As LGBTQ culture be more tegrated mastream society, gay bars still have an important role, but not like they ed to.
Contents:
- WHY THE MAFIA CONTROLLED STONEWALL AND THE OTHER GAY BARS 1960S NEW YORK
- QUEEN CY COM OUT: EXPLORG SEATTLE'S LBIAN AND GAY HISTORY, BY THE NORTHWT LBIAN & GAY HISTORY MM PROJECT
- A LOOK AT THE CULTURE OF GAY BARS AND LGBTQ NIGHTLIFE CT
- A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
- HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE
- GAY COMMUNITY 1970S
WHY THE MAFIA CONTROLLED STONEWALL AND THE OTHER GAY BARS 1960S NEW YORK
Bars and Saloons the History of Gay and Lbian life, culture and society Milwkee, Wisns. Includ at the se are histori of anizatns, clubs, bars and other bs by and for the LGBT muny; social and artistic events, people, and plac that had signifint plac the velopment of gay and lbian life the area. * gay bars in 1960 *
Fifty years after the Black Cat protts Los Angel, which directly led to the lnch of The Advote, we take a look at some of the most nsequential strik on gay bars and bathho datg back more than a century. The rmatn gathered actually led to a wir vtigatn of homosexualy nearby ci, which rulted 20 arrts, cludg two ps on the Baker Street beat, acrdg to Allan Bebe’s A History of Bathho. Moral reformers New York Cy raised polil prsure on police the 1920s to shut down the Lafayette Brothers’ Turkish Baths, a popular spot for gay men livg and visg the cy.
A German gay magaze 1929 published an acunt of a 26-year-old European visor that said eight tectiv went unrver the bathhoe, then round all patrons the ont room and beat the guts. Loted between Los Angel gay bars Harold’s and the Waldorf, Cooper’s Donuts at night beme a hub of social activy for drag queens, gays, trans people, and htlers the 1950s.
While one of the first known phbacks agast police raids, likely would have been fotten if not for the fact gay lerature pneer John Rechy happened to be there as the time. A New Year’s police raid on the Black Cat, a gay bay the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angel, rulted the beatgs of more than a dozen people; two men were arrted for the crime of kissg and a bartenr suffered a ptured spleen. California lawmakers 1976 passed a nsentg adults law part to stop persecutn of gays through bathhoe raids, but that didn’t stop San Francis ps om raidg Liberty Baths an apparent tt of that law, acrdg to A History of Bathho.
QUEEN CY COM OUT: EXPLORG SEATTLE'S LBIAN AND GAY HISTORY, BY THE NORTHWT LBIAN & GAY HISTORY MM PROJECT
* gay bars in 1960 *
The owner of the Streatham tablishment would end up fed 5, 000 pounds and sentenced to six months jail, somethg Gay News at the time would label a “dranian sentence. The Broward County Sheriff’s Office nducted jot raids of Florida gay bars Club 21 and Copa on May 3, 1991, and the cints would play a role Sheriff Nick Navarro eventually losg reelectn, ironilly after nductg such raids an apparent publicy stunt. Byron Jon, who led a group om the Gay and Lbian Youth Group Club 21 the eveng of the raid, wrote later The Advote that hundreds were taed by police though only six were arrted.
Three years after Cha crimalized homosexualy, police Guangzhou July 2000 raid the Junjie men’s health and bety center and arrted 37 men on charg of prostutn. Montreal police raid gay strip bar Taboo on May 10, 2003, then publicly suggted they were specifilly raidg the tablishment bee of the potential for olr men preyg on young dancers.
Police later admted learng gay activi happened at the tablishment thanks to spottg ments on a gay cisg webse, spe ially suggtg they had no ia the bs was a bathhoe. Durg what AIDS activist Wan Yahai suggted was a crackdown on gays Beijg, the Dtatn got closed March 9, 2008, by police supposedly for playg mic too loud and hostg too large a crowd, acrdg to an article the Shangaiist.
A LOOK AT THE CULTURE OF GAY BARS AND LGBTQ NIGHTLIFE CT
GAY COMMUNITY IN THE 1970S. The 1970s marked an important perd the history of the Gay Communy of Cleveland. This article provis tails on var aspects of the muny the cril followg Stonewall., * gay bars in 1960 *
Later that month, 10 police rs rolled to Oasis, the most popular gay bathhoe Beijg, and ps round up more than 70 people, cludg staff and patrons, durg a March 20 raid. When the Atlanta Police’s “Red Dog” un raid gay bar the Eagle September 2009, patrons reported beg forced onto the ground while officers ed homophobic slurs and nducted background checks on everybody there. Police arrted 40 people standg outsi popular Mosw gay bar Central Statn December 2013, shortly after a number of disput between the bar owner and buildg landlords, acrdg to The Mosw Tim.
After a July 6, 2014, raid which around 65 gay people were round up and taken to the police statn, Nairobi news outlet Ghafla reported that the arrts were ma simply bee the patrons were homosexual. Police apparently regularly me to mand the IDs of guts, then end up arrtg Mlims to charge them not wh any homosexualy-related crime but wh the illegal nsumptn of alhol, a vlatn of Sharia law largely unenforced straight nightclubs. “The repeal of Prohibn may have rtored Amerins’ right to drk alhol, but municipali and stat found var ways to curtail gay people’s abily to drk together public.
In San Francis, Sal Stoueman’s Black Cat Cafe (ma particularly famo by Jack Kerouac and Allen Gsberg) hand out “I’m A Boy” nametags to patrons, so unrver ps uld not arrt s drag performers, “gay screamg queens” (TM Gsberg), or even “gray flannel su typ” for female impersonatn wh tent to d or ceive someone to sex. Out California, a group of San Francis gay bar owners had band together to go public about the massive brib they were payg police orr to rema open, the effect beg, they exposed signifint police rptn.
A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
“The good half of the story, om there, is that the 1960-61 bar closur marked some of the most important pre-Stonewall gay rights protts and publicly broadst activism.
Several bar owners’ groups (the Tavern Guild particular) formed to lobby specifilly for the rights of owners to urt a gay clientele; even The Advote started publitn rponse. In New York, a massive group of gay men staged a public prott of, sentially, “beg gay public” midtown until ps and policians basilly allowed bars to operate for a perd of time so they would go be queer out of sight. “Word of mouth that Stonewall (Cherry Lane Theater, Fifth Avenue Bar, etc) were ‘perdilly safe’ plac for gay people to drk and be gay public was ccial for the Mafia to keep their gay bars profable, particularly a plete dive like Stonewall for which the space was really the only attractn.
The gay muny had s own formal means of munitn, like the Mattache Society’s Gay Scene Gui that rmed rears the Stonewall Inn was one of a very few (maybe the only? The Queen Cy Bs Guild, an anizatn of bar owners that would eventually bee today’s Greater Seattle Bs Associatn, as well as the Uned Ebony Council, a black gay male anizatn found 1975, and part of the Court of Seattle wh s emprs and royalty, both ed the Mombo for early anizatnal meetgs. In addn to tradnal tnal efforts such as a newsletter, the Dorian Society had a speakers bure to speak Seattle public schools, appeared on rad programs, led tours of gay bars for a program lled Urban Plunge, and hosted drag balls.
HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE
This strikg image is a remr that the work of homophile anizatns like the Dorian Society and the Third Name Society (a women’s anizatn) were already makg signifint efforts toward gay and lbian visibily. Like most bars Seattle both gay and straight alike, was subject to the “blue laws” preventg activi rangg om patrons holdg drks while standg up, or the number of chairs at the bar. Soon the “theater people” would start to formulate a strong muny where people were able to be openly gay; they uld cross-drs and play wh genr mak the photos so wonrful is that they are very rare.
The people are iendly, and we have always been on the ont of LGBTQ+ rights and fightg for eedom to be out and the 1950s, there was no nng water and no electricy, but gay men and women were happy to be roughg bee they were ee to be themselv.
GAY COMMUNITY 1970S
If you were gay the cy, you went to the dark and dgy bars, which were n by the Mafia, and at any time uld be raid by the police and you uld be Cherry Grove, the police would leave on the last ferry to the maland at midnight, allowg same-sex dancg and open exprsns of affectn to occur the lol bars and rtrants.
Each year, thoands of people e together to drs up and celebrate Inpennce Day the gayt way possible … wh hundreds of drag queens on a ferry returng to the P to keep the tradn gog. Wh legislatn like the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and last year’s transgenr girls sports ban, the Sunshe State has a shadowy reputatn for how treats the LGBTQ muny. T Abad, a 29-year-old gay man om New London County, said gay bars Connecticut are somewhat of a dyg breed bee mastream culture has bee more acceptg of the muny.