Hell's Kchen Wel Old Favor — Gay Bars Boxers and 9th Avenue Saloon are Comg Back

Contents:

• VELVET GLOV IS NEW YORK CY'S FIRST AND ONLY BOXG CLUB FOR GAY MEN
• GAY SPORTS BAR
• HELL’S KCHEN WEL OLD FAVOR — GAY BARS BOXERS AND 9TH AVENUE SALOON ARE COMG BACK
• THE BT GAY HOOK-UP SPOTS NYC
• THE 10 BEST NEW YORK CY GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS NEW YORK CY

VELVET GLOV IS NEW YORK CY'S FIRST AND ONLY BOXG CLUB FOR GAY MEN

Found roughly a year and a half ago, Velvet Glov Gentleman's Boxg is the first and only boxg club New York Cy that ters specifilly to gay men. ""[I asked myself, ] 'Why aren't gay guys dog this? '"Though 2013 Orlando Cz beme the first profsnal fighter to e out while still active the sport—and gay athlet like Michael Sam and Jason Colls have started to break down barriers football and basketball, rpectively—boxg has ed had s bouts wh homophobia over the years.

Floyd Mayweather, who recently battled Manny Pacquiao the "fight of the century" on May 2, has ed homophobic slurs the past. ""It do still feel like there's a taboo the boxg world for sure wh gay men, " says some, part of the draw of Velvet Glov is to actively work agast the taboos, chippg away at stereotyp ncerng what sports gay men n and nnot excel Dtsch, a mician livg Harlem, first me to Velvet Glov on a date.

I thk every gay man has experienced that before, " says Garrett. BOXERS NYC ‘AMERICA’S GAY SPORTS BAR’ – LONGEST RUNNING 2 FOR 1 HAPPY HOUR!! GAY SPORTS BAR.

GAY SPORTS BAR

After work or after the game, Boxers NYC is the place for gay sports leagu and fans to meet. “NYC’s bt gay bar!

“Hell’s Kchen is the real center — no matter what’s gog on Brooklyn and gog elsewhere, Hell’s Kchen really is the central lotn for our muny and still the sential the lifeblood of our gay muny. “We’re a new ownership team, but we’re not tryg to revent the wheel, ” said -owner Tim De Iturriaga, who has prevly n popular gay clubs like the Adonis Lounge Midtown East. By virtue of one of his star pupils, Francis Liuzzi, he is the unwtg man behd the curta of New York's first all-gay boxg class, Velvet Glov Gentleman's Boxg, a bimonthly Saturday morng class at the health club Clay, a boutique pamper palace near Manhattan's Unn Square.Today's ty pack of openly gay profsnal athlet clus one boxer, Orlando Cz, a recent ntenr for a featherweight world champnship who married his hband last year Central Park.

HELL’S KCHEN WEL OLD FAVOR — GAY BARS BOXERS AND 9TH AVENUE SALOON ARE COMG BACK

Although boxg has long attracted eccentrics, dandi, and romantics, the sport remas elive for gay men.The Gay Gam, the ternatnal summer sportg event that draws nearly 10,000 athlet to pete 36 events every four years, clud petive boxg only once, s gural event 1982.

"I love that I'm beg forced to be wh gay men, which I wouldn't normally do. I feel like 's so hard to jt be iends wh gay men."Christopher Davis, 49, a retired Broadway dancer and current producer for the Broadway Car program Dancers Rpondg to AIDS, has been a Velveteer sce Day 1.

THE BT GAY HOOK-UP SPOTS NYC

Remag light on one's feet is key.New York's endls dre of petive gay sports anizatns clus volleyball, sailg, bowlg, basketball, hockey, wrtlg, and gby, but boxg falls short of fully makg the leap.

Thgs like big chts and big shoulrs and bigbiceps don't mean you punch any harr than skny guys."Or, as the late notable pro boxg referee Wayne Kelly put : "Boxers, like prostut, are the bs of g their bodi for the pleasure of strangers.""Teachg gay guys is really no different than teachg straight guys, except the gay guys tend to show up better physil ndn," Liuzzi says. Well before LGBT athlet were media darlgs, one of the most famo openly gay pros was a champn boxer and Hall of Fame ductee.

THE 10 BEST NEW YORK CY GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS NEW YORK CY

For anyone to not thk he was gay is absurd," says Williamson Henrson, Griffh's boyiend throughout the 1970s. He and Henrson met at the Stonewall Inn the 1960s and together participated the uprisg at the bar on June 28, 1969, the event that started the morn gay rights movement.

He marched wh the SVA New York Cy's Gay Pri para 2007.Griffh remas a legend boxg for a fight at Madison Square Garn 1962. That night he unleashed a strg of fatal blows on his opponent, Benny Paret, who tnted him wh a gay slur durg the weigh-. "His whole fay knew he was gay," Henrson says.

He went out to the gay clubs more than I ever did."After Griffh's ath, New York Tim lumnist Bob Herbert relled an terview wh Griffh 2005 which the fighter fally me out. He said he knew was impossible the early 1960s for an athlete an ultramacho sport like boxg to say, 'Oh, yeah, I'm gay.' "Griffh would never see the extraordary amount of money now flowg to gay athlet. "As gay men, are we dog this class a sense to prove to our younger selv, and to heterosexual male members of our fay, that we n be gay and still be perceived as mascule men a heterosexistsociety?" Davis asks.