Where have all the gay bars gone? | Culture | CITY Magaze. Arts. Mic. Culture.

Contents:

• GAY NIGHTLIFE ROCHTER
• ROCHTER GAY SNAS
• ROCHTER'S GAY BAR SCENE
• GAY BAR?? - THE SHIP INN
• WHERE HAVE ALL THE GAY BARS GONE? 

GAY NIGHTLIFE ROCHTER

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ROCHTER GAY SNAS

Facili at this sna plex for gay & bisexual men spread over 3 floors, featurg a large sna, steam rooms, jacuzzi, relaxatn bs, as well as a fe bar and ee ter. Is this as a Gay venue? More than 30 years has passed sce those days, and Rosie’s, like dozens of other gay bars Rochter and hundreds across the untry, has closed.

For s, gay bars were among the few plac that queer people uld gather relative safety. “If you were lookg for a boyiend and got rejected, at least you knew wasn’t bee you were gay. The pub, at 123 North St., was one of the few gay bars Rochter before 1975.

ROCHTER'S GAY BAR SCENE

In a blog post for the Out Alliance’s “Shoulrs to Stand On” project that archiv memori of LGBTQ+ culture Rochter, Dardano relled g out Rochter and some of the many gay and lbian bars that served as social spots for Rochter’s queer muny. “The early-80s seemed to be a Goln Age for gay and lbian night life the Flower Cy, ” Dardano wrote. Listgs for bars that tered to gay men dropped to 387 om 699 durg that perd, while lbian bar listgs fell to jt 15.

The precipo drop was only offset by a marked rise between 1987 and 2007 listgs for tablishments which women and gay men were socializg. ) click to enlarge COURTESY OF THE OUT ALLIANCE In 1973, a bunch of bikers opened a gay bar lled the Bachelor Fom on Ma Street, near Goodman Street.

From the 1960s through the early-ghts, downtown Rochter saw the openg and closg of dozens of gay bars and dance clubs. “The biggt challenge is that you don’t really need a gay club anymore, ” said Joe Marcella, 63, owner of Club Marcella Buffalo, which had a lotn Rochter on Liberty Pole Way om 1994 to 1999. “If gay people go out, they go everywhere.

GAY BAR?? - THE SHIP INN

But others sist that, regardls of general clivens, there are many reasons that havg specifilly gay spac is still important. Piecg together Rochter’s gay bar history is no simple matter.

The gay bar was loted on Liberty Pole Way and later beme Abilene Bar and Lounge unr new ownership. Bat relled one of Rochter’s earlit gay bars as Dick’s 43 Lounge (also referred to as Martha’s, after the owner), which opened on Front Street the 1950s and later moved to Stone Street and then State Street.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE GAY BARS GONE? 

“They would see men dancg as ditive of, ‘This is a gay bar, ’” Bat said, addg that he spected some plac paid off thori to be alerted to unannounced viss om police. By the late 1970s and early ’80s, as the threat of police harassment fad, the taverns, piano bars, and dance clubs began to serve the gay muny new ways.

Tim Tompks, 67, relled hostg a meetg at Liberty, his club on Liberty Pole Way, to discs the strange new disease that seemed to only be affectg gay men. In attendance were Tim Sweeney — who would bee the print of Gay Men’s Health Crisis New York Cy — and Tompk’s iend, Sue Cole, who worked for Monroe County’s STD clic. Reasons for gay bars closg range om the cultural to the fancial, and sometim the two overlap.