The History of How Gay Bars Beme the Battleground for LGBTQ+ Rights

Contents:

• THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
• RH, “AN ALL NEW GAY BAR” G TO SHAW, POSTS LIQUOR LICENSE PLARD
• THE BT GAY BARS MELBOURNE
• IN 'LAST CALL', A SERIAL KILLER TARGETS MANHATTAN'S '90S GAY BARS. INSI THE TE STORY
• LBB PRENTS: GREGGOR MATTSON - WHO NEEDS GAY BARS?

THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS

Today, people tend to equate gay bars as beg plac to party pecially hard. They’re fun spots if you’re gay, straight, or anywhere between.

‘Wild night out’ stori often clu or end at the neighborhood gay bar. It’s hard to overstate the importance of the gay bar wh the LGBTQ+ rights movement over the past uple hundred years. In honor of Pri Month, we wanted to highlight the historil signifince of gay bars and their impact on equaly for all.

Bee of the need for tense secrecy, the very earlit history of the gay bar has been mostly lost. However, 1810, we get our first rerd stance of a gay bar—unr admtedly unfortunate circumstanc.

RH, “AN ALL NEW GAY BAR” G TO SHAW, POSTS LIQUOR LICENSE PLARD

Although is nice to thk of gay bars as unanimoly safe plac, where the LGBTQ+ muny uld exist whout threat, that clearly wasn’t always the se. Stati, gay bars seem to have gotten their ‘start’ the later part of the 1800s, wh a New York Cy hotspot lled “The Sli. ” Unfortunately, police reports and mastream media verage of a gay bar 1880 proved to be extremely unreliable and hyperbolic, fueled mostly by pearl-clutchg and fear-mongerg rather than actual rmatn.

Over the next several s, gay and lbian bars began to pop up all over the untry, each one perhaps takg a cue om those before . Dpe their often short-lived nature, the early gay bars often served as hugely important battlegrounds the fight for LGBTQ+ rights. In the 1950’s, San Francis hotspot The Black Cat was makg s name as one of the natn’s most popular gay bars.

In rponse to this, the San Francis Police Department began a mpaign agast the bar and s gay clientele. “ orr to tablish 'good e' for spensn of platiff's license, somethg more mt be shown than that many of his patrons were homosexuals and that they ed his rtrant and bar as a meetg place. It would be hard to go through the history of the gay bar Ameri whout mentng Juli Bar New York Cy.

THE BT GAY BARS MELBOURNE

In 1966, the New York State Liquor Authory passed a law that prohibed servg alholic beverag to homosexuals. Jt as did California, this state law was short lived, wh urts eventually led that gays uld ‘peacefully’ assemble at bars, which paved the way for the inic Stonewall Inn to open 1967.

The sign the wdow reads: "We homosexuals plead wh our people to please help mata peaceful and quiet nduct on the streets of the Village. Jt two years after the Stonewall Rts, gay rights groups existed every major Amerin cy, as well as Canada, Atralia and Europe.

The Stonewall Rts n be seen as a divir of sorts, between the “BC” and “AD” perds of gay rights Ameri. “But that night, for the first time, the ual acquicence turned to vlent that night the liv of lns of gay men and lbians, and the attu toward them of the larger culture which they lived, began to change rapidly.

IN 'LAST CALL', A SERIAL KILLER TARGETS MANHATTAN'S '90S GAY BARS. INSI THE TE STORY

In recent years, the role of gay bar has taken a more sual, fun place our non of nightlife, but that wasn’t always the se. Throughout history, gay bars have been flash pots for huge moments the procs of LGBTQ+ liberatn. This month pecially, ’s important to remember the signifince of the gay bar as an Amerin in, as somethg fiant and revolutnary— the most grassroots sense of the word.

LBB PRENTS: GREGGOR MATTSON - WHO NEEDS GAY BARS?

Whether you are a member of the LGBTQ+ muny, work at a gay bar, are an ally the dtry, or if you plan on celebratg this June, jt remember the bars and people who helped make all possible. The new documentary San Diego's Gay Bar History surveys some of the 135 bars that have existed the cy and chronicl the var aspects of the LGBTQ muny that have grown wh them. The earlit example of a gay bar San Diego me the 1957, when straight ally Lou Arko bought the popular lunch club of the 1930's, the Brass Rail, and extend to a meetg spot for gay people at post-World War II era herald the openg of many more bars, terg to the pennt men and women who had moved to the btlg port cy for ary jobs.

Durg this time, when homosexualy was crimalized and was even agast the law for two men to dance together, the bars provid a meetg place for LGBTQ people who were otherwise isolated. The Ball Exprs, a massive club hoed an airplane hangar, drew crowds of a thoand people gathered for acts such as Barbara Cook, Gloria Gaynor, and Eartha Kt. WCPC also hosted some of San Diego's first Pri events, but they quickly outgrew the AIDS began vastatg the gay muny the '80s, the bars beme the plac for folks to gather, grieve, and raise money for men dyg om the disease.

Interviewe cred lbians for steppg up to re for gay men when nurs wouldn't touch or feed their patients and for donatg blood bee gay men weren't allowed to do so. "I don't thk losg gay bars across Ameri is progrs.