The History of How Gay Bars Beme the Battleground for LGBTQ+ Rights

Contents:

• THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
• HOW GAY BARS HAVE BEEN A BUILDG BLOCK OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNY
• RAISG THE BAR: A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY BARS
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
• HISTORY OF GAY BARS

THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS

” Unfortunately, police reports and mastream media verage of a gay bar 1880 proved to be extremely unreliable and hyperbolic, fueled mostly by pearl-clutchg and fear-mongerg rather than actual rmatn. “But that night, for the first time, the ual acquicence turned to vlent that night the liv of lns of gay men and lbians, and the attu toward them of the larger culture which they lived, began to change rapidly. 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. 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).

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

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. 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. 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.

RAISG THE BAR: A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY BARS

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. 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.

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. 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.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

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. 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.

HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI

After pourg their drks, a bartenr Juli's Bar ref to serve John Timms, Dick Lesch, Craig Rodwell, and Randy Wicker, members of the Mattache Society, an early Amerin gay rights group, who were prottg New York liquor laws that prevented servg gay ctomers, New York, New York, April 21, 1966. " Wrer Daniel Harris noted that "assiatn … has profound ramifitns for the untry’s cultural life, which will be prived of a major source of artistic and tellectual energy as homosexuals are fally tegrated.

That sense of openns, pri, and eedom, and the welg nature of plac that allow everyone, pecially the gay muny, to exprs themselv, was one of the reasons police believe that Pulse was targeted earlier this week.

But I’m not here to weigh the pros and ns of gay bars — we n all do that on Twter (and we do) — I jt want to talk briefly about the history of gay bars, talk a teeny b about some of the first on to exist, and some of the olst on that we still have today.

HISTORY OF GAY BARS

So, to separate molly ho om gay bars — and I’m not gog to claim this is the official fn, ’s jt what I’m workg wh here — I’m gog to fe gay bars as legimate, legal bs foced entirely (or almost entirely) on the sale of alhol to queer ctomers. Meanwhile, Berl had also bee a hotspot of gay and lbian nightlife by 1900, thanks largely to the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee‘s prence there, though a lot of the specific rerds about the spots were lost thanks to the Nazis.