The Death of the Gay Bar - Boston Review

Contents:

• A YEAR GAY BARS
• GAY BARS AREN’T DISAPPEARG; THEY’RE CHANGG
• HOW TO BEE POPULAR AT A GAY BAR
• SHE’S HAD A GAY BAR MISSISSIPPI FOR 20 YEARS. AND SHE THKS GEN Z NEEDS A LSON LBGT HISTORY.
• DEA HELD LGBTQ 'IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE' AT GAY BAR FOR HEADQUARTERS EMPLOYE, FOUR PEOPLE ATTEND
• WHAT WAS THE FIRST GAY BAR YOU WENT TO, AND WHAT DID YOU THK OF ?
• 'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW
• THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI
• HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE
• THE DEATH OF THE GAY BAR
• 'IN FDG EACH OTHER WE STARTED VELOPG POWER': A LOOK AT MIDWT’S LARGT GAY BAR

A YEAR GAY BARS

The siwalks were dimly l, and I glid om light to light through the eply balmy eveng, and beyond the pat I found a panmic-era simulacm of a Texas gay bar’s ual weekday crowd: a few (whe) guys watchg sports on their phon, a (whe) man talkg to the bartenr, alongsi a handful of skny (whe) dus lookg to get laid. I wished him luck, but I uldn’t hear his rponse over an unmasked group of whe gays, yellg about poppers and spillg their beer all over the June, my boyiend, L, and I flew to Los Angel for work. Portland has historilly been home to the untry’s send-largt populatn of queer people, behd only San Francis, but, pendg on who you ask, the cy lacks a dified gayborhood.

In the rtrant, I sat at the bar unr a televisn blastg Conan O’Brien rens, and a gay Asian du dnkenly munchg on i bi me plaed that he’d been abandoned by his iends. Jeremy Atherton L, the thor of the book “Gay Bar, ” may have scribed the allure of the spac bt: “It’s not about holdg out for a good night, but rather a lettg go, ” givg to the “unnvcg promise of pe.

GAY BARS AREN’T DISAPPEARG; THEY’RE CHANGG

But even light of all the threats, gay bars are figurg out how to fill hol muny needs, how to pete wh apps and apathy, how to balance muny tradns wh more clive valu. Is , “I don’t need gay bars my middle age, but I might as a retiree, ” or is , “I don’t need gay bars now that I’m a mted partnership, but I might if I were sgle”? I don’t know that needg gay bars is an on-off swch for the rt of your life, and so ’s important to me that the bars that n serve all of be open for when we need them.

HOW TO BEE POPULAR AT A GAY BAR

” A lot of amics bate or wonr whether we’re a post-gay phase, where we — and ’s never que clear who the “we” is — don’t need our gay inti or LGBTQ+ inti anymore.

But one of the thgs I realized talkg to owners of bars that don’t intify as gay bars but are certaly full of gay people is that maybe other bars need to prove to that they’re post-straight.

SHE’S HAD A GAY BAR MISSISSIPPI FOR 20 YEARS. AND SHE THKS GEN Z NEEDS A LSON LBGT HISTORY.

Here I rely on David Halper, who wrote a book, How to Be Gay, and he nclus that even if was a world whout opprsn, we still are raised a heteronormative world.

I’m not married to the ia of a gay bar always beg everythg — if ’s a queer fe, if ’s a nonprof LGBTQ+ center — but I thk the panmic tght all how important is to have physil plac to ngregate, and those will rema important even a hypothetil, non-opprsive future. The fact that you have a bar that’s maly Latx folks or a bar that’s Ain-Amerin LGBTQ+ folks, that didn’t surprise me, although I was very terted to fd out what were the challeng of nng those kds of bs bee those are the bars that’ve been closg among the fastt — gay bars that serve people of lor. Focch's (1936), 506 Broadway:The drag show at Focch's was more of a tourist draw than an hont-to-goodns gay club, but helped brg gay culture -- and drag culture -- to the mastream spotlight.

DEA HELD LGBTQ 'IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE' AT GAY BAR FOR HEADQUARTERS EMPLOYE, FOUR PEOPLE ATTEND

I951, after two years of police harassment, owner Sol Stouman took the police to the California Supreme Court, and argued that a bar uld not be shut down jt bee gay men ngregated there. He prevailed, providg stenance to the growg homophile Handle Bar (1960), California and Hy:Until 1960, most gay bars were expected to pay brib to police officers for 'protectn' om raids. :In rponse to police harassment, San Francis bar owners formed the Tavern Guild -- the first gay bs associatn the Uned Stat -- at the Suzy-Q bar on Polk Street.

WHAT WAS THE FIRST GAY BAR YOU WENT TO, AND WHAT DID YOU THK OF ?

Members set up a phone-tree to warn each other of impendg raids, set up relief funds and raised money for homophile groups like the Dghters of Bilis, the Mattache Society and the Not? One of the first mastream discsns of S&M, the article tablished San Francis the mds of middle Ameri (and lns of gay men) as a place of sexual diversy and tolerance.

:The Stud helped cubate San Francis's gay hippie movement -- even Janis Jopl would e when she was town -- and provid an alternative to sweater queens and htlers. Wdows were smashed, police were fought off for hours and a muny showed s strength, providg a flashpot for gay and trans anizg on the Wt Coast: In 's wake a work of social, polil and LGBT-centric medil groups Hall (1971), 482 Castro:The origal Toad Hall -- a bar of the same name recently opened a nearby space -- is often creded wh lnchg the Castro as a gay district.

'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE

One of the first bars to chew a jebox favor of a DJ, Toad Hall ma the sleepy Eureka Valley a statn for gay men on the weekends, and soon bs owners and homebuyers saw the potential for a real neighborhood where gays uld live Peaks Tavern (1972), 401 Castro:Prr to Tw Peaks, gay bars were secretive affairs wh eher black-out wdows or no wdows at all. Biloxi When Lynn Koval opened the doors to Sanctuary the 1990s, she had a feelg the gay bar would make a name for self South the time, Koval said to herself, “If a Molotov cktail don’t e through my door, we’ll be here for 20-pl years.

“I’ve always believed that there was a difference owng a bar and owng a gay bar, ” Lynn said durg an terview for Out Here In Ameri, a podst that explor the liv of LGBTQ people livg the Deep South and Ameri’s heartland.

THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

”Sanctuary is closed, but Koval opened Jt Us downtown Biloxi shortly one of the olst gay bars Mississippi, Jt Us do more than jt serve beer and cktails 24/7/365.

Print Barack Obama repealed “don’t ask, don’t tell;” gay marriage beme legal across the Uned Stat; and Mississippi passed a ntroversial “relig eedom” bill that giv legal protectn to bs that discrimate agast gay even hosted the cy’s first-ever Pri para as the untry progrs, where do gay bars f ?

THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI

I say y, ” Koval the season one fale episo, you’ll hear:▪ What was like openg a gay bar Mississippi two s ago▪ How the meang of a gay bar has changed over the years▪ Why Koval thks LGBT lennials and Generatn Z need to put their phon down and support their muni▪ Why Lynn Koval is proud of her two bars that changed the LGBT muny South Mississippi▪ What happened when the first-ever Pri para me to the Coast▪ Why the Tmp admistratn uld make gay bars relevant aga▪ How the doors at Jt Us rema open for anyone and everyone▪ Why ’s so important to remember symbols like the rabow and the upsi down triangleHave an ia for OHIA? C., headquarters employe at a bar and rtrant that largely ters to LGBTQ+ ctomers, to help the agency get what scribed as "an unrstandg and perceptn of gay social culture" and that also was to clu a drag show prentatn. The EEOO email vatn obtaed by Jt the News asks employe to jo the office for "an LGBTQ+ immersive experience to enhance unrstandg and perceptn of Gay social culture to clu a prentatn verg Dg, Dancg, Drag, and Diversy.

But still n't handle drkg public and end up wakg up wh whomever bought me my last drk -- ually another bottom like me, who ends up beg another Facebook at 61, I n't be bothered to even take a b or Uber 20 blocks away to the Elrgay/Bear bars The Castro, only to bump to bter ex's of some sort or guys I met on apps or onle and cshed on who jt weren't to me.

I remember my first night there, an old guy on a bar stool the back area stoppg me as I walked by to tell me I looked like a nice kid and to stay out of gay bars bee they’d ‘ my life’.

HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE

I didn’t heed his advice of urse and met my now partner there at The Dock a year later 1989 We started chattg about B-52’s when ‘Love Shack’ was playg…and was gay love at first sight. Early 70's as an unraged gaylg to olr guys, I disvered that if I stood outsi the entrance to a certa bar on Clark Street Chigo, someone would sneak me past the guy rdg ctomers at the ont door.

It was one of the first gay bars to have large wdows facg the Alta Plaza was a "sweater bar" the 1980's, populated by Macy's Queens who spent all their money on clothg, wh a smatterg of pretent Anonymoreply 109July 16, 2022 6:45 PM. I went to plenty of trendy dance clubs Dallas that were filled wh a gay and gay iendly crowd, even met boyiends had gay experienc, long before I set foot an official “gay bar, ” which hontly felt Anonymoreply 110July 16, 2022 6:50 PM.

THE DEATH OF THE GAY BAR

I've never been a gay bar, but there was one Evansville, IN lled Someplace Else, looked pretty sketchy om the outsi, I don't thk exists Anonymoreply 121July 17, 2022 3:19 AM?

It wasn't my first but I fondly rell "The Church" Denver/Boulr, wasn't specifilly a gay club yet gays and lbians seemed to be the majory the 90s but wh the riseof Marilyn Manson racist and homophobic kiddiegoths vad, the same had happened pretty much everywhere wh vaguely goth clubs ak to how punk took a siar turn the 80s. The Mother Load WeHoI was slightly unrage, but IDs were jt typed out then, and I was born July, so the “7” beme a “2” wh a ltle black pen, and I got 5 extra months of gay bars up Anonymoreply 129July 17, 2022 3:04 PM.

'IN FDG EACH OTHER WE STARTED VELOPG POWER': A LOOK AT MIDWT’S LARGT GAY BAR

When I went to "Kiss" Ronkonkoma I was still closeted (I was 27, not 28 as I typed) and went wh a gay guy I worked wh and said I was cur what a gay bar was like. I had never seen so many gay men before my episo began my g out procs, and later that year wh the same guy om work, I walked to 'Marie's Crisis' as a 'straight' man and walked out a gay man. Had been to many gay bars between ag 18 and 21 SF and San Jose, but had my first "legal drk" on my 21st birthday 1983 at a swanky piano bar Pacific Heights San Francis lled The Pacific Exchange, mid-week, on a grim ray Wter night, when "gay ncer" headled the lol gay prs.