Gay street @ Reguliersdwarsstraat Amsterdam <

Contents:

• THE 'STRAIGHTIFITN' OF AMSTERDAM'S GAY STREET
• GAY VENUES
• GAY STREET
• AMSTERDAM GAY DISTRICT: REGULIERSDWARSSTRAAT
• &PY; PATROC GAY AMSTERDAM GUI – REGULIERSDWARSSTRAAT & AMSTEL

THE 'STRAIGHTIFITN' OF AMSTERDAM'S GAY STREET

Reguliersdwarsstraat has been Amsterdam's most famo gay nightlife street sce 1980, wh a seri of trendy gay venu:.

GAY VENUES

The first gay fé Reguliersdwarsstraat was Mac Donald, which opened 1963 but still had bld wdows and a doorman at the door. This changed 1970, when Lunchroom Downtown was opened as the first open gay place of Amsterdam.

As of 1980 Reguliersdwarsstraat beme the most famo and trendy gay street of Amsterdam, first wh gay fé April and the 1990s wh gay dancg Havana. As you might have heard, Amsterdam is globally known as one of the gay pals this world. In turn, the gay culture Amsterdam is vibrant–reflected the muny and Reguliersdwarsstraat, monly known as Gay Street, is home to around eleven hotels, rtrants, bars, and f, monly referred to as Hore bs Dutch, which explicly ter to gay ctomers.

GAY STREET

As someone who go to this street to go clubbg, I have noticed that more and more straight people pick theGay Street as their night-out statn. The owner did not want to be labelled as a gay club, but rather as a club that attracts “trendy youngsters, regardls of their sexual orientatn”.

At the end, some days are dited as a gay night, which is on Saturdays, and Thursdays are for straight stunts. In this article, I aim to explore the perspectiv and opns of people on the ‘(non-)straightifitn’ of the Reguliersdwarsstraat and what do this means for the future of the street otherwise known as the Gay Street. For me personally, I prefer gog out the Gay Street bee the mic sus my taste better than Amsterdam’s variety of techno clubs, and more importantly, I feel safer.

I asked a uple of my straight female iends who equent the Gay Street as their night-out statn for their reasons. The purpose of the spac is to give gay people a place where they feel the eedom to be themselv, away om a society where they will always be the ‘sexual diversy’, but not the normal.

AMSTERDAM GAY DISTRICT: REGULIERSDWARSSTRAAT

One iend quoted the book Life isn't Bary: “LGBTQ+ people often bee ed to havg to e out repeatedly, to beg asked tsive qutns about their bodi and sex liv, and beg treated as an object for people (the weird one the office, or the gay bt iend, for example). People om abroad vis this street to specifilly see what the ‘gay life’ is like Amsterdam. She shar a b of her own experience, as a queer dividual who worked a bar at the Regulierdwardstraat, of wnsg a lot of homophobia om tourists, some of them for example makg fun of drag queens.

&PY; PATROC GAY AMSTERDAM GUI – REGULIERSDWARSSTRAAT & AMSTEL

A moment that stuck wh her is the 2019 Gay Pri, where there was an exclively queer ambience. Instead of providg a safe space for those who the spac are ially aimed for, they've opened up to everyone; to maximize prof at the st of the enjoyment of, this se, the gay muny and the tegry of what the tablishments were supposed to be, to beg wh”. In other words, the bs owners the Reguliersdwarsstraat should also be partially rponsible for prervg this street as a safe space for the gay muny.

After all the nversatns, I further reflected on my own prence and behavr or reactn–for stance, if a woman flirts wh me– the Gay Street. The are the qutns I need to keep on myself as reflectn and of urse, qutns to be asked to the gay muny of their perspectiv while keepg my that the gay muny is not a homogeno muny and nnot homogenoly ci on what is a ‘safe space’ and clivy. Even if there were, the end, the clubs and bars the Gay Street are bs, not llective plac.