Rememberg the Lost Gay Bars of NYC Like The Vlt Me Shaft Nth Circle
Contents:
- HOW GAY BARS HAVE BEEN A BUILDG BLOCK OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNY
- SAN DIEGO’S GAY BAR HISTORY: REFLECTNS ON COMMUNY HISTORY AND THE DOCUMENTARY FILM PROCS
- GAY BARS A HISTORIL 'REFUGE' FOR LGBTQ PEOPLE
- GAY BARS, GENR DISCRIMATN, AND BOYTTS—1980S STYLE
HOW GAY BARS HAVE BEEN A BUILDG BLOCK OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNY
The history of the spac shows how gay nightlife has always served as val space for muny buildg and pg societal persecutn * gay bars in the 1980s *
Insi The Monster, a gay bar around the rner om Stonewall, where the event played out on vio screens, was difficult to hear for a different reason. But the muny and mararie ma the bar’s buzz of activy special, and (thankfully) ordary: Space to socialize and celebrate at a gay bar 2016 isn’t hard to fd. Dpe the massive stris the lbian, gay, transgenr, bisexual, and queer muni have ma the last few s, the shockg horror of the weekend’s shootgs ma clear the ntued relevance and importance of the bars and nightclubs.
While the protts and march at The Stonewall Inn turned the bar to a symbolic headquarters for the Gay Pri movement, gay nightlife has always served as val space for muny buildg and pg societal persecutn. The people behd the plac have sparked polil activism (Joe Scialo, the late former owner of The Monster, supported employe the ‘80s fightg AIDS and even traveled to Mexi to brg back life-savg dgs) and have fostered mic and creative exprsn for s (gay clubs such as the Warehoe Chigo and Paradise Garage New York gave birth to hoe and var stras of electronic mic).
The worldwi ralli honorg the Orlando victims, often at plac siar to where their liv were cut short, unrsr the importance of gay nightlife over the last half century. Jt a ltle more than 60 years ago, famo police raids Miami attempted to shut down the cy’s gay nightlife, rultg newspaper headl such as "Perverts Seized Bar Raids, " "Crackdown on Deviant Nts Urged, " and "Great Civilizatns Plagued by Deviat. The notor "Purple Pamphlets" dissemated by state Senator Charley Johns, who had led wch hunts agast gays state ernment and led vtigative mte that fired hundreds of gay schoolteachers, portrayed the culture as viant and dangero.
SAN DIEGO’S GAY BAR HISTORY: REFLECTNS ON COMMUNY HISTORY AND THE DOCUMENTARY FILM PROCS
* gay bars in the 1980s *
A man holdg an Amerin flag stands outsi Ramrod, a gay leather bar on Christopher and Wt 10th Streets the Wt Village New York, Dec. Like the gay muny, gay nightlife has always been around, "sce time immemorial, " as poet Allen Gsberg would say, one form or another.
But wasn’t until the seismic shift of World War II changed gay culture the Uned Stat that the bars and nightlife of today began to tly take shape. While on s own the war didn't create any lastg legal chang the shameful way the untry treated homosexuals, did set motn other lastg social shifts. The sgle-sex arrangement of ary life, as well as creasg pennce (and enomic advanc) of women workg on the homeont, offered many gay Amerins the abily to ngregate greater numbers for the first time.
The release of the Ksey Reports (1948’s Sexual Behavr the Human Male and 1953’s Sexual Behavr the Human Female) rerced the then-new notn that beg gay was perfectly normal. While this risg awarens helped create new gay rights anizatns, such as the Mattache Society and the Dghters of Bilis, was quickly untered wh a nservative backlash of nformy and Communist paranoia, exemplified by Senator Joseph McCarthy. His vtigatns, part of an anti-gay wch hunt the feral ernment lled the Lavenr Sre, would persecute leftists for years, and along wh sual bigotry and wispread amement over terms such as ‘pixie, ’ would help falsely lk beg gay wh viance and anti-Amerin behavr the popular imagatn.
GAY BARS A HISTORIL 'REFUGE' FOR LGBTQ PEOPLE
While there have, undoubtedly, been signifint ton LGBT history earlier s, I believe the Eighti was a particularly important perd. That saw a major shift towards the emergence of a global gay culture. The gay genie me right out of s ltle pk bottle and to the streets (and the * gay bars in the 1980s *
"Not until the ‘50s and ‘60s did the ernment brg s power to bear on reprsg homosexuals, " wrote Steven Seidman his book Beyond the Closet.
At the same time, he ntued, popular culture was "pollutg homosexualy" by labelg gays cultural subversiv, child molters, predators, and disease sprears. "Gay bars were our muny center, our meet and greet, our place for anizg, " Stt Gunkel, Print of PriFt Milwkee, told the lol Journal-Sentel. In Provcetown, Massachetts, the A-Hoe, a gay hangout, beme one of the landmarks of the northeastern vatn muny, famo for a nu photo of Tennsee Williams strollg a lol beach hangg on the wall.
GAY BARS, GENR DISCRIMATN, AND BOYTTS—1980S STYLE
The Cab Inn, opened by Nat "Big" Ivy Chigo’s South Si Bronzeville neighborhood, put on regular drag shows featurg a chos le of black men, while Esta Noche, a pneerg Missn District gay bar, opened for a predomantly Hispanic clientele 1979. Margalized much like their clientele, gay bars were often forced to set root unrveloped, or dtrial sectns of town, or well off the beaten path ral areas.