John Grabowski and CWRU History Stunt Sidney Negron Featured WKYC Story about Cleveland’s First Gay Bar – Department of History

Contents:

• GAY BARS IN CLEVELAND
• GAY COMMUNITY 1970S
• CLEVELAND'S GAY BARS EVOLVE AGE OF GREATER TOLERANCE
• HISTORY OF GAY BARS
• GAY CLEVELAND THROUGH THE S: THE CLUBS, QUEENS AND MIC THAT BROUGHT GAY CULTURE TO THE MASTREAM
• GAY COMMUNITY
• STANDG STRONG: CLEVELAND’S GAY BARS SURVIVE THE PANMIC, TCH A SEND WD
• HOTEL EMBRAC LOTN AS CLEVELAND'S FIRST GAY-IENDLY BAR
• CLEVELAND GAY BARS
• CLEVELAND GAY CY GUI – THE ROCK AND ROLL CAPAL OF THE WORLD
• 7 BT GAY BARS & RTRANTS CLEVELAND, OH
• JOHN GRABOWSKI AND CWRU HISTORY STUNT SIDNEY NEGRON FEATURED WKYC STORY ABOUT CLEVELAND’S FIRST GAY BAR

GAY BARS IN CLEVELAND

GAY BARS IN CLEVEAND have been existence sce at least the 1940s and have served as important s for the cy’s LGBTQ muny to socialize, anize, and distribute rmatn and rourc. GRAUER, a bar lled Ltle Ted’s, which was suated unr a rtrant of the same name near the CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY, as well as a bar lled Mac & Jerry’s, which was not exclively gay but was a popular spot for the cy’s dtrial workers.

GAY COMMUNITY 1970S

Ale’s Bar at East 115th Street and Euclid Avenue was one such spot, where stunts om the nearby CASE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY and WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY would gather alongsi members of Cleveland’s gay muny. The CADILLAC LOUNGE closed late 1970, but other bars owned by Gloria Lenihan like the Pickwood Lounge on Clifton Avenue remaed popular spots for Cleveland’s gay and lbian muny. Durg this time, the area around Clifton Boulevard was already a signifint part of the gay bar scene that clud other venu the Nantucket Lounge, across om the Pickwood.

In 1977, the openg of the offic of LESBIAN/GAY COMMUNITY SERVICE CENTER OF GREATER CLEVELAND provid a space for members of the gay muny to socialize, anize polilly, and share rourc and rmatn.

Gay bars mataed their prence Cleveland, and they were signifint for gay publitns like HIGH GEAR which ed them as pots of distributn, but they were no longer the only plac which to socialize openly and safely.

CLEVELAND'S GAY BARS EVOLVE AGE OF GREATER TOLERANCE

The Midwt Regnal Discrimatn Rponse System, a project of Black and Whe Men Together, formed orr to report stanc of racial discrimatn wh the gay and lbian muny and discrimatn agast the muny.

In 1985, the anizatn mobilized agast the Rz, a bar Cleveland that accepted members of the gay muny on Sundays, which had been the subject of plats of discrimatn agast Black men and women attemptg to enter. The clu Vibe Bar & Pat on Lora Avenue around Wt 117th Street, Twist on Clifton Boulevard, Cocktails and The Hawk on Detro Avenue, Sha Cleveland’s OLD BROOKLYN neighborhood, and the Leather Stalln, which holds the rerd as Cleveland’s olst operatg gay bar.

Wh most beg the closet, lol gay people equented bars and diss to meet iends, make hook ups (nsentg partners lled “tricks”) and bask an environment wh others who were like them.

HISTORY OF GAY BARS

The area around the Richard Wagner statue on the upper level of Edgewater Park was a popular daily gatherg place for gay sunbathers, often more popular than the beach self. Input om both the Cleveland Divisn of Health and the Cleveland Free Clic helped te lol gays about the symptoms of venereal diseas, where to get nfintial help, what to do to prevent such illns, cludg ndom e, and what to look for potential sex partners. While there were var protts and other actns taken by advot om 1972 to 1976, the third Gay Pri March/Celebratn didn’t occur until July 1976 when wh mimal publicy Dan Richmond, newly appoted worship ordator of the Cleveland Metropolan Communy Church, held a march om Gypsy’s Rtrant at 2418 through downtown Cleveland to Wt 6th Street.

The four primary gay polil groups the Cleveland area the 1970s were the Cleveland Chapter of the Gay Activists Alliance, the Cleveland Gay Polil Unn, the Kent Gay Liberatn Front, and the Gay Cc of Youth Agast War and Fascism. When this group spun off to bee a service anizatn that clud High Gear, the Gay Hotle, and early piec of the LGBT Center of Greater Cleveland, the Gay Feratn, which later beme the Cleveland Gay Polil Unn (CGPU), was formed. Early on, GEAR anizers knew that orr to tablish a Gay Communy Center they would first need to bee an rporated non-prof anizatn Oh and then, secure feral tax-exempt stat om the IRS.

Sce there were strict l about not engagg polil activy, GEAR sisted on a separate polil anizatn, hence the creatn of the Cleveland Gay Feratn, which transformed self to CGPU. Also, 1975, one early morng, members of CGPU, picketed the offic of the CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER to prott their ntued e of the word “homosexual, ” li of “gay” and “lbian. In Febary 1976 over 30 gay women and men marched en masse outsi CLEVELAND PRESS offic to prott censorship of a 2-9 to 2-13-76 Doonbury ic strip that featured a gay character, Andy.

GAY CLEVELAND THROUGH THE S: THE CLUBS, QUEENS AND MIC THAT BROUGHT GAY CULTURE TO THE MASTREAM

When the Supreme Court led on March 29, 1976 by a 6 to 3 vote that stat may prosecute and imprison people for mtg nsensual homosexual acts, CGPU sprang to actn, issug a prs release nouncg the actn and mandg equal treatment. On Saturday, May 8, 1976 members of CGPU, KGLF, and the YAWF gay uc monstrated outsi of the Akron Court Hoe to prott Akron police harassment of gays by issug traffic and parkg catns to those g and leavg area gay bars.

While gay Clevelanrs were not as eply persecuted as others livg elsewhere, there is no qutn that the 1970s gays Cleveland were visible, and ready to take any actn necsary when they felt their rights were beg vlated or when they were beg treated unfairly. New York had a liquor law that barred what they lled disorrly nduct on premis, this was ed to make sure that gay men didn’t dance together bars or even be romantic wh one another. Anchored by the brick Striebger Block buildg at Wt 29th and Detro Shoreway, and extendg down Wt 25th, the Near Wt Si once featured a gay bathhoe, half of the cy’s gay bars, s only gay dance club, other gay bs, and an ocsnally cisy street scene.

GAY COMMUNITY

While some gays rema as ctomers and owners Hgetown, lost are the plac that were patronized by poor queers, men of lor, and men lookg to get the rner of the Striebger Block was A Man’s World, the kd of old-school gay bar wh blacked-out wdows that you had to be buzzed to. The kd that was the last place you saw a good iend before he 1995, A Man’s World had been part of a plex of three gay bars that shared ternal doors and a urtyard pat: The Tool Shed, ostensibly separate om A Man’s World, and the basement Crossover for ocsnal leather/BDSM events.

Hundreds of fundraisers the bars provid a lifele for AIDS chari, gay sports leagu, and polil mpaigns, but also for small discretnary funds to help people wh HIV/AIDS to pay their rent, their utili, or their funeral expens. Its pat sported umbrellas, fx palms, and a view of the Oh Cy skyle where gay volleyballers ngregated after Sunday Striebger Block was also home to Burton’s Soul Food and the Oh Cy Café where you uld grab an enomil be while you sobered up, or lay down a slick of grease to prolong the night’s fun.

The Dean Ruf Hoe of Fun, alternately scribed as an “an upsle gay boutique, ” a “gay-iendly variety store, ” and “a gay porn shop wh a large selectn of soul rerds, ” was open until early morng for sual purchas of signer unrwear, wigs, ck rgs, poppers, or lube. On weekend morngs after last ll, men streamed along Detro, lgerg for one last smoke, takg one last glance, chancg to slip their phone numbers to someone’s hand, makg tomorrow’s plans wh iends, wanrg down Detro to where black and brown htlers lgered, or slkg off between rs to make out … or owners bought the Striebger Block early 2013, and evicted the gay men who lived upstairs. Durg the bars’ last ll, flyers thanked their owner, Rick Harick, for providg “an oasis for the gay muny Cleveland; where ctomers, employe and tenants alike uld gather together to build iendships, celebrate diversy and support the muny.

STANDG STRONG: CLEVELAND’S GAY BARS SURVIVE THE PANMIC, TCH A SEND WD

And when newers and journalists scribe the old neighborhood as shady and dgy, they advertently e old gay pejorativ for Ain Amerins, who ed to equent the bars and who are most of the renters the Lakeview public hog projects two blocks gay men celebrate the new orr. ” The newspaper Gay People’s Chronicle (self recently funct) sound the dogwhistle of racism when telegraphed ncerns over “thugs” and lked the nearby public hog to scriptns of the bars as “a b seedy.

” A former Man’s World bartenr now helms the Urban Orchid Florist Hgetown’s renovated firehoe, and told a wrer for Talkg Pots Memo, “I don’t thk there’s a need for a gay scene Cleveland anymore. Although the Amerin flag still fli om the rner of the Striebger block, the gay pri rabow flag that fluttered beneath has been replaced by the gentrifiers’ standard, the Oh Cy flag. Mattache was the progenor of prent-day gay anizatns and a sense prepared the way for what would bee the gay rights movement after the Stonewall Rt June 1969, which a group of homosexuals fend themselv agast a police raid on a bar Greenwich Village, New York Cy.

HOTEL EMBRAC LOTN AS CLEVELAND'S FIRST GAY-IENDLY BAR

Stonewall was one of the first large public events mandg equal rights and protectns for homosexuals and and transgenr dividuals, wh other notable monstratns agast police harassment occurrg at Cooper Do-nut Los Angel 1959 and at Compton’s Cafeteria San Francis 1966. The movements for civil rights for blacks, women, and other groups, and the tone of liberal thought the late 1960s and early 1970s set motn a wave of activism that saw the formatn of groups and servic specifilly geared to gay men and lbians as a muny of terts.

CLEVELAND GAY BARS

Much of the emphasis of the GEAR Foundatn was on advocy and service, sce harassment and discrimatn were not overt, and sce operatn wh the gay muny was seen as a prerequise for effective work beyond.

The GEAR Foundatn's most visible work was s muny center, which 1986 was renamed the LESBIAN/GAY COMMUNITY SERVICE CENTER OF GREATER CLEVELAND, loted on Detro Avenue the Gordon Square neighborhood.. A polil actn group named STONEWALL CLEVELAND was formed 1990 and has pursued var goals, cludg endorsement of ndidat, tn, and promotn of gay participatn the polil procs. Sports teams, nng and bikg clubs, square dance and untry-wtern dance clubs, support groups for gay parents and parents of gays, revery groups for gay alholics, and book and movie discsn groups all ntribute to the active life of the muny.

Lbian groups Cleveland, as elsewhere, had close allianc to the women's rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and given the difference agenda between femist and gay reformers, is probably only the 1980s that dividg l between the two beme ls pronounced. In general the climate toward homosexuals improved markedly through the 1970s and 1980s, probably due to the work of members of the muny to secure and reta visibily.

CLEVELAND GAY CY GUI – THE ROCK AND ROLL CAPAL OF THE WORLD

And while the natnal climate of polil nservatism of the 1990s, the wrath of which is often directed at gay men and lbians, creat new and creasg ncern for gay anizatns, their ranks appear to be growg, and the work the muny more urgent. While no sgle ward or area has bee an intifiable gay area, at var tim a number of areas of the cy have hoed large ncentratns of the gay populatn: CLEVELAND HTS., the area around SHAKER SQUARE, OHIO CITY, and the wtern edge of the cy along wh neighborg LAKEWOOD. Consired wh the post-Stonewall era Cleveland's gay muny has been a center for activism, nsired the most proment between New York and Chigo, and has evinced a strong trend for further growth and hivens that has been the goal of activists and lears sce the begng of the gay rights movement.

7 BT GAY BARS & RTRANTS CLEVELAND, OH

The neighborhood was the home of many gay bars and nightclubs, the first Lbian-Gay Communy Center and groups like ACT UP that helped lead the fight advotg for those livg wh HIV/AIDS.

Its staff, like other members of GEAR, were all volunteers and earngs om the newspaper went to support GEAR and Gay Hotle operatns, as well as provi seed money for what beme the LGBT COMMUNITY CENTER OF GREATER CLEVELAND.

JOHN GRABOWSKI AND CWRU HISTORY STUNT SIDNEY NEGRON FEATURED WKYC STORY ABOUT CLEVELAND’S FIRST GAY BAR

Whout advertisements om Cleveland and Oh bars, clubs, baths, rtrants and boutique shops, High Gear and GEAR would not have had the revenu to operate the newspaper and provi basic muny servic like the Gay Hotle. Although High Gear’s re staff was small, those brave enough to e their real nam did so, knowg that g out would crease gay visibily and help change the public’s perceptn of the gay muny general.

Prr to the Rabow Flag (created 1978 by San Francis artist, Gilbert Baker), the lower se Greek letter, lambda was adopted 1970 as the symbol of the New York chapter of the Gay Activists Alliance. The lambda beme generally associated wh Gay Liberatn and December 1974, the Internatnal Gay Rights Congrs Edburgh, Stland, officially clared as the ternatnal symbol for gay and lbian rights.

While natnal and lol news remaed, orr to still pri, High Gear featured articl on gay figur of the past, cludg Aristotle, Plato, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vci, Walt Whman, Franz Kafka, Artur Schopener, Thomas Mann, Gee Sand, Virgia Woolf, Ey Dickson, E. While High Gear’s ma purpose was to te, rm, and help anize the gay muny, was also aware of the need to help straight people unrstand that gays had their own culture and were not aliens, “sick, ” or out to “nvert” others. Kev Briggs and his hband John, owners of Vibe Bar & PatGay bars and nightclubs Cleveland and natnally had been closg at high rat for more than a before the panmic, acrdg to rearch by an Oberl College profsor.