How the largt gay rort the Midwt is Michigan's "Bible belt"

Contents:

•  MICHIGAN LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS
•  MICHIGAN LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS
•  MICHIGAN LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS
• AFTER 40 YEARS, THE APARTMENT LOUNGE, MICHIGAN'S OLST GAY BAR, IS FALLY CHANGG OWNERS
• GAY GRAND RAPIDS
• HOW THE LARGT GAY RORT THE MIDWT IS MICHIGAN'S "BIBLE BELT"
• MOVG TO GAY MICHIGAN? THG TO KNOW BEFORE RELOTG HERE AS AN LGBT PERSON.
• MOVG TO LGBT GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!
•  MICHIGAN LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS

 MICHIGAN LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS

Fay, iends, straight, gay... My partner and I ll Grand Rapids home and enjoy visg the lol gay bars, as well as some of the outstandg shops Uptown, and beyond, that are owned and operated by some of the LGBTQ+ muny. Downtown is home to the Apartment Lounge, Michigan’s olst gay bar, and Rumors Night Club, a dance bar wh DJs, karaoke, and drag shows.

 MICHIGAN LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS

The followg are jt a few of the cy’s LGBTQ+ owned and operated bs that you should check out next time you are town:The Apartment Lounge is the olst gay bar Michigan. It's also right next to the brand new mural, Rabow Road by Joey & Entertament The Apartment LoungeAs Michigan’s olst gay bar, The Apartment Lounge serv up a chill vibe wh rotatg specials throughout the week.

Bob Johnson, owner of the Apartment Lounge, is a well-known LGBTQ+ bs owner and hosts fundraisers and events for var anizatns throughout the year at the bar and his terg bs, Wt Michigan Night ClubAs the only gay nightclub Grand Rapids to offer dancg, Rumors is a great stop to nsir later the eveng. Some Photos Courty of Experience Grand Rapids and others by Joey Amato#michigan #grandrapids #sgatuck #midwt #gay #travel #lgbt. Garza said The General Wood Shop will be “a very much clive gay bar” that’ll serve a variety of cktails, spirs, beer and we.

 MICHIGAN LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS

The Advote honored Grand Rapids as one of the “Gayt Ci Ameri. Downtown is home to the Apartment Lounge, Michigan’s olst gay bar, and Rumors Night Club, a dance bar wh DJs, karaoke, and drag shows. The Wt Michigan Gay Men’s Chos prents a regular schle of ncerts around town.

Ranked as one of the “Gayt Ci Ameri, ” Grand Rapids is a mt-vis for…. Gay Bars MichiganGay Bars Grand Rapids The Diplomat Club.

AFTER 40 YEARS, THE APARTMENT LOUNGE, MICHIGAN'S OLST GAY BAR, IS FALLY CHANGG OWNERS

$$ · Private Gay Lounge. The Grand River Renegas le-dancg social group that gets together Sunday evengs at Rumors has an rmative webse on gay gogs-on.

See GaySgatuckDouglas for an LGBT muny gui to the tw beachtowns on Lake Michigan; pl and DouglasMichigan for mastream bs and events listgs.

For map lotns and webse lks to the bs below, and more, see our gay Grand Rapids listgs pag.

GAY GRAND RAPIDS

As most such areas, gay people of all kds tend to stick together and fd more mon than large ci where every group has their own turf. The gay bars are the downtown area wh a uple of blocks om the tersectn of Fulton Street and Divisn Avenue.

The tw towns of Sgatuck and Douglas, beachtowns on Lake Michigan southwt of Grand Rapids, have a surprisg number of gay-owned/ gay-iendly tablishments.

In addn to the well-known Dun Rort gay nightlife statn, there are four gay-owned former motels, now styled as 1950s retro-chic boutique ns and rorts along the Blue Star Highway. The Sgatuck Center for the Arts often has gay-themed events or film screengs, and Oval Beach has a gay-popular sectn up by the dun. There are also gay-iendly f, rtrants and shops, pl a vibrant art scene the towns.

HOW THE LARGT GAY RORT THE MIDWT IS MICHIGAN'S "BIBLE BELT"

South), downtown gay bar and dance club; Wednday male strippers and wet unrwear ntts for sh priz; Sunday untry le dancg 6-9pm followed by drag kgs and queens shows. CLOSED: Diversns (10 Founta NW), 18+ gay vio/ karaoke bar, dance club; Pub 43 (43 Divisn Ave South), lol gay tavern.

In Douglas on Lake Michigan, about 40 mut drive om Grand Rapids, Dun Rort (333 Blue Star Hwy), the Midwt's largt gay and lbian rort, has 81 rooms and dividual ttag on 20 acr; a night club wh dancg, karaoke, male dancers; swimmg pool and rtrant. For more about Douglas and Sgatuck see our DailyXtra article Fdg Bety Michigan Beachtowns, and the lol webse GaySgatuckDouglas.

Although Sgatuck-Douglas ss what’s known to be the Bible belt of the state, ’s also home to a vatn statn to a large gay muny. Michigan Rad’s Ey Fox reports on how Sgatuck-Douglas beme the gay rort of the Midwt.

MOVG TO GAY MICHIGAN? THG TO KNOW BEFORE RELOTG HERE AS AN LGBT PERSON.

Scher and his partner n a Bed and Breakfast his spare time, Schrr has been workg on a project wh the Sgatuck-Douglas Historil Society to tell the story of how the gay muny me to be.

As turns out, gay men and women have been g to Sgatuck-Douglas for a long time. Scher says that’s where the gay muny gathered for more than a century.

We don’t know if those naked men were necsarily gay, but Schrr says the gay populatn did start to take off around 1910 when the Art Instute of Chigo opened up a summer program Sgatuck, lled Ox-Bow. “A lot of people who attend Ox-Bow, a lot of the creative typ maybe were gay men and women, ” Schrr Ox-Bow was tablished, the artsy muny and Chigo urbani were travelg to Sgatuck-Douglas and more gay people started hangg out at the dun.

MOVG TO LGBT GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!

At that time Grand Rapids wasn’t a safe place for gay people. “If you were known to be gay or somethg like that the police would harass you and want you to give them the nam of anyone you knew that happened to be gay, ” Jenngs says. ”Jenngs would pe to Sgatuck on the weekends to bartend at the facto gay bar town, lled The Blue Tempo, unr the guise that he was makg more money for the fay.

Scher says back when Carl Jenngs was bartendg at The Blue Tempo, there was actually a law that said that you uld not serve alhol to homosexuals. “Around two the morng, when the bars would let out, there was a ltle hot dog stand on the rner, about a block or block and half away, and que often there would be nontatns between gay persons and what I would refer to as maybe some redneck trouble makers, ” Jenngs Blue Tempo burned down 1969. There wasn’t a gay bar town for another after that.

 MICHIGAN LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS

By the early 1980s Jenngs had e out to his fay and he and his new partner wanted to start up a gay rort and bar the the Sgatuck Cy Council wouldn’t grant them a liquor license. The Dun Rort is now touted as the largt gay rort the Midwt, wh around 80 rooms.

There were bomb threats and young men would try to break r wdshields the parkg lot wh baseball Jenngs says the gay populatn is much more accepted and tegrated to the muny the n see that at play at Douglas’s Friday night waterg hole—a rtrant lled Everyday People. He says there’s always a large mix of people that de at his rtrant, but says there’s also a large gay crowd that shows up on Friday nights. “Friday nights have been dubbed, not by me but by a lot of our guts, they dub as Fri-GAY nights, ” Balmer a room of about 50 people, about a dozen guys are gathered the middle, huggg and greetg one of those men is Bobby Carlson.

Like the first gay wave a century earlier, they have a place where they n pe om the cy, relax and feel like they belong. (WOOD) — A lol artist and performer is workg to brg what’s believed to be the first dry bar and nightclub for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer people to Grand Rapids. Dhyne add that while there are a few great gay tablishments the cy, there’s a need for more diverse spac as the muny grows.