A Look Back At Dallas' Gay Bars Of The '70s. | Central Track

Contents:

• OLST GAY GROUP DALLAS TURNS 50
• DALLAS' OAK LAWN 'GAYBORHOOD' BE FIRST TEXAS TO GET STATE HISTORIL MARKER
• WHERE DID FORT WORTH GAY BARS GO?
• NORTH TEXAS GAY BARS HAVE PROVID MUNY FOR MANY. HERE ARE THEIR STORI
• THE 10 BT GAY BARS DALLAS-FORT WORTH
• THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI
• BT GAY CLUBS DALLAS

OLST GAY GROUP DALLAS TURNS 50

In the past few months, the Uned Stat has celebrated a few important ton the history of civil rights for gay Amerins: the signatn of the Stonewall Inn New York Cy as a Natnal Monument to Gay Rights and the first anniversary of the historic Supreme Court cisn to legalize same-sex marriage all 50 stat. Before the days of polil activism, beg gay was somethg one often kept to onelf or shared only wh a close circle of iends. There had, however, been gay bars Dallas, datg back to at least the early 1950s (one of the first was Le Bof Sur Le To, later renamed Villa Fontana).

The police raids and nstant harassment ntued through the latter half of the 1970s, when an anized and unified gay muny beme polilly active and took their plats to the urts. In the early days, they were the only plac where gay men and women uld socialize openly wh one another a “safe” environment where they were ee to be themselv. That was a quote om a Dallas Gay Polil Cc spokman a 1979 Dallas Morng News article on the emergence of Oak Lawn as the center of Dallas’ gay muny.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the safe meetg plac at a time when men and women were beg arrted and were losg their jobs simply bee they were gay. * * * * *I wre regularly about Dallas history, and has been difficult to fd posive media acunts of Dallas’ gay muny before the 1970s.

DALLAS' OAK LAWN 'GAYBORHOOD' BE FIRST TEXAS TO GET STATE HISTORIL MARKER

The article, “Big Dallas” by Jerry Daniels, appeared the May/June 1975 issue of Ciao!, a New York-based gay travel magaze. Article, not, this part of town was not one of the nict: “On Live Oak and Skil Streets there is a small clter of gay tablishments which are popular.

It was one of the longt ntuoly-operated gay bars Dallas, and is equently ced by olr members of the muny as beg one of the very few plac the ’50s and ’60s where they were able to socialize openly wh other gay men and women.

WHERE DID FORT WORTH GAY BARS GO?

Opened 1974 an imprsive 60-year-old hoe, Mache Gun Kelly’s was a popular (but short-lived) dis-bar-rtrant that attracted “all typ — straights and gays (girls too), hippi, and bsmen. This unlikely-lookg se for a gay untry-wtern bar lled The Swger, which drew “an tertg crowd of ‘semi-butch’ wboys, ” looks like a shack out the untry. Article not that there wasn’t too much gay activy the Downtown area and warns that there “have been some beatgs of some gays” at some of s tablishments.

NORTH TEXAS GAY BARS HAVE PROVID MUNY FOR MANY. HERE ARE THEIR STORI

Opened 1958 as a sophistited downtown bar that offered a state-of-the-art stereophonic sound system, Gene’s at some pot transned to a gay bar at night while remag a “straight” bar durg the day. Hoed an old warehoe at Pearl and Cedar Sprgs near Downtown, Bayou Landg was one of the most popular gay clubs of the 1970s. A quick browse of the ter dit that the fondly-remembered Landg was, for many LGBTQ youth, the first gay club they ever vised.

Whether you’re lookg for a laid-back jazz bar wh craft cktails or a clubby spot wh mic perfect for dancg, Dallas-Fort Worth’s gay bar scene has a spot that will su your needs. But when the name was created 50 years ago, there was a reason for the subterfuge: It was done to throw off the Texas secretary of state who, way back 1973, probably wouldn’t have approved the rporatn of a gay anizatn. And the longtime chorale director Tim Seelig always said the Meyerson was willg to rent the hall to the Turtle Creek Chorale, but they would never have allowed the Dallas Gay Men’s Chos to perform there.

Acrdg to Bob Stutz, who’s been a member of OLITA for 43 years, when OLITA first formed, Dallas police were still routely harassg patrons of gay bars and nng the license plate numbers of the rs parked outsi those bars.

THE 10 BT GAY BARS DALLAS-FORT WORTH

Gordon Markley, current OLITA print, explaed, “A group of gay men cid that once a month they would gather private hom, creatg a safer space for targeted folks to socialize. Bee 1973 when OLITA was formed, the gay muny had begun movg to Oak Lawn, renovatg what had bee a ndown area of the cy, even though would be five years before the first gay bar moved to Cedar Sprgs Road. The group also distguished self a different way: While the gay men’s bars at the time tried to keep women out, OLITA has always weled women to s ranks.

For about a , Stutz said, a group of OLITA members spent Thanksgivg together Puerto Vallarta, which by the early 1980s was already beg a popular gay statn. "I first learned of the former Club Reno — "the first gay bar all of Texas, " acrdg to Karen Wisely's Universy of North Texas master of arts this — om the bronzed narrative that will appear on a historil marker set to be planted 7 p. It will make Dallas the first cy the state wh an official Texas Historil Commissn subject marker acknowledgg a longstandg gay and lbian muny.

" For a relatively new cy, Dallas has a lot of ancient history memorated 1991, when this photo was taken, the crossroads of Dallas' gayborhood was the tersectn of Cedar Sprgs Road and Throckmorton, where Crossroads Market and Unn Jack were loted. We know as the gayborhood, or what's left of — the Rource Center, JR's, Sue Ellen's, Statn 4 and the Round-Up Saloon.

THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI

The tersectn had been known as The Crossroads sce the late 1960s, but s legacy was forever cemented 1980 wh the openg of the namake market there that beme the muny's bookstore and meetg puttg the marker there, Emery said, "we hope n still some pri young people — all people, gay and non-gay, to know the cy which they live has bravely been forward standg up for s.

BT GAY CLUBS DALLAS

The young generatn hand all of the rights, we hope they will stop and enjoy reflectg on the brave people who chose to intify as early as the 1950s, " when gay men were picted this very newspaper as "sex perverts" out "rptg the morals of dozens of Dallas teenagers. "To get the marker, Chilrs wrote about how  the 1930s, gay men would meet the shadow of the Magnolia Petrolm Buildg at Commerce and Akard streets — "Maggie's Corner, " as was known.

Ervay St., on Wood Street jt across om what is now the central years, downtown was filled wh wk-and-nod clubs bee was illegal to be gay Dallas. "Over time, the gay muny found a home out the open along Cedar Sprgs — amid the "bohemian atmosphere and picturque archecture, " scribed on the historic Police Chief U.