The Unn League Is Philly's Hottt New Gay Club | Philalphia magaze

Contents:

• PHILALPHIA GAY NEWS
• THERE GO THE GAYBORHOOD
• NEW MEDIA VENTURE FOR PHILALPHIA'S GAY AND LBIAN COMMUNY
• THE UNN LEAGUE IS PHILLY’S HOTTT NEW GAY CLUB
• GET YOUR HISTORY STRAIGHT AND YOUR NIGHTLIFE GAY®
• 1920S AND 30S: GAY BARS SURFACE
• GAYBORHOOD
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY
• KEV SPACEY DEFENDS COMG OUT AS GAY AFTER BEG ACCED OF SEXUAL MISNDUCT: ‘I WAS UNR A LOT OF PRSURE’

PHILALPHIA GAY NEWS

”The ocsn was the official after-party for my five-year llege rnn, which was held at one of the most popular dance parti the Gayborhood. “There go the neighborhood, ” I thought as the last illn I had of this part of the cy as an clive yet uniquely gay space dissolved before my the past few years, the “ath of the Gayborhood” — a phrase once uttered mock horror whenever a favore hangout changed hands or a well-known stutn screwed up — has taken on an air of evabily.

Two popular Gayborhood bars, Venture Inn and ICandy, have closed down, and Voyr and Woody’s have tried to broan their ctomer base by hostg bachelorette parti, exotic male revue shows for women, and even NFL watch parti. Franny Price, the veteran producer of Philly Pri — one of the untry’s largt annual gay celebratns — is steppg down after more than 25 years, wh no succsor sight. We saw this the polil arena 2018, when two openly gay black ndidat, Mallm Kenyatta and Alex Deerg, peted for a state Hoe seat the 181st District — a sectn of North Philalphia that’s both geographilly and enomilly distant om the Gayborhood.

(Kenyatta would go on to w, jog Gayborhood-area Reprentative Brian Sims as the state’s only two openly gay legislators. Cywi, LGBTQ visibily is siarly creasg the cultural realm: Large-sle LGBTQ-themed events have moved beyond the tradnal Pri weekend June and Outft October, and many former Gayborhood event producers and performers are bookg venu throughout the cy. For many Philalphians, the Gayborhood is no longer the sole place for an LGBTQ experience, but jt another optn a growg field of clive this 50th anniversary year of the Stonewall rts New York, which brought the gay rights movement the U.

THERE GO THE GAYBORHOOD

To mastream attentn, members of Philly’s LGBTQ muny are reflectg — some wistfully, some crilly — on what the Gayborhood means today, and wonrg whether there’s really anythg left to be lost by venturg outsi the neighborhood’s now-fadg rabow-pated crosswalks. •In the 1950s, Center Cy the vicy of 13th and Loct streets, which we now ll the Gayborhood, was known as the Loct Strip — a red-light district full of strip and htler bars, some of which tered to a gay clientele.

The Strip also had another, more disparagg name — the “gay ghetto” — but at a time when people who equented gay-oriented bs faced public scty and harassment, was a lifele. “Even before Stonewall, ” says Franny Price, who has lived the cy for 62 years, “the gay ghetto was an area where we LGBT people had a sense of belongg. ”“When the gay bars and shops were lumped wh the ‘unsirable’ elements of the ’60s and ’70s and threatened wh police raids, the attacks had the effect of galvanizg the muny, ” says Bob Skiba, a Gayborhood historian and curator.

”In the wake of extensive civil rights work by LGBTQ activists around the untry the 1970s and durg the AIDS epimic the 1980s, the openly gay character of the neighborhood was firmly entrenched by the time Cy Paper edor and lumnist David Warner scribed an Outft celebratn as “a betiful day the gayborhood” the early 1990s.

NEW MEDIA VENTURE FOR PHILALPHIA'S GAY AND LBIAN COMMUNY

By 1999, the term Warner had ed was appearg on maps, and veloper tert soon stoked a rapid revalizatn that would turn the area om a llectn of bars and niche bs to a hot spot filled wh high-end rtrants and stutns played their own large rol the Gayborhood’s growth.

In 2003, the Greater Philalphia Tourism Marketg Corporatn, now known as Vis Philalphia, lnched a hugely succsful mpaign vg potential visors to “Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay. And while some observers would suggt that the change is a natural nsequence of wispread LGBTQ acceptance, others argue ’s a paful sign of gentrifitn that’s erasg the inty, culture, and tersectn of racial and genr diversy wh the Gayborhood.

”“The Gayborhood has changed along wh all of Center Cy, ” unters Valerie Saan, who wh her partner, Marcie Turney, owns Barbuzzo, Bud & Marilyn’s, and several other popular rtrants and retail shops the neighborhood. The Gayborhood stopped beg a neighborhood which the most margalized uld fd and be themselv and started to feel more like a tourist attractn for cultural this time, two natnal movements — Black Liv Matter, spearhead by queer black women, and the fight for marriage equaly, upheld by the Supreme Court 2015 — awakened my social nscns.

THE UNN LEAGUE IS PHILLY’S HOTTT NEW GAY CLUB

By then, I was a young journalist verg the muny, and I began to notice ownership and learship dispari at Gayborhood spac, which were led predomantly by cisgenr whe men spe the notable role that people of lor across the genr spectm played shapg the area’s had, of urse, seen this before I did. Longtime muny activist Michael Hson, the cy’s LGBT liaison unr Mayor Street, had advoted for more clive polici wh the cy’s LGBTQ muny as the Gayborhood grew mercial promence. While some iativ, such as creased fundg for LGBTQ nonprofs, improved due to the Gayborhood’s newfound viabily, he says there were untend nsequenc that began to overshadow the progrs.

“Generally speakg, the Gayborhood has benefed om years of public- and private-sector attentn, creativy and rourc, thanks to high-end hog, the Avenue of the Arts, shoppg, rtrants, and ffee and other specialty shops, ” Hson says.

GET YOUR HISTORY STRAIGHT AND YOUR NIGHTLIFE GAY®

”It got to the pot where I uld no longer ignore the tragic irony of the Gayborhood: Formerly margalized LGBTQ people were still margalizg some of their own the one place that was supposed to be safe for all of .

I stopped gog out to the Gayborhood on weekends after beg told about impromptu drs s at nightclubs that never seemed to apply to the whe guys the le. The rultg ntroversy served as vditn for LGBTQ muny members of lor who had long been raisg ncerns about racism the Gayborhood. The offensive vio and the unverg of several cints of racial profilg and discrimatn at Gayborhood bars and nonprofs prompted LGBTQ activist groups to boytt and prott the stutns, which turn prompted addnal bs and learship the past year, I’ve felt that fdg thentic and tentnal LGBTQ experienc outsi of the Gayborhood was a necsy, but one that’s been easier than I expected.

1920S AND 30S: GAY BARS SURFACE

But for some people, adjtg to the ia that LGBTQ life — and perhaps even a better, more morn and clive versn of — exists away om the Gayborhood is btersweet. “I had hoped that the Gayborhood would stay a safe place, but I don’t thk is anymore, ” says Matthew Beierschmt, a longtime Gayborhood DJ and muny advote.

GAYBORHOOD

“But I still thk we need to fd a way to rely on each other like we ed to and keep fightg for all of , not jt some of , si and outsi the Gayborhood. ”“We have to face the fact that queers create great and impactful culture and muni, and that non-queers then want to participate and even steal that culture, ” says Chris Bartlett, executive director of the William Way LGBT Communy Center and a longtime Gayborhood rint.

It’s time to st one last backward glance at the Gayborhood that lnched Philly’s robt LGBTQ culture, take a ep breath, and move on. The Cy of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affectn hosted the untry’s first major monstratn for gay rights, the Annual Remrs, 1965. And today, Philly visors n easily explore s where LGBTQ+ history was ma and where queer life ntu to thrive, pecially the cy’s Gayborhood and durg annual events like Philly Pri 365.

The center of Philalphia’s gay rintial life and culture sce World War II, the blocks between 11th and Broad streets and Pe and Chtnut streets earned their nickname — the “Gayborhood”— durg an October Outft event 1995. You have your choice of fabulo entertament and diversns as the bars and nightclubs of the Gayborhood e alive each night. Sce 2015, the brilliant rabow crosswalks at the tersectn of 13th and Loct Streets have served as an sential Gayborhood landmark.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY

The group’s LGBTQ and Trans History tours reunt the stori of Gay Liberatn Front – Philalphia founr Kiyoshi Kuromiya, explore morn history and current social issu the neighborhood, and stop at important muny s like the Attic Youth Center, which supports LGBTQ+ youth experiencg homelsns. The Gayborhood got a h new mural at the start of Pri Month 2021 when muralist Ash Ryan fished this three-story-tall tribute to pop star Lil Nas X. In 1965, the Universy of Pennsylvania expelled Fryer om his psychiatric rincy program on the basis of his homosexualy, which was then classified as a mental illns by the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn (APA).

In 1972, Fryer, a faculty member at the Temple Universy School of Medice, offered an electrifyg anonymo ttimony that rulted the APA’s 1973 classifitn of homosexualy as a mental illns.

Philalphia Gay News Marker: This marker stands ont of the first office of the Philalphia Gay News, one of the natn’s most award-wng weekly newspapers.

KEV SPACEY DEFENDS COMG OUT AS GAY AFTER BEG ACCED OF SEXUAL MISNDUCT: ‘I WAS UNR A LOT OF PRSURE’

A pneer the LGBTQ+ rights movement, Gtgs, a Philalphia rint om age 18 and a lifetime activist, eded The Ladr, the natn’s first lbian magaze; -anized the Annual Remrs at Inpennce Hall (see above) and led charg both to promote posive LGBTQ+ lerature public librari and to change the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn’s classifitn of homosexualy as a mental illns. It’s where radil gay llective Gazoo found Philalphia’s Gay Liberatn Front and where bisexual blu sger Bsie Smh performed at the Royal Theatre, an early 20th-century Black-owned cultural center. Today, the street’s known for s Magic Garns, cheteak shops and hangouts, cludg dive bar extraordaire Bob & Barbara’s Lounge, home of one of Philly’s bt-loved drag shows; the punk art LGBTQ+ haven Tattooed Mom; and the eclectic, gay-owned boutique shop Workshop Unrground.

The gt gents who prise the League’s Old Guard—many of them thick-bellied chaps who are mornized versns of the thick-bellied chaps the oil patgs that le the walls—slouch overstuffed leather chairs and bch about polics, their wiv and their portfols, not necsarily that A-Gays of the Unn League were at the bar, their roll ll teemg wh bold-face nam: Drew Becher, print of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, is a member, and was there wh his partner, Eric Lochner, whose software pany, Kenexa, was sold months later to IBM for $1. Becher, Urbania and Richards are jt three of the eng behd a semi-stealth effort to brg more gays to the club ranks, sponsorg newbi for membership and vg other gay lleagu for after-work cktails or lunch.

Bee if you want to build a formidable gay enomic workg hub Philalphia, where better than the power nex of the cy self?