The LGBTQ+ muny is thrivg and active the tentnally clive Ann Arbor area. Wh a rich history of activism and fellowship datg back to the 1970s, Ann Arbor is home to Kathy Kozachenko, the first openly gay person to be elected to any office the Uned Stat, and to Jim Toy, a legendary figure Michigan’s LGBTQ+ history.
Contents:
- GAY DATG ANN ARBOR
- A GUI TO LOL LBIAN AND GAY MALE ROURC
- LGBTQ+ SUPPORT GROUPS ANN ARBOR, MI
- LBIANS & GAY MEN: WELE TO ANN ARBOR!
GAY DATG ANN ARBOR
For as gay as Ann Arbor touts self as beg, where is the cy’s physil evince for this claim? * gay men in ann arbor *
In my send semter at the Universy of Michigan, I ma a iend whom I, as a transfer who was sperately lookg for other Queer people Ann Arbor, latched onto as somethg of a gay mentor. She gave me two remendatns for where to fd gay culture: the -ops and Aut Bar — the latter beg the cy’s only gay bar.
After I regnized Aut Bar’s absence, I realized how disnnected and sparse Ann Arbor’s gay scene really was. It was te that Ann Arbor felt like had a larger, lour gay populatn than East Lansg, where I had spent two years prevly as a stunt at Michigan State Universy, and certaly had more of one than where I grew up.
I knew firsthand that Ann Arbor lived up to s reputatn for beg gay-iendly. But what, really, did the cy of Ann Arbor have to show for s gay muny other than what I n only ll the “vib? ” For as gay as Ann Arbor touted self as beg, where was the cy’s physil evince for this claim?
A GUI TO LOL LBIAN AND GAY MALE ROURC
Disver Gay datg near you and Ann Arbor, Michigan. Fd a lol nnectn today! * gay men in ann arbor *
A iend asked me to e along to a discsn group at the Jim Toy Communy Center — an LGBTQ+ rource center named after the pneerg Ann Arbor gay-rights activist who found the Human Sexualy Office, now the Universy’s Spectm Center — that they found onle, supposedly two doors down om the empty Aut Bar space. The skeletons of Aut Bar, the Jim Toy Communy Center and Common Language — the LGBTQ+ bookstore between them — pated a picture of the ltle urtyard as a former center of gay muny Ann Arbor.
LGBTQ+ SUPPORT GROUPS ANN ARBOR, MI
Wh my regret at havg jt missed the tail end of Aut Bar’s n revived, and a new cursy about not only Brn Court’s gay history but Ann Arbor’s, I rolved to do a ltle rearch of my own. Keh Orr and Mart Contreras, Aut Bar’s owners of 25 years, uld wre the book on the gay history of Ann Arbor.
Dpe their amiable, open meanors and excement to talk wh me about Ann Arbor’s gay muny — somethg they were clearly so passnate about — I was nervo to meet them. I asked them about their time as unrgraduat and, wh the precisn of seasoned storytellers wh steel-trap memori who have been asked to tell certa stori multiple tim over, both said that they knew they were gay at a young age but were havg trouble g out their early days at the Universy. Although not gay-owned, beme the cy’s facto gay bar the ’60s.
LBIANS & GAY MEN: WELE TO ANN ARBOR!
“It was a dive, ” Orr said, but, “In many ways, was nsired kd of safe bee ps didn’t want to go the gay bar.