The Gay Bar: Why the gay rights movement was born one.

Contents:

• THE GAY BAR: WHY THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT WAS BORN ONE
• 'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE
• A MEMOIR ABOUT QUEER INTY, TOLD ONE GAY BAR AT A TIME
• THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
• HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE
• REEVALUATG THE GAY BAR

THE GAY BAR: WHY THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT WAS BORN ONE

31, 1966, a dozen placloth policemen observed the New Year's ftivi si the Black Cat, a gay bar Los Angel' Silver Lake neighborhood.

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

Sixteen patrons were arrted si the Black Cat, and police chased two more men to New Fac, another gay bar nearby.

A MEMOIR ABOUT QUEER INTY, TOLD ONE GAY BAR AT A TIME

It would be two and a half more years before a siar cint, at a bar on the oppose ast, would change the gay rights movement forever.

THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS

In the 1960s, more and more gay men and lbians were equentg such tablishments, even though they were often targeted by law enforcement for raids and crackdowns. The Stonewall Inn holds such an inic place gay history (and, as we saw when joyful New Yorkers gathered there to celebrate the passage of marriage equaly legislatn, remas inic today) that n be hard to remember how unual the cint was. " People went there bee was relatively large, and bee was one of the few gay plac the Village that allowed dancg.

Acrdg to David Carter's Stonewall: The Rts That Sparked the Gay Revolutn, Seymour Pe, a puty spector wh the NYPD, was termed to close the place down bee s efforts to pass as a "bottle bar"—a private club where members uld leave their own bottl of liquor om which only they uld be served—were sultgly sultory. The scene did not go unnoticed the neighborhood: It was prime bar-hoppg time, and the Stonewall was loted at the center of gay Greenwich Village.

In May 1959, a skirmish broke out around Cooper's Doughnuts, a shabby all-night Los Angel ffee shop equented by htlers and their ctomers, when gays threw ffee cups and paper plat at police officers rather than subm to arbrary arrts. But by the summer of 1969, gays were more willg than ever to challenge thory, thanks to the fluence of the civil rights, femist, and anti-war movements. The Stonewall raid also occurred on the first hot weekend of the summer, at the biggt club the area, and a pestrian-iendly neighborhood that had recently bee home to a growg number of homels gay youths who had no property, jobs, or fay ti at risk if they faced off agast the ps.

HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE

"Homophile anizatns, " the early term for gay-rights groups, had been sprgg up around the untry, and although the events at Compton's and the Black Cat were not mon knowledge, word had reached activists New York's gay muny. In the months followg Stonewall the activists were able to transform the protts to a polil e, leadg to the creatn of the Gay Liberatn Front and the Gay Activists Alliance, groups dited to the stggle for gay civil rights. In 1964, a Bay Area gay-rights anizatn known as the Society for Individual Rights, whose members were predomantly bar goers, nducted voter registratn driv lol taverns and published a wallet-sized legal gui lled the "Pocket Lawyer" to advise patrons of their rights if they were abed by the police.

REEVALUATG THE GAY BAR

In San Francis the early 1960s, gay-bar owners had e together to form the Tavern Guild, an anizatn that ordated efforts to rist pric actns by California's Alhol Bure of Control and provid assistance to anyone arrted or near a gay bar.