In his new memoir, “Gay Bar,” Jeremy Atherton L documents his personal history and the history of queer inty by explorg gay bars around the world.
Contents:
- BEER IS SO GAY
- THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI
- A MEMOIR ABOUT QUEER INTY, TOLD ONE GAY BAR AT A TIME
- THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
- IN ‘GAY BAR,’ TIME-HOPPG SNAPSHOTS OF QUEER NIGHTLIFE
BEER IS SO GAY
A new group of beer pani and breweri like Gay Beer and Queer Brewg are supportg LGBTQ+ muni while rvg out space the beer world for queerns * is present company a gay bar *
Ask what mak a gay bar gay and the answers will vary. What you’ll rarely hear, though, is that a gay bar is a gay bar bee of the drks.
THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI
* is present company a gay bar *
Gay Beer, Dyke Beer, and Queer Brewg are among the emergg group of beer producers that are centerg queer inty and queer muny, whether by highlightg queer brewers, donatg some profs to queer chari, or creatg queer third spac — munal spac distct om home and work — at a time when they’re disappearg. Instead, buyers will state clearly that they want a Gay Beer.
Gay Beer was created by Jon Moore and Jason Pazmo, bs partners and boyiends, 2017. The pair were spired while drkg at Juli’, a historic gay bar New York Cy that was the se of early “sip-” protts, where gay men would drk at bars that refed to serve homosexuals. Together, they were tryg to figure out why there wasn’t already a beer posned more for queer people, which led Moore and Pazmo to realize that gay beer was a project they uld take on themselv themselv.
A MEMOIR ABOUT QUEER INTY, TOLD ONE GAY BAR AT A TIME
But of urse, had to be gay. Consumptn of Gay Beer, they cid, would be herently tied to supportg the queer muny. They began llg Gay Beer while velopg the product and jt stuck.
Growg up, they’d both heard “gay” ed as an sult or to scribe somethg pejoratively, so llg their beer Gay Beer was also a reclamatn. Moore and Pazmo note that “gay” also means “happy, ” a nnotatn hasn’t really held s, but still gets ed as a cheeky way to eli the haters. (Big Gay Ice Cream has ed the same tactic.
THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
“A lot of bars are not wantg to say they’re lbian bars, they’re wantg to say they’re queer bars — but a lot of gay male bars keep sayg they’re gay male bars, ” she says. From a sign standpot, Gay Beer, Dyke Beer, and Queer Brewg all wanted to reference the cultur they grew om.
For Moore and Pazmo, that meant an “Amerina whout the Amerin flag” sign, somethg that reflected the athetics of Juli’ Bar, and the gay men of the ’60s who participated the “sip ” protts. Gay Beer, Dyke Beer, and Queer Brewg are n by queer people and support queer people year-round.
Buyg Gay Beer at the grocery store signals to everyone who se you that you’re the kd of person who buys Gay Beer. Gay Beer may be explicly queer, but “gay” still feel more fortable on the tongue to a non-queer person than “dyke” or “queer.
IN ‘GAY BAR,’ TIME-HOPPG SNAPSHOTS OF QUEER NIGHTLIFE
Meanwhile, Gay Beer will soon be available 32 stat through e-merce. A brand like Gay Beer gets to be the Trojan horse of the queer beer agenda. Wae says, “Many were pleased to see the lnch of somethg actively tryg to make change wh a stagnant and homogeno dtry, and queer and trans folk were pleased to see somethg that reprented them a way that hadn’t been done before.