35 DOs and DON'Ts of a Gay Leather Bar

Contents:

• HORRIBLE! GAY ACTIVI THE STEAM... - QUA BATHS & SPA
• THE BT GAY CLUBS MIAMI FOR A NIGHT OUT WH THE BOYS
• IS MY HBAND GAY? SIGNS OF A GAY HBAND
• NCUN GRAND MOON PALACE GAY IENDLY - CANCUN FOM

HORRIBLE! GAY ACTIVI THE STEAM... - QUA BATHS & SPA

The enigmatic actor, art llector, gay activist, globetrotter, and doyenne of the SoHo scene has, along wh his late partner J. Together, the pair found the Llie-Lohman Mm of Gay and Lbian Art—the first stutn of s kd—which is down the block, on Wooster, unassumg Llie happened to poke his head out to the hallway to terme the e of the ck; before he uld shut the door, a group om the art magaze I worked for had charged their way through. This somewhat jad crew of crics was ankly awed to fd every available surface the dky, crimson Prce Street loft absolutely vered—let me repeat: vered—wh explicly homoerotic art all styl and media, cludg var se-specific murals.

At the start of his and Lohman’s llectg days, more than 60 years ago, “gay imagery was unfortunately the hands of pornographers exclively, ” Llie lamented. Photo by Max Burkhalter for wi-rangg llectn gently illtrat the changg landspe of public gay life and the civil rights advanc crementally gaed sce he began discreetly buyg homoerotic art the 1950s. It is only the last three s that homosexualy has gaed legal protectns the Uned Stat.

When the llectn began to take shape, sodomy was outlawed ( still is several stat), and gays uld be refed service at bars and other there were numerable challeng to gog about buildg such a libido, Uranian llectn. Much like homosexualy self, gay art was hidn away—tucked the back rooms of galleri, wh entry granted by s and vert nods passed between figur who had to read the other as part of their circle. Generally, homoerotic works “were ma for iends, ” Llie said, and they’ve only more recently been g to the market.

THE BT GAY CLUBS MIAMI FOR A NIGHT OUT WH THE BOYS

He ced the Amerin artist Pl Cadm, “a very charmg man” he knew through gay circl Cann.

IS MY HBAND GAY? SIGNS OF A GAY HBAND

Born the remote town of Deadwood, South Dakota, 1933, Llie had saved enough money by the time he was 17 to take a b to Los Angel, where he enuntered his first gay muny.

After his two-year stt was up, Llie enrolled the Sorbonne Paris before travelg throughout Europe, livg Venice and Amsterdam, known as the gay pal of post-war Europe.

Tipped off by a iend, Llie “found a ltle old ticky-tacky shop, ” as he relled, that trafficked the sale of homoerotic art. An elrly gentleman, whom Llie perceived to be gay, sat behd the unter. Ccially, however, this perd allowed him to experience the nuanc of gay culture around the world, which drastilly changed his worldview.

NCUN GRAND MOON PALACE GAY IENDLY - CANCUN FOM

He relled gog to a ernment-sponsored gay bar Amsterdam: “The first thg you saw when you walked was this huge, long bar wh a gigantic picture of Queen Juliana sg out at her gay subjects. 1960, “I plunged to the gay rights movement stantaneoly bee so much bullsh was gog on this untry, ” he said. “Frz and I both had always been volved gay rights issu, ” Llie said.

They were pecially active wh the Gay Activists Alliance. It’s a misnceptn that their llectn only featur work by gay artists.

“You don’t have to be gay, ” he clarified. “The art has to ronate wh gay people.

While SoHo is now one of the most chichi neighborhoods New York, was then, as Llie remd me, sentially an dtrial wasteland where only few artists—and fewer gay people—igned to live.

” The Stonewall rts on June 28, 1969—an early-hours prott agast a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay club Greenwich Village—were a major turng pot.

The tle is a le om a Constante Cavafy poem, and Llie uldn’t help but wax poetic about Cavafy, who “wrote magnificent, rhapsodic gay poetry. Photo by Max Burkhalter for flourishg of gay life the 1970s soon gave way to the AIDS epimic of the ’80s.