At the Club: Lotg Early Black Gay AIDS Activism Washgton, D.C.

Contents:

• MEET KIKI, AN EXCG NEW GAY BAR REPLACG A PAIR OF SHUTTERED SHAW DIV
• AT THE CLUB: LOTG EARLY BLACK GAY AIDS ACTIVISM WASHGTON, D.C.
• D.C.'S BT GAY BARS AND HANGOUTS
• LICHT CAFé, D.C.’S NEWT GAY BAR, IS A COZY, ART-FILLED U STREET HIAWAY
• A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
• D.C. GAY UPLE ROBBED, PISTOL WHIPPED BUT U.S. ATTORNEY HAS YET TO PROSECUTE
• THE U STREET CORRIDOR FALLY HAS A GAY CLUB AGA

MEET KIKI, AN EXCG NEW GAY BAR REPLACG A PAIR OF SHUTTERED SHAW DIV

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When the DC Coaln of Black Gays anized an AIDS Fom for Black and Third World Gays njunctn wh Whman Walker Clic September 1983, the ClubHoe hosted the fom—the first signifint outreach om the public health muny to the Black LGBTQ muny.

AT THE CLUB: LOTG EARLY BLACK GAY AIDS ACTIVISM WASHGTON, D.C.

Even though the broar ClubHoe muny rallied to support their club, and Black gay social clubs, Bt of Washgton and the Associat among others, raised money to help keep the doors open, the club’s managers realized s n as a premier nightspot was g to an end. Though the lights went out after Children’s Hour on Memorial Day weekend 1990, the followg Memorial Day, the first DC Black Gay Pri celebratn opened at Banneker Field down the road om the ClubHoe. This historic event was a llaboratn among many anizers and anizatns cludg the DC Coaln of Black Lbians and Gay Men and the Inner Cy AIDS Network, and ntued the tradn of the Children’s Hour, while also raisg funds for the HIV/AIDS anizatns that served the Ain- Amerin muny Washgton and the surroundg area.

Today, more than 500, 000 members of the lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr muny of Ain scent and their alli e to Washgton DC on Memorial Day weekend to celebrate the bety of a shared muny and raise awarens and fundg for HIV/AIDS the name and spir of Black Pri.

D.C.'S BT GAY BARS AND HANGOUTS

While much progrs has been ma across the globe sce 1991, there remas a need to te the muny about HIV/AIDS and stand agast homophobia spired vlence and bigotry that remas prevalent throughout society. This say asks, how did black gay men who were disloted om the center of AIDS service and public-health outreach (by discrimatn or by choice) the early years of the epimic receive rmatn about the vis’s impact? Drawg on archival materials, oral-history narrativ, and close textual analysis, I show how racial and class stratifitn stctured Washgton’s gay nightlife scene the 1970s and early 1980s.

LICHT CAFé, D.C.’S NEWT GAY BAR, IS A COZY, ART-FILLED U STREET HIAWAY

Communy-based narrativ about the vis’s transmissn through terracial sex, upled wh public-health officials’ neglect of black gay neighborhoods AIDS outreach, stctured the black gay muny’s belief that the vis was a whe gay disease that would not affect them as long as they mataed separate social and sexual works anized around shared geographic lotns. The ClubHoe—DC’s most famo black gay and lbian nightclub—beme a key se of AIDS activism bee of s prr visibily as the center of Ain Amerin lbian and gay nightlife and as a lol venue for black lbian and gay activist efforts. And although natnal media attentn ntued to foc on the impact of AIDS on whe gay men, the ClubHoe emerged as a lol se where the vastatg impact of the vis on black same-sex-sirg men was both regnized and felt.

A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.

On several ocsns sce whe gay-owned bars like the Pier, the Way Off Broadway, and the Lost and Found opened the 1970s, DC’s Commissn for Human Rights ced them for discrimatn agast women and blacks. ” Many black gay men wnsed whe patrons walk to the tablishments whout showg ID, while black patrons were asked to show multiple piec of ID, only to be told that the intifitn was unacceptable for admissn.

D.C. GAY UPLE ROBBED, PISTOL WHIPPED BUT U.S. ATTORNEY HAS YET TO PROSECUTE

DC’s leadg LGBT-themed newspaper, the Washgton Bla, reported the mayor’s reactn upon learng about the black gay muny’s experienc of racial discrimatn whe gay-owned tablishments: “Barry, who had not prevly met wh Black Gay lears, seemed surprised to hear about discrimatn by Whe Gay tablishments. ”[4] In an edorial the DC-based, black, LGBT-themed magaze Blacklight, Sidney Brkley, the magaze’s publisher and founr of the first LGBT anizatn at Howard Universy, noted how equently this had been happeng whe gay bars particular, “As Black Gay people, we know all too well about discrimatn ‘whe’ Gay bars.

In the feature story of the December 1980 issue of Blacklight, tled “Cliqu, ” the thor, who chose to rema anonymo, explaed how black gay muny formatn Washgton, DC, shifted om private social clubs the mid- to late ’60s to more public venu the mid-’70s and early ’80s, g “cliqu” to emerge based on shared social spac like church, bars, neighborhoods, and apartment plex. [6] While the persistence of facto forms of segregatn DC’s gay scene and the cultural stigma attached to homosexualy wh black muni did shape the formatn of discrete social and sexual works among black gay men DC, many of the men preferred to socialize based upon shared geographic spac and mon racial and class inti. In the mid-1970s, Washgton, DC, veloped a vibrant black gay nightlife scene, wh nightclubs and bars such as the ClubHoe, Delta Ele, Brass Rail, and La Zambra emergg var bs and rintial districts throughout the cy.

THE U STREET CORRIDOR FALLY HAS A GAY CLUB AGA

”[7] The bar’s uptown lotn the middle-e, black rintial area of Columbia Heights distguished om more workg-class black gay tablishments, like the Brass Rail, which was loted downtown the “htler sectn near 13th Street and New York Ave. [9] The rrelatn between the geographic lotn of black gay bars and the class of their clientele further reflected the racial and class stratifitn of DC’s gay public culture the 1970s and early ’80s. In 1987 the Washgton Post reported that AIDS s Washgton, DC, were distct om those plac like New York Cy that the majory were black homosexual and bisexual men: “In the district, half of the 693 reported s are black, while only 3 percent are Hispanic.