Raisg the Bar: A Brief History of Gay Bars – World Queerstory

Contents:

• HOW GAY BARS HAVE BEEN A BUILDG BLOCK OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNY
• GAY BAR
• RAISG THE BAR: A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY BARS
• DEFINITIONS FOR GAY BARGAY BAR
• ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER
• GAY
• GAY BAR
• MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH
• GAY BAR MEANG, GAY BAR FN | ENGLISH COBUILD DICTNARY

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

As our age note on the term stat, “up until 1973, homosexualy was listed The Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs (DSM), psychiatry’s standard reference on the classifitn of mental illns. And many feel that this word plac undue emphasis on sexual activy, or that sounds overly clil.” In fact, the term homosexual was liberately rejected by early gay rights activists bee, acrdg to The New York Tim, “they did not want to be intified as exclively sexual begs.”.

Gay, on the other hand, n be ed to scribe a person of any genr who experienc same-sex attractn, although is most often ed to scribe a man who is attracted to men. On June 28, 1969, the New York Cy police raid the Stonewall Inn, a bar equented by gay and genr-nonnformg people (at a time when terms like LGBTQ didn’t yet exist). Partially rponse to Stonewall, 1970, queer activists New York Cy anized a march to Central Park wh the theme “Gay Pri.” A more prehensive history of the Stonewall Rt or the Stonewall Uprisg n be found our Pri Month explaer.

GAY BAR

Queer lerally means “strange or odd om a nventnal viewpot,” and by at least by the late 1800s, queer was ployed as a rogatory term for an effemate or gay man. Insi The Monster, a gay bar around the rner om Stonewall, where the event played out on vio screens, was difficult to hear for a different reason.

But the muny and mararie ma the bar’s buzz of activy special, and (thankfully) ordary: Space to socialize and celebrate at a gay bar 2016 isn’t hard to fd.

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.

RAISG THE BAR: A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY BARS

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). The worldwi ralli honorg the Orlando victims, often at plac siar to where their liv were cut short, unrsr the importance of gay nightlife over the last half century. 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.

DEFINITIONS FOR GAY BARGAY BAR

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.

ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER

But wasn’t until the seismic shift of World War II changed gay culture the Uned Stat that the bars and nightlife of today began to tly take shape. While on s own the war didn't create any lastg legal chang the shameful way the untry treated homosexuals, did set motn other lastg social shifts.

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. The release of the Ksey Reports (1948’s Sexual Behavr the Human Male and 1953’s Sexual Behavr the Human Female) rerced the then-new notn that beg gay was perfectly normal.

GAY

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.

GAY BAR

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. At the same time, he ntued, popular culture was "pollutg homosexualy" by labelg gays cultural subversiv, child molters, predators, and disease sprears. 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.

MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH

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.

Margalized much like their clientele, gay bars were often forced to set root unrveloped, or dtrial sectns of town, or well off the beaten path ral areas.

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.

GAY BAR MEANG, GAY BAR FN | ENGLISH COBUILD DICTNARY

In Eric Marc’s book, Makg History, Shirley Willer, a gay civil rights activist, rells a night she spent tryg to fd a bar lled Seven Seas on Chigo’s Rh Street. 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.

Outsi of the work of early gay civil rights activists, LGBTQ culture was margalized and often ignored, and rarely enterg the polil bate outsi of lls for a crackdown. In 1959, San Francis Mayoral ndidate Rsell Woln, a Democrat, attacked cumbent Gee Christopher, claimg he ma "homosexuals" feel so wele they moved their natnal anizatn to town. 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.

One of the first attempts at an evenhand, nondiscrimatory look at gay life was a 1964 Life magaze photo shoot featurg two San Francis gay bars, the Tool Box and Jumpg Frog. By the end of the , that anonymy would be replaced wh mands for rights and regnn, as the gay rights movement began to achieve velocy, pecially the wake of larger lls for civil rights.