'Gay Bar' Tracks The Wave Of A Whole Culture — And One Life : NPR

Contents:

• THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
• HOW 'THE EAGLE' BEME ONE OF THE MOST REGNIZED GAY BAR NAM
• 'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE
• FOR THE LOVE OF GAY BARS
• WHY GAY BARS ARE VAL FOR LGBT COMMUNI
• A MEMOIR ABOUT QUEER INTY, TOLD ONE GAY BAR AT A TIME
• HOW ‘GAY’ SHOULD A GAY BAR BE?
• 'LIVG JOYOLY IS A RADIL ACT': WHY AMERI'S GAY BARS STILL MATTER
• IS IT LAST CALL FOR THE GAY BAR?
• GAY BAR
• THE NUMBER OF GAY BARS HAS DWDLED. A NEW GENERATN PLANS TO BRG THEM BACK.
• WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A ‘GAY BAR’ BE JT A BAR?
• GAY BARS AND GAY RIGHTS

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. “ orr to tablish 'good e' for spensn of platiff's license, somethg more mt be shown than that many of his patrons were homosexuals and that they ed his rtrant and bar as a meetg place. Jt as did California, this state law was short lived, wh urts eventually led that gays uld ‘peacefully’ assemble at bars, which paved the way for the inic Stonewall Inn to open 1967.

“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. This month pecially, ’s important to remember the signifince of the gay bar as an Amerin in, as somethg fiant and revolutnary— the most grassroots sense of the word. Whether you are a member of the LGBTQ+ muny, work at a gay bar, are an ally the dtry, or if you plan on celebratg this June, jt remember the bars and people who helped make all possible.

HOW 'THE EAGLE' BEME ONE OF THE MOST REGNIZED GAY BAR NAM

The popular gay leather bar boasted a diverse group of patrons: men of all ag, a uple of women, people of lor, body typ that spanned the gamut, guys leather harns and some men simply wearg jeans and a The Eagle NYC is not a anchise, is one of dozens of gay bars across the U. It’s part of a tradn that go back Eagle NYC 2018 ntt petorsSkywrg MediaThe History of ‘The Eagle’In 1970, the first gay Eagle bar was started after an old longshoreman’s pub New York Cy, Eagle Open Kchen, closed down. The spot quickly beme a popular spot for tradnally mascule-prentg gay men and hosted meetgs for biker groups and sports the homophobia that was not unmon the ‘70s, gay men found a rpe and place of fort at The Eagle’s Nt — was a safe space before the term “safe space” was the vernacular.

“At the time, I didn’t unrstand that there were men like me that had very mascule tras but were gay, ” Whaker, 10 years later, Whaker is out, proud and fully immersed the “Eagle muny. “Back the ‘70s and ‘80s, you uld jt open a gay bar wh black walls and hang a sign out the door, and would be packed, bee was a place gay people uld go and feel fortable, ” Chuck Kg, who bought and reopened the 10, 000-square-foot Baltimore Eagle Febary, told NBC News.

Atherton L's book starts off a crowd room a gay bar where he's gone cisg wh his partner, whom he refers to throughout the book wh the Leonard Cohen-spired nickname Famo Blue Raat. He wr betifully about his llege days Los Angel, where he went to his first one, though he n't rell the name, wryly notg, "Of urse I n't remember my first gay bar — I was dnk.

'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE

" That history clus the famo 1969 uprisg at the Stonewall Inn New York, but Atherton L also div to other, lser-known bars, cludg on that endured police raids meant to put gay people their place. " Atherton L explor topics like archecture and urban geography, as they relate to gay bars, betifully; he wr wh a real knowledge that's more than jt tellectual dilettantism. About the changg looks of bars before the turn of the century, he observ, "A new type of gay bar began to appear London's Soho the neti — airy, glossy, ntental.

FOR THE LOVE OF GAY BARS

" Along the way, Atherton L dips to other topics related to the gay muny: the appropriatn of gay culture by straight people, mic, drkg, and the valu of the younger generatn of LGBTQ people. And while succeeds on many levels, perhaps the most remarkable one is Atherton L's nstant qutng of himself, and the realizatns of how he's changed sce he walked to his first gay bar years ago: "Maybe, I thought, I'm a dis ball.

WHY GAY BARS ARE VAL FOR LGBT COMMUNI

The nroticism of beg closeted is like that strs of seeg a p while you’re stoned, but 24/7, and also, you like gay turns out that Gay Bar Smell (a ee logne ia one of the Queer Eye guys should sh on) was an spic troductn for me, and an inic one at that. It’s even referred to the very first le of Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, the recently released book wrten by Jeremy Atherton L that aims to pture the trici, plitns, and fabulons of this culture. A safe space, a therapist’s office, a dance club, a live theater, a place to get super dnk (or pleasantly tipsy), a spot to fd a hookup, an tablishment to drown sorrows, and an oasis to pe realy are jt some of the ways to scribe what queer waterg hol mean to the gay mass.

Though, that absolutely happens too; nothg pairs better wh the third sp of “I Wanna Dance Wh Somebody” than a plastic cup of seltzer that tast like bbg alhol and Bar: Why We Went OutGay Bar: Why We Went OutNow 11% Off“Some people treat them jt as a bar, but to so many others ’s a muny, ” Steven McEne says. Cooley, the owner of the popular Los Angel gay bar the Abbey, tells this story: “One time a kid was put on a plane by his parents at LAX, but stead he snuck off and took a b here, ” he rells. “You get a lot of first-time bar narrativ, pecially om olr gays, ” says Atherton L of the re of passage, as important as your first kiss, or the realizatn that “poppers” isn’t a nickname for buttered rn.

A MEMOIR ABOUT QUEER INTY, TOLD ONE GAY BAR AT A TIME

"Gay Bar: Why We Went Out mak the rear rell stori of their own a vir way, even if they never went to the kds of bars Atherton L wr about— London and San Francis. ”It’s a sad irony that the release of Gay Bar me at a time when many gay bars were eher closed temporarily, danger of closg permanently—like one of New York’s only Black-owned gay bars, Alibi—or done for good, like the Chigo Boystown mastay Ltle Jim’s.

HOW ‘GAY’ SHOULD A GAY BAR BE?

There’s been a lot of theori that wh apps like Grdr and Tr, people don’t need to go to a gay bar to meet other gay people, or other queer people, or other trans people, etc. DnA: The spac are safe spac for the reasons you’ve explaed, but they n also be – at the very same time – unsafe spac, precisely bee the gay muny gathers there, and they n bee a target.

KF: It’s always great when you have straight or cisgenr people at gay bars or queer spac, bee that’s the moment of celebratn, that we all are g together to really acknowledge and experience and really celebrate each other. Where n get tricky – and LGBT people have been gay bars where you have a bachelorette party, or even a bachelor party, or some group that is sort of en masse, g like tourists to poke their head , see what’s gog on, and then leave – we feel kd of like zoo animals. AdvertisementSKIP Jeremy Atherton LWhen you purchase an penntly reviewed book through our se, we earn an affiliate 9, 2021GAY BARWhy We Went OutBy Jeremy Atherton LHistory, as is tght, is a straight le of domo fallg — the relentls clack of fact htg fact, an orrly que of aly stretchg on forever.

History, as is lived, is a reelg spiral of flight and return; the erative reawakeng of new selv faiar plac; a never-endg terrogatn of our own nfed and nfg motiv; a msy slather of dots on a graph where the center n be plotted only Atherton L’s betiful, lyril memoir, “Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, ” cloaks this lived history that learned history, examg an objective subject — gay bars — to create a highly subjective object: a book about his life, flensed down to jt the bs that ma past the chapter foc on one particular gay bar (jumpg om London to Los Angel to San Francis and back), s history and s place the trajectory of Atherton L’s life.

'LIVG JOYOLY IS A RADIL ACT': WHY AMERI'S GAY BARS STILL MATTER

Atherton L himself is renred only relatn to the bars he walks through; you’ll fd yourself hard-prsed at the end to say where he was born or how many siblgs he has (and you won’t re) Atherton L has a five-octave, Mariah Carey-que range for discsg gay sex. Like any good gay bar, this book has a bouncer, and his name is is Atherton L’s first book, but benefs om his extensive experience as an sayist and an edor of Failed Stat, a journal about plac. “Gay Bar” is well crafted (which is pecially pleasg nsirg this is a memoir about stctur), wh a strong thorial hand that mak the rear feel refully shepherd through the text, even as Atherton L jumps s and ntents.

When he discs an important 1966 prott at the historic Greenwich Village gay bar Juli’, he c a New York Tim article to talk about the “tr of activists” volved — not realizg that the article left out a fourth man, Randy Wicker (the only one still alive, cintally enough) a half page later, though, Atherton L warns that spe the activist claim that gay bars “should be kept open to facilate knowledge passg between generatns, ” he himself had never really received gay wisdom “on a barstool.

” This book is not about history, the subject you study, but history, that thg you have wh that guy by the jebox whose name you n’t the fal chapter of “Gay Bar, ” Atherton L grappl wh gog to a new generatn of bars, created by very different forc, meetg very different needs. Communy is at the heart of Bar Mattache, McKechnie's swanky gay cktail bar named honor of one of the earlit gay anizatns, Mattache Foundatn (later renamed the Mattache Society), which was found by Harry Hay Los Angel 1950. Recipe: The Harry HayHonorg Harry's formative years downtown Los Angel's gay bars of the '30s and '40s -- and his noted love of whiskey -- McKechnie's Harry Hay mix 100 proof straight rye whiskey, vermouth, bters, and marascho cherry liqur.

IS IT LAST CALL FOR THE GAY BAR?

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSocial Berl for The New York TimJune 24, 2017The webse for the Abbey touts s role as a two-time wner of Logo’s “Bt Gay Bar the World” award. In this time of creasg acceptance of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr people, gay tablishments across the untry are grapplg wh an flux of new newly diverse crowd at the formerly exclive environments has set off a bate wh the muny about the meang and purpose of such bars today.

Somethg that seems to e up a lot the discsn are the groups of straight women who nsir gay bars as the perfect settg for bachelorette Berl for The New York Tim“They e the space to bee ‘wild girls, ’” said Chris McKenzie, a 35-year-old puter programmer Wt Hollywood.

GAY BAR

Those who do e, regular patrons of gay bars said, tend not to draw much attentn to bate over the evolutn the clientele touch on not only the role and history of gay bars, but also on the stggle to weigh the ncerns of clivy wh the need to reta L. “We e to have fun and relax whout anythg sexual, ” said Cathy Merla, who intified herself as Schlueter for The New York TimThe men terviewed for this article strsed that they wele rpectful straight women to the bars, preferably the pany of gay men, lbians or transgenr people.

”Enomic and soclogil issu are likely factors, wh gay bars urban centers gog out of bs at an accelerated rate bee of risg rents and perhaps also a shift the hookup culture, om bars to apps like Grdr and Berl for The New York TimIn her annual survey, Ms. Kase the olr crowd at gay bars has plaed about the change clientele, younger men, like William Burke, a 23-year-old tech marketer Wt Hollywood, said: “It’s important to have the lotns for gay-straight allianc.

) Berl for The New York Tim“It mak me feel like a monkey a zoo, ” said Myl Silton, an entertament men said that the wir acceptance of sexual fluidy has diluted the character of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr spac. Fifty years after the Stonewall Inn New York beme the symbol for a new wave of gay activism, the three horsemen of the gay bar apolypse – gentrifitn, assiatn and technology – have hollowed out their rents have shuttered gay bars; more straight venu are “acceptg” of gay patrons; and datg is somethg people now do wh their phon.

THE NUMBER OF GAY BARS HAS DWDLED. A NEW GENERATN PLANS TO BRG THEM BACK.

Even the term “gay bar” looks a ltle tired as the LGBTQ muny fally to terms wh s many rabow numbers are hard to e by, but Yelp lculat the number of gay bars listed on s service fell 16% between 2014 and 2018. 'This is where we live our tth': visg Ameri's gay bars – vio The oasis: Wonrlt Jackson, MississippiYou n fd Wonrlt, the only gay bar Jackson, Mississippi, on the northern edge of town, jt past the Piggly Wiggly supermarket and the duellg disunt stor Dollar General and Dollar Tree. Outsi the Round-Up and s surroundg gayborhood, Texas nservativ are still fightg the “good” fight, tryg to pass a “relig eedom” bill that would allow bs to discrimate agast the LGBTQ.

Gay people – and pecially whe gay men – have ma great stris sce Stonewall, but even the gay muny, transphobia and racism are still ’s a bter irony that 50 years after Stonewall, while Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera – two trans women of lour and two of the ma actors the Stonewall rts – are beg celebrated, trans people are still beg “thrown unr the b”, and trans people of lour are “beg killed left and right – and nobody giv a sh”, says Boroski.

I was sadned when I heard some months ago that The Mars Bar, the only dited gay and lbian nightclub Alai, South Atralia, would be closg after 40 years bs. In a 2015 paper, Toby Lea, John W, and Robert Reynolds outled prev rearch regardg reasons for chang socializatn and, drawg on prev work, the “stctural cle” of lbian and gay scen, such as that of Oxford Street Sydney. The rearchers outled theoretil bate as to whether the gay liberatn movement has given way to a post-gay era, where sexual orientatn is not central to inty, there is creased stigmatizatn, and ls isolatn is felt by same-sex attracted persons; all of which translat to different methods of socializatn and relatnship formatn.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A ‘GAY BAR’ BE JT A BAR?

Ined, surveys of gay Atralian men livg Sydney (published 2016) and Melbourne (published 2017) reveal that the proportn of men g apps to meet sexual partners signifintly creased om 2015 to 2016 and 2016 to 2017, rpectively, wh a cle over a five-year perd both ci for meetg at gay bars. However, while many of feel that we equent “safe” or “gay-iendly, ” spac, and actively seek out spac that are simpati wh our terts and preferenc, isn’t the se that all venu are like this or that younger people (and even olr people) would feel fortable and have the agency to fd such venu. However, 60 percent of participants did not nsir the lbian/gay scene an important part of how they spent their leisure time, and 76 percent of participants reported a weak sense of nnectn wh the lbian/gay muny their everyday liv.

The rearchers posed that utn regardg displays of attractn and timacy and ncerns over safety, which were reflected the rults, may dite “homophobia is a pervasive force that has not cled at the same rate as social acceptance has creased.

” They also felt that “the rults pot both to the endurance and the dimishg relevance of Sydney’s lbian and gay scene for different subgroups of same-sex attracted young people.

GAY BARS AND GAY RIGHTS

The new documentary San Diego's Gay Bar History surveys some of the 135 bars that have existed the cy and chronicl the var aspects of the LGBTQ muny that have grown wh them.

The earlit example of a gay bar San Diego me the 1957, when straight ally Lou Arko bought the popular lunch club of the 1930's, the Brass Rail, and extend to a meetg spot for gay people at post-World War II era herald the openg of many more bars, terg to the pennt men and women who had moved to the btlg port cy for ary jobs. Durg this time, when homosexualy was crimalized and was even agast the law for two men to dance together, the bars provid a meetg place for LGBTQ people who were otherwise isolated. The Ball Exprs, a massive club hoed an airplane hangar, drew crowds of a thoand people gathered for acts such as Barbara Cook, Gloria Gaynor, and Eartha Kt.

WCPC also hosted some of San Diego's first Pri events, but they quickly outgrew the AIDS began vastatg the gay muny the '80s, the bars beme the plac for folks to gather, grieve, and raise money for men dyg om the disease. Interviewe cred lbians for steppg up to re for gay men when nurs wouldn't touch or feed their patients and for donatg blood bee gay men weren't allowed to do so.