Therapy, One of New York’s Most Popular Gay Bars, Was a Home for Queer Excellence | Them

Contents:

• THERAPY, ONE OF NEW YORK’S MOST POPULAR GAY BARS, WAS A HOME FOR QUEER EXCELLENCE
• TRAILBLAZG HELL’S KCHEN GAY BAR THERAPY IS IN DANGER OF CLOSG PERMANENTLY

THERAPY, ONE OF NEW YORK’S MOST POPULAR GAY BARS, WAS A HOME FOR QUEER EXCELLENCE

When Therapy first opened 2003, the ia of operatg a popular gay bar Hell’s Kchen was nsired hery. While clubs like Barrage, Posh, and Nth Avenue Saloon had already enjoyed some succs the Broadway-adjacent midtown district, the hub of gay life Manhattan was centered Chelsea, so much so that the phrase “Chelsea boy” beme pejorative slang for a “bronzed, buffed, waxed gay ial, ” as the New York Tim would ment jt two years after the bar’s Nevs, who then served as Therapy’s entertament director, relled givg a tour to a sce-shuttered gay magaze shortly after s public but, and the skepticism was palpable. When Tom Johnson and his -owners acquired the 52nd Street lotn, was home to a makhift brothel that was nng an illegal gamblg operatn the even before Grdr and gay datg apps further heightened the cynicism around physil gay spac, Johnson knew the mand was there.

TRAILBLAZG HELL’S KCHEN GAY BAR THERAPY IS IN DANGER OF CLOSG PERMANENTLY

“What I always said about New York is we all live shoe box, and the lol gay bar is where you would enterta your iends, ” he told them.

Almost immediately, the bar was a h, and soon after a rapid flux of gay bars opened along the 9th Avenue strip, cludg Flamg Saddl, Boxers, Atlas Social Club, and Indtry. ”Courty of TherapyFor a bar that ma s name on buckg tradn, Therapy end s lifpan by helpg to dispel one last hoary cliché: that gay bars would bee obsolete due to lack of tert.