Hundreds Remisce About Historil Detro Gay Bar Scene

Contents:

• FORMER SE OF DETRO'S LONGT-NNG GAY HEALTH SPA, TNT HEALTH CLUB, FORECLOSURE
• JAGUARS ACH MAXEN OUT AS GAY HISTORIC ANNOUNCEMENT
• WH THE WOODWARD’S FUTURE UNCERTA, TAKG STOCK OF DETRO'S DISAPPEARG GAY BARS
• HUNDREDS REMISCE ABOUT HISTORIL DETRO GAY BAR SCENE
• MENJO'SDETROMENUHOTELSBARSDANCE CLUBSGAY WEDDGSGAY MAPMENJO'S
• DETRO GAY BARS
• BT GAY BARS IN METRO DETRO
• BT GAY BARS IN METRO DETRO
•  MICHIGAN LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS
• HUNDREDS REMISCE ABOUT HISTORIL DETRO GAY BAR SCENE

FORMER SE OF DETRO'S LONGT-NNG GAY HEALTH SPA, TNT HEALTH CLUB, FORECLOSURE

From downtown Detro to Royal Oak, Gay-Friendly nightlife reigns supreme.

Gay-Friendly Bars & Clubs Metro Detro. As one of the olst gay spac Detro, this spot is te to s gay roots but is always open to anyone who wants to jo the fun. Loted the former gay mec of Detro, Palmer Park, the plex clus the Menjo’s Bar, the Eagle Leather Bar, and the Olymp Theater.

It’s fely the place for a night of gay-oriented entertament — the bt kd!

JAGUARS ACH MAXEN OUT AS GAY HISTORIC ANNOUNCEMENT

Gigi's Gay Bar. One of the bt gay and drag bars the cy, Gigi’s is optimal for drks and a show.

Ferndale has been the center of gay life Detro sce the 2000s and Soho is the classy yet sual spot for gay men, women and everyone between right the heart of the downtown area off Wt Ne Mile Road. Whether you’re gay, straight, bi, trans, or queer, the are great tablishments to make a night of and teract wh a diverse muny. The former se of TNT Health Club, one of Detro's first gay health clubs, is foreclosure and headg to former health club at 13333 W.

09, and the ctn on the property will be takg place this View Detro properti at risk of tax foreclosure this year's Wayne County ctnMore: Here are 10 plac to pick strawberriTNT Health Club shut down summer 2018 and was open longer than another gay bathhoe  the cy.

WH THE WOODWARD’S FUTURE UNCERTA, TAKG STOCK OF DETRO'S DISAPPEARG GAY BARS

Some of the ameni offered at TNT while was still bs were that of a heated swimmg pool, a whirlpool, a steam room, Fnish sna, weight room, and movie bathho were created out of a need for exclively gay spac, pecially somewhere hidn om outsi scty and bigotry. The history of the LGBT muny metro Detro spans the cy’s past, but took new shape right after World War II when gay clubs began openg mostly downtown.

This gay-owned Spanish tapas rtrant featur a lp of tradnal tapas, which are meant to be eaten small portns while sippg on the spot’s hoe-ma sangria or a craft cktail. This relative newer to the cy’s nightlife scene isn’t explicly a gay bar, but ’s fely LGBTQ-clive, om s management to the event programmg on hand. Michael Sam beme the first openly gay player to be drafted when the then-St.

Every day of the weekTemple Bar Midtown, sce 1927As one of the olst ntually operatg gay bars near Ltle Caars Arena, you never know who might show up at Temple Bar — n pull que a cross sectn, pecially on summer nights. When The Woodward, Detro's olst-nng gay bar, burned a massive fire last week, spurred a nversatn about the history of the bar self, but also where was suated Detro gay history more broadly — and how to remember and celebrate s signifince the gay muny while lookg toward the future.

HUNDREDS REMISCE ABOUT HISTORIL DETRO GAY BAR SCENE

The fire happened the middle of Pri Month, and not jt any Pri Month Detro: This year marks 50 years sce the cy's first Pri march, held June 24, 1972 to mand "full civil rights for gay people" and a repeal of all anti-gay laws, the Free Prs reported back then.

The march, officially lled Christopher Street '72, was self a remembrance of the uprisg at the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street New York Cy on June 28, 1969, when protts broke out rponse to a police raid at a gay bar. In s 70-odd years, The Woodward has been part of many tersectg stori of gay life and culture Detro, cludg policg of gay spac, ownership shifts, racial segregatn and populatn trends the cy. The owners said they never set out to open up a gay bar.

MENJO'SDETROMENUHOTELSBARSDANCE CLUBSGAY WEDDGSGAY MAPMENJO'S

"We jt opened up and whichever way went, went, " Andy Karagas told "Gayzette" 1973 (as reported Andy's obuary 1997). "And when went gay all the way, we kicked out all the straights that night.

He later me out as the time, owners of gay bars Detro were mostly not gay themselv. Gay sex was a crime Michigan — as had been sce the 1800s — and police equently harassed and arrted gay people and raid gay bars. "It was technilly illegal to operate a bar that was a renzvo for homosexuals, " said Tim Retzloff, adjunct assistant profsor of history and LGBTQ studi at Michigan State Universy.

DETRO GAY BARS

Bars at the time, gay and otherwise, sometim paid off police to be left alone. The Woodward provid a safe haven for whe gay men.

Like many gay bars of s era, did not embrace people of lor. In that way, The Woodward was not unlike most other early gay bars Detro.

Startg after World War II and to the 1960s, several gay bars were cltered around Farmer and Bat streets downtown Detro, cludg Club 1011, La Rosa's and The Silver Dollar.

BT GAY BARS IN METRO DETRO

Very few gay bars at the time tered to Black patrons, although there were two Paradise Valley that Retzloff has intified his rearch: The 705 and the Ra-bo Mic Club.

BT GAY BARS IN METRO DETRO

Their place was known as "The Gay Spot. More gay hangouts began to crop up beyond downtown the '50s and '60s.

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

Gay ownership of gay bars beme more mon this era.

Menjo's, which still exists, was gay-owned when Mike Crawford, Henry Trent and Joe LaRosa, Jr. Gigi's, on Wt Warren near the Southfield Freeway, will take on the mantle of the olst operatg gay bar Detro if The Woodward do not survive.

HUNDREDS REMISCE ABOUT HISTORIL DETRO GAY BAR SCENE

It dat s foundg to 1973, when the former supper club was purchased by Tony Garne — a gay man and one of the founrs of Bars and Towels, Inc., an early associatn for owners of gay bars and bs. Other notable Detro gay bars of the 1970s clu The Famo Door, on Griswold near Grand River Capol Park, which had been a straight bar until was purchased 1972 by Ernt Backos, the owner of the old Club 1011, which by then had been sold and molished for parkg. The Famo Door beme a Black gay nightclub "famo" for s mic and dancg.