Big cy gaybourhoods: where they e om and why they still matter

oxford street gay

20 Dec 2024

Gay activists, drag queens and plenty of u feature on artwork to go up on nstctn s along the famed nightclub strip.

Contents:

GAY LEGENDS OF SYDNEY FEATURED ON OXFORD STREET AHEAD OF SYDNEY WORLDPRI 2023
THE ORAL HISTORY OF THE ALBURY, ONE OF SYDNEY’S MOST LEGENDARY GAY BARS
OXFORD – A GAY OVERTURE

GAY LEGENDS OF SYDNEY FEATURED ON OXFORD STREET AHEAD OF SYDNEY WORLDPRI 2023

* oxford street gay *

In more recent years, those reputatns have begun to fa and the endurg meangs of the “gaybourhood” have e to qutn. But what each of the plac reprents is the centraly of urban space to the emergence of visible, “out and proud” lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer inti and muni.

AAP/Atralian Lbian and Gay archiv.

In the years after the send world war, many gay men Sydney socialised CBD hotels, cludg the Hotel Atralia. By the begng of the 1980s, Oxford Street was home to a strg of bars, clubs, snas and f and had bee known as Sydney’s gay “Goln Mile”. The emergence of this gay heartland reprents extraordary social change.

THE ORAL HISTORY OF THE ALBURY, ONE OF SYDNEY’S MOST LEGENDARY GAY BARS

Male homosexualy remaed illegal New South Wal until 1984. The homosexual men socialisg 1950s CBD hotels were required to do so wh discretn – the nsequenc of disvery uld be vastatg.

As more venu were opened along the Goln Mile, the street self beme a gay space, as did the surroundg neighbourhoods where LGBTQ people – particularly gay men – ma hom the terrac and apartments of Darlghurst and Paddgton.

OXFORD – A GAY OVERTURE

It was the most fabulo place I’d ever been my life … It’s full of gay people and they’re all drsed to the n.

The gay muny was certaly not ee om sexism, racism and transphobia, meang that some wh the LGBTQ muny were granted far easier accs to the spac than others. Ined, although Goln Mile-era Oxford Street clud venu popular wh lbians, cludg the women-only bar Ruby Reds, the surroundg neighbourhood was more intifiably gay than lbian. Into the new lennium, Oxford Street’s place as the gay heart of Sydney beme ls certa.

BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM OXFORD STREET GAY

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