicence turned to vlent that night the liv of lns of gay men and lbians, and the attu toward them of the larger culture which they lived, began to change rapidly. Whether you are a member of the LGBTQ+ muny, work at a gay bar, are an ally the dtry, or if you plan on celebratg this June, jt remember the bars and people who helped make all possible.
But I’m not here to weigh the pros and ns of gay bars — we n all do that on Twter (and we do) — I jt want to talk briefly about the history of gay bars, talk a teeny b about some of the first on to exist, and some of the olst on that we still have today. So, to separate molly ho om gay bars — and I’m not gog to claim this is the official fn, ’s jt what I’m workg wh here — I’m gog to fe gay bars as legimate, legal bs foced entirely (or almost entirely) on the sale of alhol to queer ctomers. Meanwhile, Berl had also bee a hotspot of gay and lbian nightlife by 1900, thanks largely to the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee‘s prence there, though a lot of the specific rerds about the spots were lost thanks to the Nazis.
RAISG THE BAR: A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY BARS
As the world regniz the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, we sent photographers to three of the cy's olst gay bars — one on the South Si, one on the North Si, and one right between. * history of gay pubs *
Still, ma a reputatn for s wild parti and fluenced a lot of gay bars ’s Hangout New York Cy was one of the first, if not the first, lbian bar the Uned Stat, openg 1925 and closg at the end of 1926 due to police raids.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
The gay rights movement the Uned Stat began the 1920s and saw huge progrs the 2000s, wh laws prohibg homosexual activy stck down and a Supreme Court lg legalizg same-sex marriage. * history of gay pubs *
)Social reforms brought about by Print Lázaro Cárnas of Mexi brought about the creatn of roughly a dozen gay bars Mexi after he me to office 1934, cludg El Triunfo and El Ái Mexi Cy. All of Mexi Cy’s gay bars were closed 1959 and even though there are gay bars the cy now, none of the origal on first gay bar South Ai opened the Carlton Hotel Johannburg the late 1940’s — terg to wealthy whe gay men. However, some of the bars, such as the Butterfly Bar (now the Skyle) began to tegrate the mid-1980’ Amerin occupatn of Japan followg World War II brought gay bars to the untry — New Sazae opened Tokyo durg this perd, 1966, and is still open the 1970’s, a lot of clubs Sgapore began havg gay nights but no actual gay bars opened until the lbian bar Crodile Rock opened the 1980’s.
Juli’ – Juli’ opened Manhattan 1864 but was cidly not a gay bar but by the late 1950’s, gay men started equentg but were often thrown out or simply refed service bee was illegal to serve homosexuals New York Cy at the time. After the Stonewall rts, the owners of the the Eagle’s Nt (which had been open sce 1931, and is now Eagle NYC) ma their club a gay bar and beme a very popular spot for more mascule gay men, and pecially the leather scene, to hang out.
On Saturdays they all put on their bt bell-bottoms and head to the Anchor, home to the bt gay club the Forster is the first person most people thk of when they thk of queer Cambridge. Forster’s pneerg gay love story unfolds agast the backdrop of the cy’s lh parks and languid are also the settg for Edward Carpenter’s reflectns on his gloomy youth at Try Hall College – the third stop on the trail. The Cy, LiverpoolCreated for the Homotopia ftival, this seri of atmospheric podsts tak you on an art crawl around Liverpool guid by LGBTQ+ voic., Love, Inty, LondonA virtual trail for the ancient history buff, this marvello seri explor the hidn queer history of objects om the Brish Mm.
GAY RIGHTS
Where homosexual activy or viance om tablished genr rol/drs was banned by law or tradnal ctom, such nmnatn might be munited through sensatnal public trials, exile, medil warngs, and language om the pulp. However, throughout 150 years of homosexual social movements (roughly om the 1870s to today), lears and anizers stggled to addrs the very different ncerns and inty issu of gay men, women intifyg as lbians, and others intifyg as genr variant or nonbary. Whe, male, and Wtern activists whose groups and theori gaed leverage agast homophobia did not necsarily reprent the range of racial, class, and natnal inti plitg a broar LGBT agenda.
Such eyewns acunts the era before other media were of urse riddled wh the bias of the (often) Wtern or Whe observer, and add to beliefs that homosexual practic were other, foreign, savage, a medil issue, or evince of a lower racial hierarchy.
A CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE GAY BAR
The European powers enforced their own crimal s agast what was lled sodomy the New World: the first known se of homosexual activy receivg a ath sentence North Ameri occurred 1566, when the Spanish executed a Frenchman Florida. Biblil terpretatn ma illegal for a woman to wear pants or a man to adopt female drs, and sensatnalized public trials warned agast “viants” but also ma such martyrs and hero popular: Joan of Arc is one example, and the chillg origs of the word “faggot” clu a stick of wood ed public burngs of gay men.
HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE
” In Wtern history, we fd ltle formal study of what was later lled homosexualy before the 19th century, beyond medil texts intifyg women wh large cloris as “tribas” and severe punishment s for male homosexual acts. Their wrgs were sympathetic to the ncept of a homosexual or bisexual orientatn occurrg naturally an intifiable segment of humankd, but the wrgs of Krafft-Ebg and Ellis also labeled a “third sex” generate and abnormal.