As rtrictns thaw, Long Beach’s gay bars are g back after a dark year

THE 20 BT GAY BARS LONG BEACH

Sce the 1950s, gay bars like The Patch and Oceania (which reopened 1972 as the now-closed Club Rippl) offered safety and muny durg a time when anti-LGBTQ police raids were still mon.

The current mayor, Robert Garcia, is an out and proud gay man and also the first Lato to hold office Long heart of Long Beach’s gayborhood is along Broadway, stretchg om Cherry to Alamos Avenu, but we enurage you to spread your wgs and venture to the cy’s other neighborhoods such as Downtown, Belmont Shore, and Retro Row, which is home to Long Beach’s LGBTQ Communy Center. The cy’s ditn to diversy is evint at Harvey Milk Promena Park and Equaly Plaza, the first park the untry to be named after the gay civil rights lear.

2(55)•The Silver Fox is a popular gay nightclub that featur karaoke and a variety of mic vios. Its basilly a gay dive bar. 2(131)•Gay night clubDance clubKaraoke barExecutive Sue is the biggt LGBTQ nightclub Long Beach and has a chic lounge area, karaoke, pool and weekly drag shows.

3(226)•cheapBarGay night clubNight clubThe Br is a relaxed pennt LGBTQ bar wh a shad and heated pat, pool table, darts and theme nights.

Insi there are vio screens playg mic and a pool 1 of 5A bar the (I affectnately ll) "Gayborhood" that happily re-open after the panmic.

4(183)•Cocktails & draft beer are served at this popular gay bar wh karaoke nights & outdoor 1 of 3Fantastic bar wh diverse patrons.

GAY-FRIENDLY RTRANTS LONG BEACH

4(196)•Long-nng, gay-iendly bar offerg pool tabl & hostg karaoke nights on Fridays & Saturdays. 4(59)•Gay barNightlifeBars & ClubsHappeng gay hangout offerg a pool table, TVs & daily drk specials, pl an outdoor 1 of 3I e to this place on Wednday nights for Karaoke. You don't have to be gay to enjoy this a good Vibe,, till end of the night..

5(71)•Mentned on Bar & grillBarGay barRtrantSli 1 of 3Awome thank you! 9(50)•affordableGay barBarNight clubLate-night, high-energy gay bar wh a pat featurg cktails, live entertament & DJ 1 of 3Rippl was a bar I equented all the time.

THE BEST LONG BEACH GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS LONG BEACH

Rippl was one of my first gay bar experienc. A brisk Monday eveng at the Mhaft, a 43-year-old gay bar suated on the Broadway Corridor, the slow bs hours of the tablishment belie the boistero jubilatn si—if only celebrated by five men lgh and nverse as they sip beer and vodka cranberry cktails. Though the COVID-19 panmic put immense stra on muni across the board, for the Long Beach gay muny, 2020 was pecially isolatg.

“I feel like we’ve lost a lot of nnectn, and this year has ma worse, ” said 46-year-old Ryan Schroer, who liv near the rtrictns on public gathergs pecially strgent on enclosed spac like bars, many of the cy’s gay bars were closed through the bulk of 2020 and to this year.

Many owners feared for the survival of their bs, not jt for their own livelihoods, but for the sake of the gay muny, which has historilly found sanctuary and muny si their tablishments. Though was already a blow for the gay muny to fo last year’s celebratn, this year is jt as moralizg. “It’s fely put a stra on me jt beg a gay person and not beg able to partake, ” Romero said.

10 GREAT GAY BARS ORANGE COUNTY (AND LONG BEACH)

Though Flor said he equents other bars the cy, gay bars like the Mhaft feel like home. “There are certa tim when I jt want to be around gay people, ” he said.

“Whenever I walk to a gay bar, yeah, I want to have a good time and be silly, but when I walk to the doors, I’m walkg on the shoulrs of people who have paved the way for all of to feel ee to e to a [gay] bar. ”Long Beach has a long history wh gay bars datg back to the 1970s, said Carlos Torr, the new executive director of the LGBTQ Center Long Beach on Retro Row. Rippl, one of the first and longt-nng gay bars the cy opened 1972 and after 47 years closed s doors 2019.

LONG BEACH GAY CLUB CLOSG AFTER 47 YEARS

“Police would equently raid known gay tablishments bee for the longt time homosexualy was nsired a mental illns, Europe and the U. ”Though historilly Long Beach has been progrsive and open-md of s queer rints, durg the `70s and `80s the Long Beach Police Department was notor for entrappg members of the LGBTQ muny, particularly gay men bars and at “cise spots” where they equently met for sexual the gural Long Beach Pri Para 1984 was a hard-fought w for the gay muny and lasted only 30 mut spe drawg followg year, Judi Doyle, the Long Beach Lbian and Gay Pri Para print, said she was threatened wh vlence the weeks leadg up to the 1985 march, as reported by Los Angel LGBTQ newspaper, The Beach has certaly ma stris sce and is ld for s clivy and celebratn of the queer muni.

But this don’t tract om the relevance and necsy for spac like the Mhaft, The Faln, The Br, the Silver Fox and other gay bars the cy. “Consirg all the legislatn that is before state ho right now regardg accs to sports by transgenr dividuals, I thk spac like gay bars ntue to be ground zero for that muny to be able to employ that sense of belongg, ” Torr also poted to the recent stctn of the rabow-pated lifeguard tower near 12th Place as an example of why safe spac are still need for the LGBTQ muny.

As rtrictns thaw, Long Beach’s gay bars are g back after a dark year • Long Beach Bs Journal

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THE 20 BT GAY BARS LONG BEACH