How Gay Bars Have Been a Buildg Block of the LGBTQ Communy - Curbed

Contents:

• THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
• THE DOS & DON'TS OF GAY CLUBBG
• HOW GAY BARS HAVE BEEN A BUILDG BLOCK OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNY
• THE UNSUNG HISTORY OF CIRCU PARTI, WHERE GAY MEN SEEK SEX AND FREEDOM
• GAY BAR
• HOW TO BEE POPULAR AT A GAY BAR
• GAY CLUB

THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS

Today, people tend to equate gay bars as beg plac to party pecially hard. They’re fun spots if you’re gay, straight, or anywhere between.

THE DOS & DON'TS OF GAY CLUBBG

‘Wild night out’ stori often clu or end at the neighborhood gay bar.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the gay bar wh the LGBTQ+ rights movement over the past uple hundred years. In honor of Pri Month, we wanted to highlight the historil signifince of gay bars and their impact on equaly for all.

HOW GAY BARS HAVE BEEN A BUILDG BLOCK OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNY

Bee of the need for tense secrecy, the very earlit history of the gay bar has been mostly lost.

THE UNSUNG HISTORY OF CIRCU PARTI, WHERE GAY MEN SEEK SEX AND FREEDOM

However, 1810, we get our first rerd stance of a gay bar—unr admtedly unfortunate circumstanc.

Although is nice to thk of gay bars as unanimoly safe plac, where the LGBTQ+ muny uld exist whout threat, that clearly wasn’t always the se. Stati, gay bars seem to have gotten their ‘start’ the later part of the 1800s, wh a New York Cy hotspot lled “The Sli.

” Unfortunately, police reports and mastream media verage of a gay bar 1880 proved to be extremely unreliable and hyperbolic, fueled mostly by pearl-clutchg and fear-mongerg rather than actual rmatn. Over the next several s, gay and lbian bars began to pop up all over the untry, each one perhaps takg a cue om those before .

GAY BAR

Dpe their often short-lived nature, the early gay bars often served as hugely important battlegrounds the fight for LGBTQ+ rights.

HOW TO BEE POPULAR AT A GAY BAR

In the 1950’s, San Francis hotspot The Black Cat was makg s name as one of the natn’s most popular gay bars. In rponse to this, the San Francis Police Department began a mpaign agast the bar and s gay clientele. “ orr to tablish 'good e' for spensn of platiff's license, somethg more mt be shown than that many of his patrons were homosexuals and that they ed his rtrant and bar as a meetg place.

It would be hard to go through the history of the gay bar Ameri whout mentng Juli Bar New York Cy. In 1966, the New York State Liquor Authory passed a law that prohibed servg alholic beverag to homosexuals. Jt as did California, this state law was short lived, wh urts eventually led that gays uld ‘peacefully’ assemble at bars, which paved the way for the inic Stonewall Inn to open 1967.

The sign the wdow reads: "We homosexuals plead wh our people to please help mata peaceful and quiet nduct on the streets of the Village. Jt two years after the Stonewall Rts, gay rights groups existed every major Amerin cy, as well as Canada, Atralia and Europe.

GAY CLUB

The Stonewall Rts n be seen as a divir of sorts, between the “BC” and “AD” perds of gay rights Ameri. “But that night, for the first time, the ual acquicence turned to vlent that night the liv of lns of gay men and lbians, and the attu toward them of the larger culture which they lived, began to change rapidly. In recent years, the role of gay bar has taken a more sual, fun place our non of nightlife, but that wasn’t always the se.

Throughout history, gay bars have been flash pots for huge moments the procs of LGBTQ+ liberatn. This month pecially, ’s important to remember the signifince of the gay bar as an Amerin in, as somethg fiant and revolutnary— the most grassroots sense of the word. Whether you are a member of the LGBTQ+ muny, work at a gay bar, are an ally the dtry, or if you plan on celebratg this June, jt remember the bars and people who helped make all possible.