Contents:
- AS RTRICTNS THAW, LONG BEACH’S GAY BARS ARE G BACK AFTER A DARK YEAR
- GAY L.A. – LONG BEACH’S CENTRAL PLACE QUEER L.A. HISTORY
- THE 20 BT GAY BARS LONG BEACH
AS RTRICTNS THAW, LONG BEACH’S GAY BARS ARE G BACK AFTER A DARK YEAR
A brisk Monday eveng at the Mhaft, a 43-year-old gay bar suated on the Broadway Corridor, the slow bs hours of the tablishment belie the boistero jubilatn si—if only celebrated by five men lgh and nverse as they sip beer and vodka cranberry cktails. Though the COVID-19 panmic put immense stra on muni across the board, for the Long Beach gay muny, 2020 was pecially isolatg.
“I feel like we’ve lost a lot of nnectn, and this year has ma worse, ” said 46-year-old Ryan Schroer, who liv near the rtrictns on public gathergs pecially strgent on enclosed spac like bars, many of the cy’s gay bars were closed through the bulk of 2020 and to this year. Many owners feared for the survival of their bs, not jt for their own livelihoods, but for the sake of the gay muny, which has historilly found sanctuary and muny si their tablishments. Though was already a blow for the gay muny to fo last year’s celebratn, this year is jt as moralizg.
GAY L.A. – LONG BEACH’S CENTRAL PLACE QUEER L.A. HISTORY
“It’s fely put a stra on me jt beg a gay person and not beg able to partake, ” Romero said.
THE 20 BT GAY BARS LONG BEACH
Though Flor said he equents other bars the cy, gay bars like the Mhaft feel like home.
“There are certa tim when I jt want to be around gay people, ” he said. “Whenever I walk to a gay bar, yeah, I want to have a good time and be silly, but when I walk to the doors, I’m walkg on the shoulrs of people who have paved the way for all of to feel ee to e to a [gay] bar. ”Long Beach has a long history wh gay bars datg back to the 1970s, said Carlos Torr, the new executive director of the LGBTQ Center Long Beach on Retro Row.
Rippl, one of the first and longt-nng gay bars the cy opened 1972 and after 47 years closed s doors 2019. “Police would equently raid known gay tablishments bee for the longt time homosexualy was nsired a mental illns, Europe and the U.