Indianapolis gay bars: 7 spots ma for the LGBTQ+ muny

Contents:

• GAY BARS INDIANAPOLIS: A BRIEF HISTORY
• INDIANAPOLIS GAY BARS: 7 SPAC MA FOR THE LGBTQ+ MUNY
• INDY'S GAY BARS: HEAD FOR EXTCTN?
• MOVG TO LGBT INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!
• GAY CLUBS
• INDIANAPOLIS GAY BARS
• 'MY NEIGHBORHOOD GAY BAR ISN'T GOG TO BE THERE': ZONIE'S CLOSET SET TO CLOSE
• TAG: GAY BAR

GAY BARS INDIANAPOLIS: A BRIEF HISTORY

Not bee he was a gay bar, but bee he was a bar, perd. Sce the 1970s, when Downtown Olly's was a different gay bar lled Brothers, the wall had sealed off two huge picture wdows ont.

INDIANAPOLIS GAY BARS: 7 SPAC MA FOR THE LGBTQ+ MUNY

'"Indianapolis gay bars ed to be the dark, not jt figuratively but lerally -- they didn't ed to have wdows.

INDY'S GAY BARS: HEAD FOR EXTCTN?

"People years ago wouldn't have been fortable wh wdows, " said Steve Warman, 65, who has bartend gay bars Indianapolis sce the 1970s.

"Indianapolis' first Gay Pri event, 1981, nsisted of a semi-private dner at the Essex Hotel.

MOVG TO LGBT INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!

Michael Bohr is the founr and curator of the Chris Gonzalez Library & Archiv, a sort of gay mm whose ventory clus rare, origal pi of Indianapolis' first gay publitn, a mimeographed monthly om 1966 lled "The Screamer.

"He said that 1970, the year he stopped ncealg his homosexualy, Indianapolis had more than a dozen gay bars. "There's a lot of history behd where we are now, " said Coby Palmer, 65, a florist and longtime gay civic lear.

GAY CLUBS

"We'd quick drop our partner and grab a lbian, " said David McCann, 70, who lived Kokomo but equently socialized often such raids led to nights jail, pecially if the gay patrons didn't have I. McCann said that 1964, he was one of some 80 gay men load to 12 paddy wagons and hled to the Marn County Jail. Polilly, gays Indianapolis didn't band together until October 1977, when the rerdg artist/former Miss USA/Florida Cs Commissn spokwoman Ana Bryant led a rally at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

"We rried signs (one said: "Heil Ana Gay-Stop-O") and walked up and down the siwalk the pourg ra -- 800 of , " she said. "Ana Bryant was probably the bt thg that happened to the gay muny.

"At gay bars, orange juice was no longer served bee of Bryant's affiliatn wh the Florida growers. "Monument Circle, the early 1980s, was a popular gatherg spot for gays and lbians, and this ma some people unfortable. Complag about the surveillance fell to Stan Berg, who owned a gay bath hoe the 4100 block of North Keystone Avenue.

INDIANAPOLIS GAY BARS

Berg is nsired Indianapolis' first polil gay man, "the one willg to be the face of the gay muny, " said Berg's prsure, the Indianapolis Police Department hired a liaison to the gay and lbian muny. Hudnut issued a proclamatn clarg was cy policy not to discrimate agast died of AIDS Déjà vu, an old, narrow buildg on ground now occupied by the Indianapolis Zoo, is believed to have been the first Indianapolis gay bar to employ a ejay.

'MY NEIGHBORHOOD GAY BAR ISN'T GOG TO BE THERE': ZONIE'S CLOSET SET TO CLOSE

Before ejays, the background mic me om je box and ocsnally om live performers, such as the piano player named Flo (her last name is lost to history), who the early '60s lighted McCann and others wh Cole Porter tun at a long-gone gay bar at 22nd and Meridian lled Bolland' first ejay, at the Déjà vu, was Jimmy Spldg the mid-1970s. Wh s massive sound system and s mirrors, and wh the advent of dis, of Gloria Gaynor's and Donna Summer's mic (mixed expertly by a ejay who was very small and went by Turtle), the Hunt and Chase soon eclipsed all gay dance clubs. ' "A few years later, the 13, 500-square-foot 21 Club, on Talbott Street, tmped the Hunt and Chase, and durg the 1980s domated the gay bar scene.

It was owned by Pl Eckert, who uld be said to be the an of Indianapolis gay bar operators. 16th St., which has female first gay bar Eckert ever walked to, the 1950s, was the Varsy Lounge, 1517 N.

TAG: GAY BAR

Indianapolis' olst gay bar, the Varsy dat to the 1940s. "Gays and lbians may have uned over Ana Bryant, but the absence of an enemy, they agmented.

Downtown Olly's is now a sports bar, a gay sports bar, a gay sports bar wh picture wdows and afternoon, the reverg alholic wh the Diet Coke, reflected on the new, open era, specifilly on the sunlight pourg . "The only bad thg about , " he said, "is gay men tend to look prettier the dark.