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GLORIA FRANKEL & THE SEAHORSE: THE SOUTH BEND LGBT CLUB’S FIGHT FOR GAY RIGHTS
A study dit that the sea creatur are promiscuo, flighty and more than a ltle b gay none more so than the Atralian seahorse. In 2015, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend announced a South Bend Tribune op-ed that he was gay, makg him Indiana’s first openly gay mayor. In 1974, Gloria Frankel and her gay club, The Seahorse Cabaret, whstood police harassment, challenged regulatns agast LGBT dividuals, and endured a firebombg.
In this post, we explore the fight for gay rights the Michiana area and the trepid woman who lead the charge.
ARE SEA HORSE GAY
Acrdg to Ben Weland’s “Then and Now: The Origs and Development of the Gay Communy South Bend, ” Frankel opened South Bend’s first gay club the early 1970s. The rts immediately forward the gay liberatn movement and the fight for LGBT rights Ameri. LGBT dividuals smaller ci palized on the momentum by openg bars that fostered gay muni and provid them wh a relatively safe space for entertament, dialogue, and activism.
‘Cse was a gay bar'” (Weland, 74). In 2005, Frankel relled “I always wanted to open a bar where gay people openly socialized wh each other.
And at the time, beg ught a gay bar would land you jail and lose you your job. ” Weland ntend that The Seahorse was nsired a threat by law enforcement bee “beme more than jt a hole the wall, looked to the opposn like hope; a hope for visibily, mastream appeal, and a pot of anizatn for the gay movement. The Lambda Society* of Michiana was also ncerned wh laws discrimatg agast the gay muny, urgg newsletter rears 1974 and 1975 to wre their legislators.