1999 Portland Gay History Walkg Tour

Contents:

• I SPENT A NIGHT ONE OF PORTLAND’S LAST GAY BATHHO
• 1999 PORTLAND GAY HISTORY WALKG TOUR
• GAY BATHHOE EROS TO OPEN S NEW TENRLO LOTN FOR PRI WEEKEND
• THGS EVERY GAY MALE PORTLAND TRANSPLANT SHOULD KNOW
• GAY PORTLAND, OREGON TRAVEL GUI

I SPENT A NIGHT ONE OF PORTLAND’S LAST GAY BATHHO

But as a closeted teen, there was one facet of LGBT nightlife that terrified me the most: gay bathho are gay sex clubs. To me, gay bathho—explicly sexualized spac—beme so outsi my fort zone that I feared their parkg Portland still has two bathho, and I wanted to check one I talked to my iend T, who ed to work at Hawks PDX on Southeast Grand Avenue and is a equent flyer over at Sandy Boulevard's Steam. (Women are generally disuraged om visg gay bathho, which is dntg if you're gay wh all-female iends.

Unlike my perceptn of the dis days of gay and the height of the HIV epimic, everybody at Hawks was ut about g proper protectn.

This gui to historic gay, lbian, and transgenr buildgs and lotns Downtown Portland borrows om a number of primary sourc, cludg Mut of the Portland Cy Council, Oregon Liquor Control Commissn rerds, Portland cy directori, Sanborn fire surance maps, and several early gay newspapers published the cy between 1970 and 1980 (The Founta, The NW Founta, The Northwt Gay Review, and The Cas Voice). Sendary sourc clu the first wrten acunt of Portland’s gay history William Holman’s “A Gay History: Lt We Fet, ” (The Northwt Gay Review, Special Issue, June 1977), hereafter referred to simply as “Holman, ” and Duane Frye’s acunt of The Mic Hall om the Gay Pri Program of 1993. Hart, transgenr novelist and physician, see The Incredible Life and Lov of the Legendary Lucille Hart (1976) and Jonathan Katz’s Gay/Lbian Almanac (1983).

1999 PORTLAND GAY HISTORY WALKG TOUR

S., see: The Queert Plac: A Natnal Gui to Gay and Lbian Historic S (Henry Holt Co., New York, 1997). Special thanks to the Oregon Historil Society, which provid many of the imag this gui, and to the Gay and Lbian Archiv of the Pacific Northwt for s fancial support. The olst ntug gay bar on Stark, operatg om the late 1960s until the 2000s unr var nam.

It is que possible that may have had a gay clientele even earlier that the late ’60s, bee Robert Snrs, who also owned the very gay Tel & Tel Tavern on Oak, attempted to open this se unr the name of The Mombo 1960, but the applitn for a dispenser class license was refed by the Oregon Liquor Control Commissn. This suggts that perhaps the lotn was already attractg some gays back then.

Although we have no fe evince that this was particular hangout for Portland’s gay men of the day, would seem que likely that at least some of the vice sndal fendants and their iends would have equented this tablishment. The tavern was formerly a gay bar unr the name of the Timber Topper (1970-1974), the Axe Handle (1974), and the Alley.

GAY BATHHOE EROS TO OPEN S NEW TENRLO LOTN FOR PRI WEEKEND

” This is an important element of gay male inty our past that has largely been fotten over the s. This was the se of a popular gay bar the early 1980s, which featured a small dance floor and mezzane nducive to the cisg crowd. Origally opened by Johnnie Honegger (the owner of the Harbor Club) on June 3, 1965, is nsired one of the first gay bars tablished on Stark.

THGS EVERY GAY MALE PORTLAND TRANSPLANT SHOULD KNOW

Lanny Swerdlow rells that, the begng months of the Gay Liberatn Front, the bar was targeted for s discrimatory practice of excludg women wearg pants.

Gay Lib activists requted the owner to meet wh them to discs the issue, but he refed. One of the highlights of Portland’s gay and lbian history is a vis to this wonrful buildg where, the late 1940s, followg World War II, many of the cy’s gay men and lbians me for entertament and socializg. The nightclub soon blossomed wh a lively mixed lbian and gay crowd that howled wh lghter at the double entendre and risqué nuendo of s entertaers.

GAY PORTLAND, OREGON TRAVEL GUI

Marie Equi’s favore hangouts, although at that time, of urse, was not a gay/lbian tablishment. Acrdg to Kerson, the bar had already an tablished gay reputatn of nsirable years when he purchased the place.

Th, the lotn evolved s own cisy history and, even years after the war had end, gay men ntued equentg the lotn.

The vice reports of 1964 noted that Derek’s Tavern was “equented by homosexuals of higher class and means” and Akerson remembers that Johnny Mathis and ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev ed to equent the bar when dog gigs the cy. It was Derek’s attorney Jim Damis who fend the nstutnal right of homosexuals to gather a public place. At this time, all gay taverns were tomatilly nsired a “disorrly premise.