There is one gay bar remag Garn Grove, Calif., where there were once 15. A new short film shows what the bar means to the muny.
Contents:
- THE FRAT HOE IS THE LAST GAY BAR STANDG GARN GROVE
- THE FRAT HOE IS THE LAST GAY BAR STANDG GARN GROVE
- TOWN, DC’S LARGT GAY BAR, IS CLOSG. WHAT DO MEAN?
THE FRAT HOE IS THE LAST GAY BAR STANDG GARN GROVE
The Frat Hoe is the last gay bar Garn Grove. At one time, there were as many as 15 tablishments the cy of youth and ambn. * frat house gay bar *
M., but Shelly Heier and Cris McKnight — “two straight chicks nng a gay bar, ” they quip — are bit the afternoons, gettg the place clean, stocked and ready for historilly nservative Garn Grove — as recently as last Tuday the Cy Council rejected a motn to fly a rabow flag at Cy Hall, but agreed to light up a clock tower the same lors for Pri Month — don’t have the welg reputatn of, say, Laguna Beach, Long Beach or Santa Ana, once boasted as many as 15 gay bars, acrdg to a recent had nam like the Mug, the Happy Hour, DOK Wt, the Upbeat, Rumour Hazz and the Knotty Keg.
THE FRAT HOE IS THE LAST GAY BAR STANDG GARN GROVE
An openly gay man named Ted Heier opened the Frat Hoe 1985. * frat house gay bar *
“Everybody knows when you’re gog to Garn Grove and you’re gay [that] you’re gog to the Frat Hoe bee that’s the only thg open, gay, Garn Grove, ” said Monique Chantel Dupre, a drag performer featured the “Frat Hoe” documentary, which bowed at the recent Newport Beach Film Ftival.
“I’d known for a while that there was a gay bar a few blocks om my hoe, and I thought was jt so bizarre that there was a church next to , ” she said. But, eventually they stopped g at all after she kept rejectg their promised her father that she’d “keep open and keep gay. “Back the day, [LGBTQ people] didn’t have nowhere to go, so this was a safe place and a safe haven for the gay people to e, ” Heier said.
”The days, their ctomers tend to be majory Lato men, and while they ed to be open 365 days of the year, they’re now closed Tudays bee there isn’t enough apps, social media, latg real tate sts sparked by gentrifitn, and creasg acceptance of the gay muny are leadg to ls patronage of tradnal gay bars, which mt also pete wh the predomantly straight bars’ gay night said that if wasn’t for the fact that she owns the buildg, the Frat Hoe might not still be bs. “We stay open maly bee of our longevy and the history that we have, ” Heier few tradnal gay bars around the unty that rema have bee, many ways, isolated pockets of the LGBTQ muny, acrdg to Lus Hilrbrand, a film and media studi profsor at UC Irve.
TOWN, DC’S LARGT GAY BAR, IS CLOSG. WHAT DO MEAN?
* frat house gay bar *
’s gay bar scene, told matchbooks »Sarah Nguyen, who was named Ms. Orange County Gay Pri last year, said she didn’t know her lol history until she began workg across the unty le — at the LGBTQ Center Long Beach. Orange County Gay Pri last year and is popularly known as “Johnny Wt Street, ” after Laguna Beach’s famoly gay beach — said he didn’t learn about this queer history until he was olr.
“It’s kd of sad bee you hear the legendary stori of Garn Grove beg as gay as Long Beach and... Jonathan Alexanr, a UCI English profsor, said that historilly bars were one of the few plac that gay and lbian people uld meet public spac. Bee cross-drsg and dancg wh same-sex partners was illegal much of the untry before the gay civil rights movement took hold, the bars often had to disguise themselv, explaed Alexanr.
– Shelly Heier promised her dad, Ted Heier, that she would keep his bs open and gay as long as she n. Her father was an openly gay bsman who opened the Frat Hoe 1985.