El Paso gay nightclub Old Plantatn is g back

Contents:

• ROGER KENNEDY -- WNS TO DALLAS GAY HISTORY SCE 1975
• CEDAR SPRGS: EVOLUTN OF A GAYBORHOOD
• THROUGH THE YEARS: DALLAS' GAY CULTURE
• ULTRA RARE DALLAS TEXAS - OLD PLANTATION - GAY BAR GRAND OPENG 1982 SHIRT SZ S
• MAN SEVERELY BEATEN OUTSI EL PASO’S OLD PLANTATN GAY NIGHTCLUB POSSIBLE HATE CRIME
• BLAST OM THE PAST! EL PASO GAY NIGHTCLUB OLD PLANTATN IS G BACK
•  TEXAS LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS
• GAY DALLAS

ROGER KENNEDY -- WNS TO DALLAS GAY HISTORY SCE 1975

A Photo History of Dallas’ Gay Bars of the 1970s.

In the past few months, the Uned Stat has celebrated a few important ton the history of civil rights for gay Amerins: the signatn of the Stonewall Inn New York Cy as a Natnal Monument to Gay Rights and the first anniversary of the historic Supreme Court cisn to legalize same-sex marriage all 50 stat. Before the days of polil activism, beg gay was somethg one often kept to onelf or shared only wh a close circle of iends.

Homosexuals and lbians were often forced to keep a very low profile, if only for self-prervatn.

CEDAR SPRGS: EVOLUTN OF A GAYBORHOOD

There had, however, been gay bars Dallas, datg back to at least the early 1950s (one of the first was Le Bof Sur Le To, later renamed Villa Fontana). The police raids and nstant harassment ntued through the latter half of the 1970s, when an anized and unified gay muny beme polilly active and took their plats to the urts. Gay and lbian bars have always held an important place the LGBTQ muny.

In the early days, they were the only plac where gay men and women uld socialize openly wh one another a “safe” environment where they were ee to be themselv. That was a quote om a Dallas Gay Polil Cc spokman a 1979 Dallas Morng News article on the emergence of Oak Lawn as the center of Dallas’ gay muny. It’s hard to overstate the importance of the safe meetg plac at a time when men and women were beg arrted and were losg their jobs simply bee they were gay.

* * * * *I wre regularly about Dallas history, and has been difficult to fd posive media acunts of Dallas’ gay muny before the 1970s.

THROUGH THE YEARS: DALLAS' GAY CULTURE

But there is almost no mentn at all of gay culture.

When a rear of my blog directed my attentn to an article on Dallas’ gay club scene of the 1970s — wh photographs! The article, “Big Dallas” by Jerry Daniels, appeared the May/June 1975 issue of Ciao!, a New York-based gay travel magaze. In addn to the photos, there was also on at least 30 popular homosexual hang-outs om the time.

Article, not, this part of town was not one of the nict: “On Live Oak and Skil Streets there is a small clter of gay tablishments which are popular.

ULTRA RARE DALLAS TEXAS - OLD PLANTATION - GAY BAR GRAND OPENG 1982 SHIRT SZ S

Villa Fontana was the first real gay bar Dallas. It was one of the longt ntuoly-operated gay bars Dallas, and is equently ced by olr members of the muny as beg one of the very few plac the ’50s and ’60s where they were able to socialize openly wh other gay men and women.

Article, Stud 9 was a small and “cisy” place, and “the only moviehoe for hardre gay ‘actn’ films” town.

MAN SEVERELY BEATEN OUTSI EL PASO’S OLD PLANTATN GAY NIGHTCLUB POSSIBLE HATE CRIME

A “iendly bar” that attracted both gay men and women, Entre Nu hosted regular drag shows. Article, is referred to as “Homo Heights” and is scribed as “fortable, ” “middle-class, ” and a “very nice area. Opened 1974 an imprsive 60-year-old hoe, Mache Gun Kelly’s was a popular (but short-lived) dis-bar-rtrant that attracted “all typ — straights and gays (girls too), hippi, and bsmen.

This unlikely-lookg se for a gay untry-wtern bar lled The Swger, which drew “an tertg crowd of ‘semi-butch’ wboys, ” looks like a shack out the untry.

Yet another popular gay wboy bar. Article not that there wasn’t too much gay activy the Downtown area and warns that there “have been some beatgs of some gays” at some of s tablishments. Opened 1958 as a sophistited downtown bar that offered a state-of-the-art stereophonic sound system, Gene’s at some pot transned to a gay bar at night while remag a “straight” bar durg the day.

BLAST OM THE PAST! EL PASO GAY NIGHTCLUB OLD PLANTATN IS G BACK

Hoed an old warehoe at Pearl and Cedar Sprgs near Downtown, Bayou Landg was one of the most popular gay clubs of the 1970s.

A quick browse of the ter dit that the fondly-remembered Landg was, for many LGBTQ youth, the first gay club they ever vised. when the club was gay. re-opened as gay October 1980,.

had shops several of the gay bars, cludg the OP. two photos om the 1979 Gay Pri Para;. as a gay club, on October 21, 1980,.

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

There was also one gay bar North Topeka, near the river, lled The Other Si. Durg this trip I twice vised a very popular gay bar, the origal Old Plantatn, on Rawls Street Oak Lawn, before burned to the ground.

In the summer of 1976 I attend what I believe to be the first ever gay rally Dallas.

It was Exall Park near Baylor Hospal – also near two early bars, the Villa Fontana (olst operatg gay bar the US until closed years later) and the Fontaeble.

GAY DALLAS

In fact, other than Unn Jack Clothg and a few bars, there really wasn’t much of a gay muny Oak Lawn at all. He gave many new drag queens their start, among them Lady Shawn, Jimmy Dee, Alan Allison, Michael Andrews (the first Miss Gay Ameri I believe), and Deva Sanchez, Ocsnally, several of would drive to the nu beach at Lake Dallas Lewisville, and a uple of tim to Hippie Hollow, the nu beach at Lake Travis outsi of At.

In early 1977, I got a part time waer job at the newly-opened Bell Pepper gay rtrant on Lemmon at McKney. One night a week I waed on the group that was the procs of foundg the Dallas Gay Polil Cc (“DGPC”), the first Dallas gay polil anizatn.

In 1990, preparatn for the Vanuver Gay Gam, I returned to the band, unr the directorship of Cathy Brown. In the sprg of 1983, ne of – six Latos and three Anglos – found the first gay Hispanic anizatn Dallas.