The Past and Future of One of Hoton's Most Historic Gay Bars – Texas Monthly

Contents:

• AT’S OLST GAY BAR SET TO BE MOLISHED
• THE PAST AND FUTURE OF ONE OF HOTON’S MOST HISTORIC GAY BARS
• THE “GAYBORHOODS” OF TEXAS
• AN INPLETE COMPILATN OF THE GAY BARS AT HAS LOVED AND LOST
• WHERE DID FORT WORTH GAY BARS GO?
• AT VELOPER PROMIS AL TO SAVE CY’S OLST GAY BAR
• THE 10 BEST TEXAS GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS TEXAS

AT’S OLST GAY BAR SET TO BE MOLISHED

The project was postponed on May 3, then on Wednday, At’s Historic Landmark Commissn elected not to remend historic zong for the block, cludg s tenant Oiln Harry’s—the cy’s olst gay bar wh 32 years at the se. Though Neon Grotto and The Conut Club will be permanently removed, Hanover said will spl up s ground-floor mercial space to clu both a 4, 500-square-foot, gay-owned eatery and a 1, 500-square-foot gay bar—a new addn sce last month.

Historilly known among lols as the Gayborhood, Montrose ed to be where the weirdos were. The Gulf Coast Archive and Mm of Gay, Lbian, Bisexual and Transgenr History timat that was the se of more than three hundred funeral servic and remas the fal rtg place of an unknown number of people’s 1970 to 2009, this space was part of the legendary Hoton gay bar Mary’s…Naturally!, which fostered such a close muny that some regulars chose to have their funerals there. Mary’s, as wrer Ed Martez put a sprg 1983 issue of Out Texas, was “the mother hoe of all the gay bars Hoton.

” When origal owner Joe Anthony opened Mary’s, was primarily a leather bar where gay bikers would ngregate. But quickly beme known as a place where anyone was wele: gays, lbians, punk micians, wrers, hippi, and bohemians all termgled. “The Gayborhood is marked as much, if not more, by absenc as by the visible markers of s past, ” says curator Junr Fernanz, who anized the event along wh S Rodriguez.

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF ONE OF HOTON’S MOST HISTORIC GAY BARS

“We are terted how the disappearance or ‘revelopment’ of the spac to bnch spots and ffee ho might mirror the overall trajectory of gay liberatn, om s earlier ialism to late-palist intarian pfalls like rabow-packaged Oreos. But one uld argue that Mary’s, too, was a gentrifier—one former patron remds me that gay men the seventi phed Montrose’s heavily Hispanic populatn out of the area to claim a space for themselv.

In one vio piece, for example, Penagos manvers his body to rg a bell agast a brick, which symboliz the mythologized “first brick of the gay rights movement” thrown by gay activists at the 1969 Stonewall uprisg. ”The exhib celebrat the full breadth of Mary’s, which— the way that only a historic gay gatherg place n—served as a hookup spot, a muny anizg hub, and the se of many, many funerals. After Stonewall and the ceptn of the the AIDS crisis, the bar beme a place for gays to meet, anize, and prott.

THE “GAYBORHOODS” OF TEXAS

Acrdg to one archive of Hoton LGBT history, the group that beme the Hoton GLBT Polil Cc, which bills self as the olst gay-rights anizatn the South, began at Mary’s. Don Gill, a “fundraiser supreme” at Mary’s, rells s shift om grty gay hookup spot to the go-to venue where LGBT social anizatns uld munite wh the muny.

AN INPLETE COMPILATN OF THE GAY BARS AT HAS LOVED AND LOST

In a 2002 Hoton Prs article, bartenr and part-owner Gaye Yancey said “wasn’t unmon for three Mary’s ctomers to die each month. And although wispread gay acceptance, cemented by the legalizatn of same-sex marriage 2015, has phed society forward, this exhib is a remr that the need for queer spac like Mary’s is as important as ever—specifilly for brown and black queers and trans dividuals.

Texas’ “gayborhoods” aren’t jt neighborhoods wh rabow-pated crosswalks at their tersectns; they’re historic muni where Texas pri and gay pri tersect ever-fascatg unison.

WHERE DID FORT WORTH GAY BARS GO?

Their one-of-a-kd rtrants, vivac nightclubs, and lovable lols crown the gayborhoods as attractive statns—no matter where you fall on the sexualy spectm. In 1947, one of the first gay bars Texas, Club Reno, opened Dallas, heraldg the cy’s LGBTQ muny as one of the earlit to form the state.

As that group grew to over 3, 000 while marchg through downtown, Dallas beme the se of the first gay pri para all of Texas. The marker ss at “The Gay Crossroads, ” loted at the tersectn of Throckmorton Street and Cedar Sprgs. The sign’s backdrop is JR’s Bar & Grill, an inic gay club that has served Amerin eats sce 1980 wh regular drag queen and celebry appearanc.

Next door is Statn 4, known to lols as S4, a 24, 000-square-foot nightclub and gay utopia sce 1986. Also at “The Gay Crossroads” tersectn is Sue Ellen’s, nsired to be the olst lbian bar the state. The Montrose neighborhood Hoton was found 1911 and had an timated 30 to 40 gay bars by the late ’70s.

AT VELOPER PROMIS AL TO SAVE CY’S OLST GAY BAR

In June of 1977, LGBTQ advote Ray Hill anized a rally prott of sger and anti-gay activist Ana Bryant visg the cy. More than 1, 000 people showed up, which began the gay liberatn movement Montrose and led Hill to help tablish The Montrose Center, an anizatn still operatg today that foc not only on advocy but also on offerg rourc to the muny. Ls than five wt downtown, Montrose featur gayborhood stapl like permanently stalled rabow crosswalks and historic saloons.

THE 10 BEST TEXAS GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS TEXAS

RIPCORD opened 1980 and has the distctn of beg the olst gay leather bar Texas. San Anton’s Ma Avenue is terchangeably referred to as “The Strip” and “The Gay Strip, ” but ’s gay no matter what you ll . Loted jt north of downtown, Tob Hill, this central gayborhood district don’t fall short on rabow flair.