North Texas gay bars have provid muny for many. Here are their stori

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).

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

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.

WHERE DID FORT WORTH GAY BARS GO?

* * * * *I wre regularly about Dallas history, and has been difficult to fd posive media acunts of Dallas’ gay muny before the 1970s.

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. 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.

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

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.

THE 10 BT GAY BARS DALLAS-FORT WORTH

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.

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.

THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI

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.

BT GAY CLUBS DALLAS

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. 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.