Contents:
- GAY BARS ARE DISAPPEARG. THEIR PAST HOLDS KEYS TO THEIR FUTURE.
- GAY BARS AND GAY RIGHTS
- CHIGO GAY BARS BOYTT ANHSER-BCH AS BREWER SHUNS DYLAN MULVANEY
- 5 SAFT PLAC FOR GAY TRAVELERS IN 2019 (AND THE MOST DANGERO)
GAY BARS ARE DISAPPEARG. THEIR PAST HOLDS KEYS TO THEIR FUTURE.
The data is clear: gay bars are closg. Meanwhile, big-cy gentrifitn ph gay bars out of the very neighborhoods they helped make hip. Today, as bat ntue to surface about the need and sirabily of gay bars, one of the earlit gay-owned gay bars — Seattle’s Garn of Allah — has surprisg lsons about the history of gay bars and their likely War II is creded for a sea-change LGBTQ+ life.
GAY BARS AND GAY RIGHTS
Durg the war, Uncle Sam banned soldiers and sailors om visg gay hangouts, advertently advertisg them by namg them “off lims. Perhaps was experienc such as the that spired the postwar spread of somethg that until then had been que rare: bars jt for gay people had long ngregated, and not always furtively, but almost always alongsi straight people. For example, one 20th-century gay man relled, “I have a iend who was a teacher, who was a snob, still is, and he would only go to hotel bars, never would go to the other bars.
Straight people terracial relatnships, Black jazz micians and Asian people unwele many other clubs also found a home mixed gay-straight crowd meant the Garn of Allah was out of step wh other gay bars openg the 1950s, which creasgly tered to eher gay men or lbians. At the time, liquor liberalizatn meant gay bars creasgly peted wh straight on for bs. ”In ntrast to the Garn, other gay bars flourished and played an tegral part gay polics.
As historian John D’E nclud, “Alone among the exprsns of gay life, the bar fostered an inty that was both public and llective.
CHIGO GAY BARS BOYTT ANHSER-BCH AS BREWER SHUNS DYLAN MULVANEY
And was a gay bar New York Cy, the Stonewall Inn, that is mythologized as sparkg the gay rights movement, when patrons fought back agast police opprsn radil polics that flourished the years after Stonewall often drew spiratn om revolutnary movements, spurng nightlife wh lls to e “out of the bars and to the streets! In San Francis, a aln of gay bar owners worked for civil rights and fund gay-iendly policians startg 1962. A later Mneapolis, the Gay Rights Lobby raised money and support for a printial ndidate out of the bar polics set the tone for the natnal LGBTQ+ movement: workg crementally wh the tablishment.
An Atlanta gay bar even ejected mpaigners for LGBTQ+ pri 1972. Though they weren’t radil, the mid-century gay bar beme “a kd of policized muny center, ” asssed historian Nan Alala Boyd.
5 SAFT PLAC FOR GAY TRAVELERS IN 2019 (AND THE MOST DANGERO)
Some liken gay-only bars to racial segregatn, as if that was self already vanquished, while others see bars as ivolo distractns om “real” polics. And yet: more LGBTQ+ people go to the bars on any given weekend than donate to gay or attend protts.
Gay bars’ survival helps many the muny survive even ’s why the Garn of Allah matters. The reasons closed are faiar today: petn wh straight bars and technology that keeps people at the tactics troduced may jt be the key to gay bars’ survival today. Live entertament is aga key to gay bars that thrive: not jt drag but also live mic, edy and burlque.
Today’s gay bars, like their pre-World War II forebears, often host mixed crowds of straight and LGBTQ+ people. One of s last-dch reventns, drag bnch, has bee a moneymakg staple of gay bars today.