The Flame, the Gay Bar of Ann Arbor, MI, 1949-1998 · "Sunshe, this is Mr. Horowz": The Flame, the Gay Bar of Ann Arbor, MI, 1949-1998, by Rostom Mli and Brian Whener · OutHistory

Contents:

•  MICHIGAN LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS
• EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS ANN ARBOR
• "SUNSHE, THIS IS MR. HOROWZ": THE FLAME, THE GAY BAR OF ANN ARBOR, MI, 1949-1998, BY ROSTOM MLI AND BRIAN WHENER
• GAY ANN ARBOR

 MICHIGAN LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS

This is fely a great place to be if you’re terted gettg volved wh Ann Arbor’s gay nightlife. In my send semter at the Universy of Michigan, I ma a iend whom I, as a transfer who was sperately lookg for other Queer people Ann Arbor, latched onto as somethg of a gay mentor. She gave me two remendatns for where to fd gay culture: the -ops and Aut Bar — the latter beg the cy’s only gay bar.

EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS ANN ARBOR

After I regnized Aut Bar’s absence, I realized how disnnected and sparse Ann Arbor’s gay scene really was. It was te that Ann Arbor felt like had a larger, lour gay populatn than East Lansg, where I had spent two years prevly as a stunt at Michigan State Universy, and certaly had more of one than where I grew up. I knew firsthand that Ann Arbor lived up to s reputatn for beg gay-iendly.

But what, really, did the cy of Ann Arbor have to show for s gay muny other than what I n only ll the “vib?

"SUNSHE, THIS IS MR. HOROWZ": THE FLAME, THE GAY BAR OF ANN ARBOR, MI, 1949-1998, BY ROSTOM MLI AND BRIAN WHENER

” For as gay as Ann Arbor touted self as beg, where was the cy’s physil evince for this claim? A iend asked me to e along to a discsn group at the Jim Toy Communy Center — an LGBTQ+ rource center named after the pneerg Ann Arbor gay-rights activist who found the Human Sexualy Office, now the Universy’s Spectm Center — that they found onle, supposedly two doors down om the empty Aut Bar space. The skeletons of Aut Bar, the Jim Toy Communy Center and Common Language — the LGBTQ+ bookstore between them — pated a picture of the ltle urtyard as a former center of gay muny Ann Arbor.

Wh my regret at havg jt missed the tail end of Aut Bar’s n revived, and a new cursy about not only Brn Court’s gay history but Ann Arbor’s, I rolved to do a ltle rearch of my own. Keh Orr and Mart Contreras, Aut Bar’s owners of 25 years, uld wre the book on the gay history of Ann Arbor.

Dpe their amiable, open meanors and excement to talk wh me about Ann Arbor’s gay muny — somethg they were clearly so passnate about — I was nervo to meet them. I asked them about their time as unrgraduat and, wh the precisn of seasoned storytellers wh steel-trap memori who have been asked to tell certa stori multiple tim over, both said that they knew they were gay at a young age but were havg trouble g out their early days at the Universy.

GAY ANN ARBOR

Although not gay-owned, beme the cy’s facto gay bar the ’60s. “It was a dive, ” Orr said, but, “In many ways, was nsired kd of safe bee ps didn’t want to go the gay bar.

Contreras agreed, scribg The Flame as “dark and dgy” but “beloved by the gay male muny bee was the only place town. Unr management by Harvey Blanchard, The Flame’s owner of 23 years, Contreras said the bar was “nonpl” about the muny of gay men that had found somethg of a home wh s walls. Durg the height of the HIV/AIDS epimic the Uned Stat, gay bars on the asts beme plac to band together, anize and stay nnected to the muny.

The Flame was Ann Arbor’s primary public gatherg and socializg spot for gay men for s; nothg of the kd existed for gay women.

Although was imperfect s attus toward gay people (plats about discrimatn were brought agast multiple tim, specifilly by lbians), s populary only creased over the next few s, hostg lol DJs and micians, drag nights and an annual Miss Ann Arbor drag pageant. The Rubaiyat’s populary cled the mid ’80s — closed 1986 and was nverted to a Greek rtrant by longtime owner Greg Fenerli (whose attu toward gay people was also, by his own admissn, imperfect), and the Flame’s cle began the early ’90s. As the era of the Flame me to a close, Orr and Contreras saw a “sperate need for a posive, affirmg, visible, all-welg space Ann Arbor that uld meet the needs of the gay muny.

” The ia for the name to reflect the phoic spellg of the word me om Contreras, who wanted to distguish om other gay-related “out” stutns, like Out Magaze. In those days, nicknam for Brn Court clud “Gay Central, ” the “Queer Quad, ” the “Gayborhood” and the “Homoplex, ” which was btowed upon by Queer performance artist Michelle Tea, who equently ma Ann Arbor and SH\t\ a stop on her tours wh the poetry roadshow, Sister Sp.

Of the current state of gay spac Ann Arbor, Orr said ’s “pretty much nonexistent.

Nothg agast Necto’s Friday night, but a space that’s a gay dance bar once a week n never really be a muny center. If somethg taclysmic happens wh the gay muny, a Pulse, or if the Supreme Court after abortn starts gog after gay rights — sce they’re based on the same legal prcipl — where do we go? Orr and Contreras also drew a le between gay spac and gay-iendly spac, echog some of my own thoughts.

“(In a gay space), you have that sense of ‘There’s 300 people here who are here to enjoy each other and enjoy beg Queer.

’ That’s jt a different vibe than gog out to dner at a gay-iendly place, ” Contreras said. I don’t want to disunt or disregard what a power and privilege is to be able to exist as a gay person Ann Arbor and feel safe while dog so.