Tarrant County Gay Pri Para Fort Worth, Texas | Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Contents:

• LOVE, NOT HATE, RAN EP AT GAY PRI PARA DOWNTOWN FORT WORTH
• BEG GAY NORTH TEXAS: FROM BEATGS, SHAMG AND NMNATN TO UNY AND PRI
• JUNE 28 MARKS 14 YEARS SCE THE POLICE RAID OF A FORT WORTH GAY BAR
• WHERE DID FORT WORTH GAY BARS GO?
• TARRANT COUNTY GAY PRI WEEK 2022

LOVE, NOT HATE, RAN EP AT GAY PRI PARA DOWNTOWN FORT WORTH

Given the tenor of the tim, the 36th annual Tarrant County Gay Pri Para on Saturday uld have been mistaken for a prott march, had not been for the love-filled signs and lorful directiv om the Tmp admistratn, cludg one issued Friday that uld overri many discrimatn protectns for LGBT people and others, ntue to attack gay rights, advot those participatg Saturday’s para unr sunny ski cid to take the high road and foc on the “Live Life Bold” theme. ”Even wh recent setbacks — the bathroom bill movement, last year’s adly shootg at the Pulse nightclub Orlando and the Jtice Department directive issued Friday that stat relig anizatns n hire workers based on relig beliefs and an employee’s willgns “ to adhere to a of nduct — those participatg the para foced on the held by those the para were posive, sayg “Love is all you need, ” “Love is my superpower” and “I love my gay son. ”Coronado said progrs has been ma the way people are the old days, people took pictur of the rs and license plat parked at gay bars and published them.

BEG GAY NORTH TEXAS: FROM BEATGS, SHAMG AND NMNATN TO UNY AND PRI

And right there, at the top of my news feed, a shared tweet om earlier that morng, was vio footage of the Rabow Lounge, Fort Worth’s legendary Near Southsi gay nightspot and lightng rod for polil ntroversy, engulfed a blazg fireball while the shaky-hand bystanr filmg the ferno on his smartphone sputtered expletiv of disbelief. As the day wore on, the historil ronance of the tragedy began to drip, drip, drip to my thoughts, distractg me om work and drawg me back to a former preoccupatn, borrg on obssn, wh the history of Fort Worth’s gay nightlife.

To provi some perspective on where this place fs our llective history – and I’m speakg the gay “we” voice now – I turned to The Fil. A few months later that year, a gay nightclub lled the Stonewall Inn New York Cy’s far-om-gentrified Greenwich Village neighborhood, the patrons – a motley crew of drag queens, transgenr folks, rent boys, and other outsts – were still mourng over the loss of gay in Judy Garland. When police tried to raid the bar for the umpteenth time on the night of June 28, 1969 (the night of my third birthday, by the way), this urban isle of misf ladyboys fought back, and the ensug seri of rts over the next few days would give birth to the morn gay rights movement.

JUNE 28 MARKS 14 YEARS SCE THE POLICE RAID OF A FORT WORTH GAY BAR

Doorman Jerry “Big Mama” Cassidy, who would go on to bee one of the most faiar fac gay bardom, would then wele you to a magil world where even the heady, forbidn thrills of drag performanc or ocsnal live mic uldn’t pare wh the simple ecstasy of a few hours of jt beg yourself. By the mid ’70s, as dis fever was begng to fect clubs all over Ameri, Cowtown had gay bars poppg up all over the cy, cludg the 500 Club on Wt Magnolia Avenue, The Come Along Inn jt north of the 651 on Jenngs (currently the 515 Club), The Other Place on Seventh Street, Bailey Street Wherehoe on Bailey Avenue the Cultural District, The Regency on South Hemphill Street, and D. In 1974, when the gural Texas Gay Conference was held Fort Worth, attractg a number of LGBT anizatns om across the state, lol police staked out the event and wrote down the license plate numbers of atten, some s followg them to gay nightclubs where more plat were taken down.

Thankfully, Cyr was unterred and filed a civil su the next year that clud among the platiffs patrons of area gay bars, specifilly the Bailey Street Wherehoe, the 500 Club, the Other Place, and, of urse, the 651. By early 1978, the urt had orred that Fort Worth police stroy all rerds of license plat, nam, and other personal data llected regardg area homosexuals.

Cowtown gays had won their first victory the fight agast opprsn, and the 651 and other clubs had proven they had their patrons’ backs when mattered most. In 1981, Fort Worth also held s first Gay Pri event, and eight years later, Pri hosted s first para, wh floats rollg down Jenngs om Magnolia Avenue, right ont of the doors of the 651.

WHERE DID FORT WORTH GAY BARS GO?

When the bar celebrated s grand reopeng a two-page ad the 1987 Gay Pri Book, was billed as “The New 651 Club, Fort Worth’s Olst and Texas’ Newt. This, of urse, is when thgs really started to get tertg, bee that’s when I showed up – a terrified, newly out twentysomethg newspaper wrer who ma his gay-bar but on the openg night of Magnolia Statn October 1992. By the mid ’90s, the dark cloud hoverg over the gay muny natnwi began to slowly break up as a new batn treatment known as the “AIDS Cocktail” emerged, offerg real hope for people livg wh the disease.

The Fort Worth gay muny started to fd s voice wh the emergence of more gay anizatns, church, AIDS servic anizatns, and visibily than ever before. The newfound fame of the Rabow Lounge led to more growth for the bs, gmented by the openg of a new bar down the street, Percsns; a gay-owned rtrant next door, Randy Beez; and the purchase by Rabow’s owners of Bt Friends on East Lanster. Healthy crowds also led to the openg of another club, Reflectn, across the street, pturg Fort Worth’s clost attempt to succsfully creatg s own “gaybourhood.

I’m not admtg that he’s right, md you, but hell, I spend most of my nights out at the Chat Room Pub on Magnolia, a gay-iendly – well, everyone-iendly neighborhood bar that sure feels like home to me.

TARRANT COUNTY GAY PRI WEEK 2022

Co-founr of QCema (Fort Worth’s Gay and Lbian Internatnal Film Ftival) and Fairns Fort Worth, Todd Camp is a reverg former Star-Telegram wrer currently workg on a book about Chase Court, his nearly 130-year-old neighborhood on the cy’s Near Southsi, as well as a project about the history of Fort Worth’s gay nightlife. Several gay rights advot shared their historil observatns of the challeng the LGBTQ+ muny has faced North Texas, durg an terview wh me earlier this year.

When he shared wh his mister his sexualy, the cleric warned he was sted for told of female and male gay people gog out together to give the imprsn of two heterosexual upl. Lbians joed baseball teams to participate a socially acceptable activy to meet other lbians and to enjoy publicly the pany of gay iends. In the 1960s and 1970s, gay bars, such as Billy Ray’s, flourished Fort Worth as ports to acceptance, enjoyment and entertament.