Gay Plac wh Dr. Jeff – 140 North Street – Prervatn Buffalo Niagara

Contents:

• LGBTQ+ AFFIRMG THERAPISTS BUFFALO, NY
• A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
• ANY GAY BARS BUFFALO? - BUFFALO FOM
• GAY LAS VEGAS
• MOVG TO LGBT BUFFALO, NEW YORK? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!
• THE METRO AREAS WH THE LARGT, AND SMALLT, GAY POPULATNS
• GAY PLAC WH DR. JEFF – 140 NORTH STREET

LGBTQ+ AFFIRMG THERAPISTS BUFFALO, NY

Robert Uplger, who went by “Bob” or “Bobby,” moved to Allentown the early 1970s to be near his own kd: Buffalo’s gay muny. Bob, an out gay man, grew up on Buffalo’s Wt Si and was secure his sexualy om a young age. “It was a fact, and I uldn’t help if others were unable to unrstand .” Begng the late 1960s, Allentown beme associated wh Buffalo’s gay muy, addn to artists, micians, and other bohemians.

A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.

Racial tensns on the East Si ed whe-owned gay bars to relote wt of Ma Street, and anti-vice mpaigns centered around Chippewa and Washgton streets forced gays and sex workers to move their nightly operatns northward. He was out to his fay, iends, and -workers and was highly rpected by gay and straight memebers of the muny. Uplger also participated the lol gay anizatns Gay Profsnals and the Mattache Society of the Niagara Frontier and was a practner of Eastern philosophy and medatn.

On the hot, muggy night of Augt 7th of 1981, the then 30-year-old Uplger, clad a tank top to both stave off the mid-summer humidy and crease his chanc of fdg a pann, went to a lol gay bar (most likely Mean Alice’s/Cy Lights or the Villa Capri). The sectn of North Street between Delaware Avenue and Irvg Street, where the hotel was loted, was a popular “cisg” area for gay men and male and female sex workers. Nisia was part of an unrver mpaign to sre gay men away om cisg the rintial areas of Allentown.

ANY GAY BARS BUFFALO? - BUFFALO FOM

Arra, who claimed that police received equent plats about the sexual cisg activi of gay men Allentown. Given the neighborhood’s historic stat, Arra worried gay men were sullyg Allentown’s reputatn and terrorizg s heterosexual rints by flntg their homosexualy public. When he was 18, Uplger had been kicked out of a private Catholic high school Buffalo after the prcipal disvered he had been picked up by an unrver officer downtown a former gay cisg area.

This was 1969 when gay bars Buffalo were few and far between, so gays would meet on Washgton Street. “What really angered me,” Uplger later explaed an terview, “was the fact that here I was, a tax-payg cizen who has a rponsible job, walkg home om a nearby gay bar a predomantly gay neighboorhood I’d moved to 10 years ago, and bee I asked an attractive man to go home wh me a sual, non-threateng nversatn, I was arrted… I wasn’t beg obnox or phy, jt talkg a normal way.”.

Bill, as Gardner was more lloquially known, had ma a reputatn for himself reprentg gay men who were targeted by the BPD for sodomy or loerg charg. As a young lawyer, he observed how gays and lbians were routely harassed by the Buffalo police. “Given my rponsive horror to the attus of the thori agast the gay populatn Buffalo, the only way I figured we uld overe that was to mount a csa to overle the laws that they were enforcg so vigoroly.

GAY LAS VEGAS

I let var folks and gay anizatns know that if they brought me people, I would reprent them for ee. Garrow when his attempts to open a gay bar and muny center on Delaware Avenue were thwarted by the BPD.

Gardner’s willgns to challenge the police stemmed om more than a personal mment to those need of fense and his belief that the statut ed to target gays were unnstutnal.

First, the urt equated heterosexual and homosexual sodomy and examed the issue through the ncept of sexual privacy.

MOVG TO LGBT BUFFALO, NEW YORK? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!

Fally, strikg down the sodomy statute of one of the largt stat the untry, hope was given to those stgglg to crimalize gay sexualy throughout the Uned Stat. In his ttimony, Kennedy asserted that nnectns between gay sexualy and child moltatn were part of the reason for the crackdown Allentown.

The vice pta further claimed to be posssn of an rmal book which he logged plats ma to police regardg gay “cisg.” The BPD received at least four plats per week, alleged Kennedy.

Gardner’s qutng revealed what he long knew to be te: an atmosphere of systemic homophobia wh the Buffalo Police Department.

THE METRO AREAS WH THE LARGT, AND SMALLT, GAY POPULATNS

Uplger, he received a seri of harassg phone lls om people he perceived as unhappy and maladjted gays. Uplger was further distrsed that the lears of Buffalo’s var gay anizatns (approximately 12 at the time) were slow to reach out and hear his story.

GAY PLAC WH DR. JEFF – 140 NORTH STREET

He attributed this to the prevailg notn that gays livg mid-sized, blue-llar ci such as Buffalo should rema closeted. As Gardner prepared for the Supreme Court, his nerv were rattled by a phone lled he received om a reprentative of a natnal gay-rights group.

While a landmark se, is important to note that this Supreme Court cisn, however, was not necsarily an affirmatn of gay rights on the feral level. He also beme more publicly volved the gay muny as a member of the Mattache Society of the Niagara Frontier and the Buffalo Gay Men’s Chos. Uplger, too, re-immersed himself his work wh troubled youth, and helped to found Gay & Lbian Youth of Buffalo (now Gay & Lbian Youth Servic of Wtern New York).

It was a different time beg gay then, and most of our youth lived fear of someone fdg out. Many were homels and many were livg double liv–“straight” durg the week and gay when they were at GLYB.