Gay Bar by Jeremy Atherton L – a gog out memoir | Autobgraphy and memoir | The Guardian

Contents:

• 'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE
• GAY BAR BY JEREMY ATHERTON L – A GOG OUT MEMOIR
• IN ‘GAY BAR,’ TIME-HOPPG SNAPSHOTS OF QUEER NIGHTLIFE
• DO WE STILL NEED GAY BARS? THIS AUTHOR’S BOOK TACKL WHY THEY’RE DYG — AND WHY WE SHOULDN’T LET THEM
• GAY BAR
• EXCLIVE INTERVIEW: GREGGOR MATTSON, THOR OF ‘WHO NEEDS GAY BARS?’
• WHY OUR HISTORI WH GAY BARS MATTER — AND WHAT THEIR FUTURE MIGHT LOOK LIKE AFTER THE PANMIC
• AS GAY BARS HAVE CLOSED RECENT S, LOL THOR LOOKS AT CULTURAL SIGNIFINCE
• NEW PAPERBACK: ‘GAY BAR’ AND ‘AFTERPARTI’
• LBB PRENTS: GREGGOR MATTSON - WHO NEEDS GAY BARS?
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW
• GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI
• GAY MOSW · CY GUI
• MOSW GAY BARS

'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE

Atherton L's book starts off a crowd room a gay bar where he's gone cisg wh his partner, whom he refers to throughout the book wh the Leonard Cohen-spired nickname Famo Blue Raat. He wr betifully about his llege days Los Angel, where he went to his first one, though he n't rell the name, wryly notg, "Of urse I n't remember my first gay bar — I was dnk.

" That history clus the famo 1969 uprisg at the Stonewall Inn New York, but Atherton L also div to other, lser-known bars, cludg on that endured police raids meant to put gay people their place. " Atherton L explor topics like archecture and urban geography, as they relate to gay bars, betifully; he wr wh a real knowledge that's more than jt tellectual dilettantism.

GAY BAR BY JEREMY ATHERTON L – A GOG OUT MEMOIR

About the changg looks of bars before the turn of the century, he observ, "A new type of gay bar began to appear London's Soho the neti — airy, glossy, ntental. " Along the way, Atherton L dips to other topics related to the gay muny: the appropriatn of gay culture by straight people, mic, drkg, and the valu of the younger generatn of LGBTQ people.

IN ‘GAY BAR,’ TIME-HOPPG SNAPSHOTS OF QUEER NIGHTLIFE

And while succeeds on many levels, perhaps the most remarkable one is Atherton L's nstant qutng of himself, and the realizatns of how he's changed sce he walked to his first gay bar years ago: "Maybe, I thought, I'm a dis ball. On Irish televisn news, the headl rmed the natn that Panti Bliss, a brilliantly articulate mpaigner, had arrived at Dubl Castle, as ed she gay was all the rage jt then. Leo Varadkar, mister for health, soon to be taoiseach, had announced that he was gay, as did a former mister om the other ma party, as did a well-known TV news journalist.

That day would not have been surprisg had all the bishops of Ireland arrived their fery to let know that they, too, wanted to jo our Gay Bar, a brilliantly wrten and cisive acunt of gay life Los Angel, San Francis and London, Jeremy Atherton L quot the cric Ben Walters on gay history that is “agile om fear and fettg, too often wrten whispers and saved scraps”. I imaged a walk that two men of my generatn – I me to Dubl 1972 – might do to revis the gay plac that have gone, such as The Gym, a sna jt a stone’s throw om Dubl Castle, or Ingno, another sna, much favoured by prits.

DO WE STILL NEED GAY BARS? THIS AUTHOR’S BOOK TACKL WHY THEY’RE DYG — AND WHY WE SHOULDN’T LET THEM

He wr about a DJ his 40s lled B Statn John who “played ecstatic sets of arne dis … He was there to bear wns, to ttify, g rare tracks om what he lled ‘the goln age of gay’, the perd between Stonewall and Aids. ”But the ghosts his book are also those who created gay San Francis self, where there were 18 gay bars 1964 and “an timated hundred and eighteen wh a ”.

Atherton L registers the nostalgia that me wh all this change, quotg Fouult: “I actually liked the scene before gay liberatn, when everythg was more vert. Some thgs give him the creeps, like a gay thrift shop: “I crged when I passed , imagg the store to be filled wh stuff svenged om the hom of ad queens … I hadn’t found a way to nsir the multifar story of my people – and to read wh, but not through, the disease.

When they stop shavg, their beards “were perverted, their bristl perfumed wh the sudor of scrotum” gay group, observed San Francis, “uld be tected om a distance by the stk … Each of them seemed to have a magnificent ass and be wrg a book. There were three bars that he and his partner lled the Triangle: “jolly Gee and Dragon, sordid Joers Arms and laid-back Nelson’s Head – a rpective five-, ten- and fifteen-mute walk om our buildg” wr well about another hntg the London years, the spectre of gay-bashg, quotg Neil Bartlett: “Those nights out were spirg – but the solary walks home were foolish.

GAY BAR

London, 1986, was not a safe place for a visibly gay man like my twenty-eight-year-old self to be out alone after dark – or even by daylight for that matter. If you felt a twge of boredom (bon if you thrill to disheveled, elive, gamy), then I have a book for Atherton L’s “Gay Bar” is a rtls and telligent cultural history of queer nightlife.

EXCLIVE INTERVIEW: GREGGOR MATTSON, THOR OF ‘WHO NEEDS GAY BARS?’

In the openg scene, Atherton L and his partner (rather regrettably referred to as the Famo Blue Raat, after the Leonard Cohen song) go out to a London gay bar, lookg for a ltle adventure, and enter a crowd: “Wh a kd of btal elegance, the group spread apart like the blas of a pocketknife. Atherton L is a skilled rear of the signifiers of cloth and archecture, the fetishizatn of workg-class fashn, for example, and how the rise of AIDS fluenced sign cisns: “A new type of gay bar began to appear London’s Soho the ’90s — airy, glossy, ntental.

WHY OUR HISTORI WH GAY BARS MATTER — AND WHAT THEIR FUTURE MIGHT LOOK LIKE AFTER THE PANMIC

) Most jarrg, perhaps, are Atherton L’s efforts at mimickg the theorists he clearly admir, those sectns that e across as parodi of amic wrg: “If the word muny is ed a failure of vobulary — too broad, too utopian — perhaps the metaphor to bt replace is metaphor self”; “gay bars are about potentialy, not rolutn.

He’s already told what he most miss about gay bars; how movgly he replit here, wh his wi, strobg tellect, enliveng skepticism, raslly allure: “Perhaps you uld ll a gay bar a galaxy: We are held together but kept om llidg by a fe balance of momentum and gravy. He is the thor of the Los Angel Tim btseller and Natnal Book Crics Circle Award wner Gay Bar (2021), selected as a book of the year by crics at the New York Tim, NPR, Artfom and Vogue. “The fastt clg typ of gay bars have been bars servg people of lor and bars servg men’s kk muni, ” says Greggor Mattson, an Oberl College profsor and thor of “Who Needs Gay Bars?

But Mattson also noticed that gay bars varied across how they treated patrons of lor, how they treated olr gay men and how they treated straight patrons. Some — like The Woodward, which Mattson c as a standout gay bar — do well wh race and other intifiers, but many don’t take to nsiratn anyone other than “whe, cisgenr, middle-class men, ” Mattson says.

AS GAY BARS HAVE CLOSED RECENT S, LOL THOR LOOKS AT CULTURAL SIGNIFINCE

On one hand, gay bars are a necsy bee of their historic role as s for anizg the fight for civil rights and their role as fundraisers for var margalized muni beyond their own.

A realizatn durg his rearch was that Mattson was vlated several ways while equentg gay bars, as the bar for nsent around touchg has shifted recent years.

Gay bars n get to their North Star, Mattson says, by rememberg their rol as not jt provirs of safe spac, but by unrstandg how money flows through the muny.

NEW PAPERBACK: ‘GAY BAR’ AND ‘AFTERPARTI’

One uld argue that gay bars aren’t need anymore as acceptance has bee more wispread on topics like the ballroom movement, drag gog mastream, gay marriage beg upheld, the rise of gay apps and straight people beg better alli. From leather parti the Castro to Gay Liberatn Front touch-s; om dis at Stud One to dark rooms Vxhall railway arch, the gay bar has long been a place of joy, solidary and sexual exprsn. Jarred by the closg of his favore lol waterg hole Cleveland, Oh, Greggor Mattson embarks on a journey across the untry to pat a much more plex picture of the cultural signifince of the spac, si the “big four” gay ci, but also beyond them.

In an exclive terview wh Instct Magaze, Mattson discs bars he wants to vis that he didn’t get a chance to for the book, the effect social media played the survival of gay bars, what surprised him his rearch, and more.

LBB PRENTS: GREGGOR MATTSON - WHO NEEDS GAY BARS?

There were lots of bars that had tertg stori and I was tryg to pick stori that ptured some of the ma them I was hearg when I was talkg to owners, and I was also tryg to reflect the sheer diversy of gay bars. And ’s a very small town fact, ’s the only bar that town so if you wanna drk East Montpelier, you have to go to the gay bar or you got to drive to the next town over. I wanted to go to Salt Lake Cy to go see the gay bars there and I had wanted to go to Puerto Ri to clu as part of the Uned Stat and s Commonwealth terrori but at a certa pot, you know, I ma to Hawaii, I ma to Alaska.

But one of the thgs that surprised me was how many gay bars are managed by straight folks and are managed at a very high level and a very clive, thoughtful, tentnal way.

I had been open to the ia that there was such a thg as an Appalachian gay bar or a Southern gay bar or a Midwtern gay bar or a Pacific Northwt gay bar and bars were really mired their lol geography. And I thk the bars that are succsful are the on that get the word out, bee if you’re not much of a gay bar person but you like trivia then somehow you have to learn about when you weren’t followg their Facebook page or their Instagram.

THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

There have been some ci at different tim lbian bathho that have been treasured by the women who vised them but gay bathho jt like cisy gay bars wh backrooms have really been h hard by smartphone datg apps bee if all you offered was a place to hook up people n orr , they don’t have to eat out anymore and ’s privatized our erotic liv. It ed to be you would learn different ways to be LGBTQ+ or at least how to be gay by beg around men who were beg sexual and now creasgly you only get to watch their Only Fans or you’re not their physil prence a way that you would be at a bathhoe. I was listeng to the rad today and the lear of a nservative gay anizatn tried to make the claim that trans, he lled genr iology, was unrmg lbian and gay rights and A.

I thk bee LGBTQ+ people live the world and share s prejudic, I thk, for queer and trans people of lor gay bars, often the feel ls safe than they do to whe and cis (cisgenr) folks.

GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI

GM: I was relatively ignorant about two-spir people, but I was cur a state like Oklahoma that is home to so many Native Amerin and digeno people what were their experienc gay bars.

GAY MOSW · CY GUI

And my real hope is that other people will step up and tell their stori bee at the end of the day, I am one middle-aged, middle-class, Midwt middle Amerin who n only see certa thgs om a certa vantage pot and I want to read more gay bar stori om more diverse voic and I hope your rears step up and wre those stori. (Courty of ONE Archiv at the USC Librari, Los Angel, and the tate of Pat Roc)Queeri is a weekly lumn by CBC Arts producer Peter Knegt that queri LGBTQ art, culture and/or inty through a personal the panmic, the last time I went this long whout gog to a gay bar was before I was legal drkg age.

For many of  livg plac where we've been privileged enough to have gay bars be an tegral — if plited — part of our culture sce we were brave enough or old enough to get , the past year and untg has been a big parture om a route our social liv. That's a re qutn Jeremy Atherton L's vibrant but book Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, a mix of memoir and historil document that explor the plex relatnship both Atherton L and gay culture has had wh the creasgly endangered habat that is the gay bar. (HBG Canada)Exceptnally well-crafted, Gay Bar is both a book about Atherton L's life and the gay bars each chapter foc on ( jumps om London to Los Angel to San Francis).

At that time, over half the gay bars London had closed down the prev , as they siarly had major ci across the world thanks largely to a double-edged sword of gentrifitn skyrocketg rent and the rise of gay social apps like Grdr puttg virtual gay bars people's pockets. " "It's ase that would not have been at the foreont of people's mds, but really the effect of the AIDS crisis on gay culture seemed to me to be very buried, " he says of his troductn to that culture the 1990s.

MOSW GAY BARS

"Atherton L says that, for him, dog that kd of revisg led him to fd "more of a sense of a longer history" wh rpect to his own relatnship to gay culture. ( Jamie Atherton)The panmic began as Atherton L was dog fal eds of the book, and he wonred about whether to make chang to reflect this new and cripplg chapter the challeng facg gay bars' survival. The song translat to "let rejoice, " and nveyed to the two teens that they hadn’t found jt a place to go, but a sense of real life, the real gay pub picted the film closed s doors 2006.

Wisns has long been a forenner LGBTQ+ advocy, ever sce was the first state to pass anti-discrimatn legislatn for the LGBTQ muny 1982, givg the tle of "the first gay rights state. "Here are five stori that scratch the surface of the Fox Ci' LGBTQ muny and Lambda Lounge: Appleton's first gay barThroughout the late 20th century, gay people primarily found muny through the bar scene, often seen as a safe space for LGBTQ people to socialize.

Appleton's first gay bar, the Lambda Lounge, opened downtown 1977 by partners Pl DeB and Gene DeB, Pl's sister, said the two bought the bar om Claire Kempky who ran Doris' Super Bar, a bs wh a reputatn as a hangout spot for gay people. " The bar opened 1977 and was Appleton's first gay the bar wasn't openly advertised as a gay bar for the safety of s patrons, people knew of through word of mouth and natnal gay bar guis, such as the Damron Gui.