Free Prs Flashback: How the 'Godfather of Gay Detro' helped lnch the morn mic scene

CURSID: DID DETRO EVER HAVE A ‘GAYBORHOOD’?

I’m terted the history of whether or not there was a gay neighborhood Detro. After World War II, downtown Detro was a hub for gay bars.

Then, startg the 1950s, the gay populatn began followg the migratn pattern of many Metro Detroers, headg northward. Today, the area around Six Mile Road and Woodward Avenue has remaed a hub for the Ain Amerin gay muny. ‘Michigan’s Gayt Square Mile’.

Greg Piazza, a former Palmer Park rint, rells, “There was one buildg we lled ‘The Barracks’: 48 apartment uns, 46 of them were gay men. Piazza, thor of A History of Detro’s Palmer Park, says the archecture of the buildgs, open-md management, and some child-ee livg polici, attracted a strong gay ntgent. Piazza remembers eight bars, two gay-iendly bookstor and two rtrants.

GODFATHER OF GAY DETRO

On a recent Thursday, a small crowd has already gathered at Menjos, an inic gay club that’s been on Six Mile Road near Woodward sce the early 1970’s.

“I thk would be a mistake to say that Palmer Park is no longer a gay neighborhood, ” says Dr. Tim Retzloff, a historian who has tracked the gay migratn Metro Detro. “In some rpects there’s still a strong gay prence Palmer Park, ’s now jt an Ain-Amerin gay prence and not a Whe gay prence.

JAGUARS ACH MAXEN OUT AS GAY HISTORIC ANNOUNCEMENT

For the past 20 years, the Black gay pri celebratn “Hotter than July” has hosted s annual piic Palmer Park. He regniz the signifince of the area, but says he isn’t actually nvced gay neighborhoods facilate progrs. Tim Retzloff his rearch document, “Historil directory of gay & lbian bars metro Detro.