Gays Roanoke ed to hi who they were — until a adly bar shootg - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• BACKSTREET BOYS' A.J. MCLEAN TALKS GAY BAND MEMBERS, BEG A 'FAG HAG'
• BOY BAND MEMBERS WHO ARE OUT AS GAY, BISEXUAL OR QUEER
• MY GAY INTERVIEW WH A BACKSTREET BOY: ‘I’M THE FAG HAG’
• EXPLORG RUMORS TO DETERME WHICH BACKSTREET BOY IS GAY – BS ROUNDUPS
• GAYS ROANOKE ED TO HI WHO THEY WERE — UNTIL A ADLY BAR SHOOTG
• WHY THIS BACKSTREET BOY HOP HIS DGHTERS ARE GAY
• AJ MCLEAN: THE GAY TERVIEW
• MAN OPENS FIRE ON GAY BAR
• GAYS ROANOKE ED TO HI WHO THEY WERE — UNTIL A ADLY BAR SHOOTG

BACKSTREET BOYS' A.J. MCLEAN TALKS GAY BAND MEMBERS, BEG A 'FAG HAG'

The Backstreet Boys were at a drag show when they first realized they had a gay followg. I was bi myself, and that was when we first knew that we had a big gay followg, " A. ' Thkg back on , I've been this bs sce I was 3 and I grew up mil theater, so I was raised and surround by gay men and gay women.

As for any sort of gay mors surroundg him or the pop group, he don't re.

"Everyone always says, 'When you look at a boy band, one of them has to be gay.

BOY BAND MEMBERS WHO ARE OUT AS GAY, BISEXUAL OR QUEER

Instead of me beg gay, I'm the fag hag, " he said.

MY GAY INTERVIEW WH A BACKSTREET BOY: ‘I’M THE FAG HAG’

He's this olr gentleman om Tampa and he's gay, and he's been followg durg this whole tour om Cha to Japan and now through the U. I thk he really hop that Nick might have a ltle b of gay. " The 35-year-old McLean, who married 2011 and is the father of a ltle girl, long supported equal rights and the band's gay fan base.

"We have a huge gay followg -- 's awome, " he told Out magaze back 2010. "I, personally, am tryg to get more and more volved wh the gay and lbian movement, very much so. I've got que a lot of gay iends back L.

And we make our mic for everyone, and whether you're gay, straight, black, whe, don't matter. The mastream populary of boy bands wtern mic almost ensur that one or two members of each group intifi as gay, bisexual or queer. Most out gay boy band members talk about their early reer days of havg dual personas - the public heterosexual teen male, and the private gay dividual - creatg an thenticy paradox.

EXPLORG RUMORS TO DETERME WHICH BACKSTREET BOY IS GAY – BS ROUNDUPS

There have been sporadic attempts to create succsful all-gay boy bands to ter to the LGBTQ dance club crowd. Neverthels, there is a group of notable boy band members who publicly intify as gay, bisexual or queer.

GAYS ROANOKE ED TO HI WHO THEY WERE — UNTIL A ADLY BAR SHOOTG

In 1975, at the dawn of dis, Backstreet officially opened for bs at 845 Peachtree Street the heart of the begng, the massive, three-level, 10, 000-square-foot space ( had hoed Lang’s Interrs the 1950s), tered almost exclively to the cy’s burgeong whe gay male populatn. Vara, ] my dad’s dad, owned the Punch Bowl, one of the most proment gay bars Boston.

My grandfather knew gay clubs were big money. Our dad, Carme Vara, ran gay nightclubs Boston and Provcetown.

He also owned a place Provcetown lled the Crown & Anchor, which was a hotel, gay bar, and baret for female impersonators.

WHY THIS BACKSTREET BOY HOP HIS DGHTERS ARE GAY

Gay clubs ma good bs sense.

Gay people played hard, they drank hard, and they danced hard and had more money to spend than the straight crowd.

He wanted to be a whe male gay club. I learned, livg through the civil rights and the gay rights eras, how to al wh . The club wanted to mata a gay, male-domated bar.

AJ MCLEAN: THE GAY TERVIEW

I was om Tennsee—wh all those ty gay bars—and, sudnly, I’m standg si a three-story club. RUSSELL BOWEN-YOUNGBLOOD: Atlanta gay nightlife photographer Bowen-Youngblood was a Backstreet ctomer om 1994 to 2004.

They told me was a gay club, but that didn’t matter to me. It was my first experience si a gay club.

It wasn’t like I was attracted to gay men. Pl, we hired big nam to perform the Sunday Tea Dance: Gloria Gaynor, Bonnie Poter. I paid my rent wh the tips that For years, was mostly a gay crowd.

MAN OPENS FIRE ON GAY BAR

But after we got the 24-hour liquor license [ 1987], was a gay bar until all the other bars town closed and then, everyone piled to Backstreet. The later got, the straighter I had been workg at Backstreet, a gay club, for years but I didn’t officially e out until I was 32. I knew that my dad didn’t want his dghter to be gay.

I mean, wasn’t like we were gog to start discrimatg agast gay people. Backstreet reprented the good old days of gay life Atlanta. VANESSA: Growg up at Backstreet, you kd of got sensized to thgs like that after a Bee we were exposed to gay people at such an early age, ma more open-md.

GAYS ROANOKE ED TO HI WHO THEY WERE — UNTIL A ADLY BAR SHOOTG

It was the same vantage pot where I had stood the first time I went there and realized I wasn’t the only gay person the state. VANESSA: It was a place where black, whe, Asian, Lat, gay, straight, bs people, nerds, everybody uld e together and party. The club fally closed down for good [on July 17, 2004] It was a home for so many gay people.

And I remember thkg, He’s actually When we lost Backstreet, was like the cy’s gay muny losg s grandmama. When you walk to a gay bar today, everybody’s on their phone. I have a lot of gay iends and two of my bt iends have been together for almost 10 years.

We have a huge gay followg and ’s a huge al. When were the Backstreet Boys first aware they had a gay followg? Kev (Richardson) was obvly olr, so he had been around all his gays at Disney (when he worked there before Backstreet Boys) and he had been around drag queens before Nick (Carter) and me.