The Death of the Gay Bar - Boston Review

Contents:

• THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
• 'LIVG JOYOLY IS A RADIL ACT': WHY AMERI'S GAY BARS STILL MATTER
• GAY BAR: WHY WE WENT OUT
• WHY OUR HISTORI WH GAY BARS MATTER — AND WHAT THEIR FUTURE MIGHT LOOK LIKE AFTER THE PANMIC
• WHY GAY BARS ARE DISAPPEARG ACROSS AMERI
• GAY BARS AREN’T DISAPPEARG; THEY’RE CHANGG
• RAISG THE BAR: A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY BARS
• HOW GAY BARS HAVE BEEN A BUILDG BLOCK OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNY
• WHY GAY BARS ARE VAL FOR LGBT COMMUNI
• 'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE
• CHASG ‘PHANTOMS OF THE PAST’: 8 GAY AND LBIAN BAR ARCHIVISTS ON PRERVG LGBTQ+ NIGHTLIFE HISTORY
• THE DEATH OF THE GAY BAR
• THE NUMBER OF GAY BARS HAS DWDLED. A NEW GENERATN PLANS TO BRG THEM BACK.
• A YEAR GAY BARS

THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS

” Unfortunately, police reports and mastream media verage of a gay bar 1880 proved to be extremely unreliable and hyperbolic, fueled mostly by pearl-clutchg and fear-mongerg rather than actual rmatn.

'LIVG JOYOLY IS A RADIL ACT': WHY AMERI'S GAY BARS STILL MATTER

“But that night, for the first time, the ual acquicence turned to vlent that night the liv of lns of gay men and lbians, and the attu toward them of the larger culture which they lived, began to change rapidly. Fifty years after the Stonewall Inn New York beme the symbol for a new wave of gay activism, the three horsemen of the gay bar apolypse – gentrifitn, assiatn and technology – have hollowed out their rents have shuttered gay bars; more straight venu are “acceptg” of gay patrons; and datg is somethg people now do wh their phon.

Even the term “gay bar” looks a ltle tired as the LGBTQ muny fally to terms wh s many rabow numbers are hard to e by, but Yelp lculat the number of gay bars listed on s service fell 16% between 2014 and 2018. 'This is where we live our tth': visg Ameri's gay bars – vio The oasis: Wonrlt Jackson, MississippiYou n fd Wonrlt, the only gay bar Jackson, Mississippi, on the northern edge of town, jt past the Piggly Wiggly supermarket and the duellg disunt stor Dollar General and Dollar Tree. Gay people – and pecially whe gay men – have ma great stris sce Stonewall, but even the gay muny, transphobia and racism are still ’s a bter irony that 50 years after Stonewall, while Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera – two trans women of lour and two of the ma actors the Stonewall rts – are beg celebrated, trans people are still beg “thrown unr the b”, and trans people of lour are “beg killed left and right – and nobody giv a sh”, says Boroski.

GAY BAR: WHY WE WENT OUT

Jeremy Atherton L’s Gay Bar: Why We Went Out is a seamls batn of memoir and cultural history, orbg the yteryear of queer nightlife—a ptivatg exercise that hg on the limatns of one genre provg the necsy of the other. The ocsn for Atherton L’s shamelsly hybrid text is the realizatn that, jt as queerns has graduated to the mastream, and cisg now primarily exists the digal sphere, so too has our qutsential gatherg space—the gay bar—lost somethg of s urgency. “Gay is an inty of longg, ” Atherton L wr, as he looks back on years spent those dark, crowd plac, “and there is a wistfulns to beholdg the form of a buildg, like how the sight of a theater stirs the imagatn.

An epigraph om filmmaker and wrer Derek Jarman, a major figure gay rights activism at the height of the AIDS crisis, opens one chapter: “When I was young the absence of the past was a terror. He scrib his early experienc as a gay man gay plac wh a tenrns for his younger self that never que veers to sentimentaly, prentg stead a hyper-ntextualized nostalgia wh well-curated dips to the historil rerd.

” And if the gay bar was once a place where we hoped we uld fd ourselv—to be someone different om who we’d been before—we did so wh tentn, buildg an inty om the ground up, playg the part until we’d memorized every le.

WHY OUR HISTORI WH GAY BARS MATTER — AND WHAT THEIR FUTURE MIGHT LOOK LIKE AFTER THE PANMIC

(Courty of ONE Archiv at the USC Librari, Los Angel, and the tate of Pat Roc)Queeri is a weekly lumn by CBC Arts producer Peter Knegt that queri LGBTQ art, culture and/or inty through a personal the panmic, the last time I went this long whout gog to a gay bar was before I was legal drkg age.

For many of  livg plac where we've been privileged enough to have gay bars be an tegral — if plited — part of our culture sce we were brave enough or old enough to get , the past year and untg has been a big parture om a route our social liv. That's a re qutn Jeremy Atherton L's vibrant but book Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, a mix of memoir and historil document that explor the plex relatnship both Atherton L and gay culture has had wh the creasgly endangered habat that is the gay bar. At that time, over half the gay bars London had closed down the prev , as they siarly had major ci across the world thanks largely to a double-edged sword of gentrifitn skyrocketg rent and the rise of gay social apps like Grdr puttg virtual gay bars people's pockets.

" "It's ase that would not have been at the foreont of people's mds, but really the effect of the AIDS crisis on gay culture seemed to me to be very buried, " he says of his troductn to that culture the 1990s. ( Jamie Atherton)The panmic began as Atherton L was dog fal eds of the book, and he wonred about whether to make chang to reflect this new and cripplg chapter the challeng facg gay bars' survival.

WHY GAY BARS ARE DISAPPEARG ACROSS AMERI

Many blame datg apps as the digal accs to potential partners obviat the need for -real-life flirtg and, as Stafford not on this week’s episo of the Eater Upsell podst, “People n make any space through the apps a gay bar, a gay club, and you kd of now unrstand that gay people are everywhere.

Part of the change is posive, that gay liftyle and culture is so readily accepted now, so part of the mastream, that the gay muny don’t need rved out spac orr to feel safe, meet one another, or be themselv. “As the thgs change, and the spac bee more sanized, and more people go there jt to explore, and ’s kd of voyristic, you feel that you’re losg that sense of omniprence of gayns that ed to feel like a protectn, ” says Stafford.

But one of the thgs I realized talkg to owners of bars that don’t intify as gay bars but are certaly full of gay people is that maybe other bars need to prove to that they’re post-straight. I’m not married to the ia of a gay bar always beg everythg — if ’s a queer fe, if ’s a nonprof LGBTQ+ center — but I thk the panmic tght all how important is to have physil plac to ngregate, and those will rema important even a hypothetil, non-opprsive future. The fact that you have a bar that’s maly Latx folks or a bar that’s Ain-Amerin LGBTQ+ folks, that didn’t surprise me, although I was very terted to fd out what were the challeng of nng those kds of bs bee those are the bars that’ve been closg among the fastt — gay bars that serve people of lor.

GAY BARS AREN’T DISAPPEARG; THEY’RE CHANGG

But I’m not here to weigh the pros and ns of gay bars — we n all do that on Twter (and we do) — I jt want to talk briefly about the history of gay bars, talk a teeny b about some of the first on to exist, and some of the olst on that we still have today.

So, to separate molly ho om gay bars — and I’m not gog to claim this is the official fn, ’s jt what I’m workg wh here — I’m gog to fe gay bars as legimate, legal bs foced entirely (or almost entirely) on the sale of alhol to queer ctomers. Meanwhile, Berl had also bee a hotspot of gay and lbian nightlife by 1900, thanks largely to the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee‘s prence there, though a lot of the specific rerds about the spots were lost thanks to the Nazis. Still, ma a reputatn for s wild parti and fluenced a lot of gay bars ’s Hangout New York Cy was one of the first, if not the first, lbian bar the Uned Stat, openg 1925 and closg at the end of 1926 due to police raids.

All of Mexi Cy’s gay bars were closed 1959 and even though there are gay bars the cy now, none of the origal on first gay bar South Ai opened the Carlton Hotel Johannburg the late 1940’s — terg to wealthy whe gay men. However, some of the bars, such as the Butterfly Bar (now the Skyle) began to tegrate the mid-1980’ Amerin occupatn of Japan followg World War II brought gay bars to the untry — New Sazae opened Tokyo durg this perd, 1966, and is still open the 1970’s, a lot of clubs Sgapore began havg gay nights but no actual gay bars opened until the lbian bar Crodile Rock opened the 1980’s.

RAISG THE BAR: A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY BARS

Juli’ – Juli’ opened Manhattan 1864 but was cidly not a gay bar but by the late 1950’s, gay men started equentg but were often thrown out or simply refed service bee was illegal to serve homosexuals New York Cy at the time.

HOW GAY BARS HAVE BEEN A BUILDG BLOCK OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNY

After the Stonewall rts, the owners of the the Eagle’s Nt (which had been open sce 1931, and is now Eagle NYC) ma their club a gay bar and beme a very popular spot for more mascule gay men, and pecially the leather scene, to hang out. Dpe the massive stris the lbian, gay, transgenr, bisexual, and queer muni have ma the last few s, the shockg horror of the weekend’s shootgs ma clear the ntued relevance and importance of the bars and nightclubs.

While the protts and march at The Stonewall Inn turned the bar to a symbolic headquarters for the Gay Pri movement, gay nightlife has always served as val space for muny buildg and pg societal persecutn. The people behd the plac have sparked polil activism (Joe Scialo, the late former owner of The Monster, supported employe the ‘80s fightg AIDS and even traveled to Mexi to brg back life-savg dgs) and have fostered mic and creative exprsn for s (gay clubs such as the Warehoe Chigo and Paradise Garage New York gave birth to hoe and var stras of electronic mic).

WHY GAY BARS ARE VAL FOR LGBT COMMUNI

Jt a ltle more than 60 years ago, famo police raids Miami attempted to shut down the cy’s gay nightlife, rultg newspaper headl such as "Perverts Seized Bar Raids, " "Crackdown on Deviant Nts Urged, " and "Great Civilizatns Plagued by Deviat. The notor "Purple Pamphlets" dissemated by state Senator Charley Johns, who had led wch hunts agast gays state ernment and led vtigative mte that fired hundreds of gay schoolteachers, portrayed the culture as viant and dangero. The sgle-sex arrangement of ary life, as well as creasg pennce (and enomic advanc) of women workg on the homeont, offered many gay Amerins the abily to ngregate greater numbers for the first time.

While this risg awarens helped create new gay rights anizatns, such as the Mattache Society and the Dghters of Bilis, was quickly untered wh a nservative backlash of nformy and Communist paranoia, exemplified by Senator Joseph McCarthy. His vtigatns, part of an anti-gay wch hunt the feral ernment lled the Lavenr Sre, would persecute leftists for years, and along wh sual bigotry and wispread amement over terms such as ‘pixie, ’ would help falsely lk beg gay wh viance and anti-Amerin behavr the popular imagatn.

In Provcetown, Massachetts, the A-Hoe, a gay hangout, beme one of the landmarks of the northeastern vatn muny, famo for a nu photo of Tennsee Williams strollg a lol beach hangg on the wall.

'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE

The Cab Inn, opened by Nat "Big" Ivy Chigo’s South Si Bronzeville neighborhood, put on regular drag shows featurg a chos le of black men, while Esta Noche, a pneerg Missn District gay bar, opened for a predomantly Hispanic clientele 1979. Durg the ‘50s and ‘60s, ps nstantly harassed LGBTQ tablishments, pullg cisers up near the entrance to disurage anyone om gog si, parkg police wagons ont of the door durg equent raids, and even sendg unrver ps to try and get someone to h on them—a daily occurrence every bar, gay or straight—which would trigger a lewd nduct charge.

CHASG ‘PHANTOMS OF THE PAST’: 8 GAY AND LBIAN BAR ARCHIVISTS ON PRERVG LGBTQ+ NIGHTLIFE HISTORY

By 1964, when Bob Damron’s Addrs Book, a self-published gay travel gui, was first issued, ntaed more than 750 bars, rtrants, and clubs across the untry, all personally vised by the thor, a bsman who was equently on the road. Woln was cricized, lost the electn, and as was often the se when crics or moralizers attacked the LGBTQ muny, merely broadst to others that San Francis was a great place to meet fellow gay and lbian people. After pourg their drks, a bartenr Juli's Bar ref to serve John Timms, Dick Lesch, Craig Rodwell, and Randy Wicker, members of the Mattache Society, an early Amerin gay rights group, who were prottg New York liquor laws that prevented servg gay ctomers, New York, New York, April 21, 1966.

" Wrer Daniel Harris noted that "assiatn … has profound ramifitns for the untry’s cultural life, which will be prived of a major source of artistic and tellectual energy as homosexuals are fally tegrated. That sense of openns, pri, and eedom, and the welg nature of plac that allow everyone, pecially the gay muny, to exprs themselv, was one of the reasons police believe that Pulse was targeted earlier this week. KF: It’s always great when you have straight or cisgenr people at gay bars or queer spac, bee that’s the moment of celebratn, that we all are g together to really acknowledge and experience and really celebrate each other.

Where n get tricky – and LGBT people have been gay bars where you have a bachelorette party, or even a bachelor party, or some group that is sort of en masse, g like tourists to poke their head , see what’s gog on, and then leave – we feel kd of like zoo animals. " That history clus the famo 1969 uprisg at the Stonewall Inn New York, but Atherton L also div to other, lser-known bars, cludg on that endured police raids meant to put gay people their place.

THE DEATH OF THE GAY BAR

" Along the way, Atherton L dips to other topics related to the gay muny: the appropriatn of gay culture by straight people, mic, drkg, and the valu of the younger generatn of LGBTQ people.

And while succeeds on many levels, perhaps the most remarkable one is Atherton L's nstant qutng of himself, and the realizatns of how he's changed sce he walked to his first gay bar years ago: "Maybe, I thought, I'm a dis ball.

THE NUMBER OF GAY BARS HAS DWDLED. A NEW GENERATN PLANS TO BRG THEM BACK.

For Pri Month, VePair terviewed eight gay and lbian bar archivers around the untry about the challeng and urgency they’re currently facg documentg Ameri’s gay and lbian bars while they still n.

After a brief uptick the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, the total number of gay and lbian bars the Uned Stat crted around 2, 000 lotns, acrdg to rearch published by Oberl associate profsor of soclogy Greggor Mattson based on listgs the Damron Guis, a proment LGBTQ+ nightlife guibook seri published annually throughout the back half of the 20th century. “The biggt obstacle is gettg the rmatn about the bars, gettg the teractns, gettg people to say, ‘Yeah, I lived D Mo, Iowa 1968 and there was this bar there, and here’s the rmatn, ’” says Art Smh, the amatr archivist behd, a gay and lbian bar logo xg project.

A YEAR GAY BARS

“We’re talkg about years when people were prtg unrground publitns that may some s [have] only lasted a year or two, and certaly were never snned or archived onle, ” says Smh, who himself ran a gay nightlife publitn Atlanta for a few years the ‘80s. To nduct rearch for his upg book, Hilrbrand has relied on the Universy of Southern California’s ONE Natnal Gay & Lbian Archiv, the largt reposory of LBGTQ+ materials the world, as well as viss to smaller, regnal archivg projects and historil societi across the untry.

When to gay and lbian bar archivg, another more emotnally ght barrier looms: The people who own the materials that would help them pat a fuller picture of Ameri’s LGBTQ+ nightlife landspe of yore aren’t always forthg wh them.

“In archivg our history, one of the biggt challeng is the bar owners, ” says Perez, who addn to his tourg and archival work, has thored a half-dozen books about New Orleans, cludg a history about the cy’s — some say the untry’s — olst gay bar, Cafe Lafte Exile.