In honor of Pri Month, take a ep dive to 200+ years of gay bar history and how they paved the way for the LGBTQ rights movement.
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
On Dec. 31, 1966, a dozen placloth policemen observed the New Year's ftivi si the Black Cat, a gay bar Los Angel' Silver Lake neighb ... * why was sal at the gay bar *
31, 1966, a dozen placloth policemen observed the New Year's ftivi si the Black Cat, a gay bar Los Angel' Silver Lake neighborhood.
Sixteen patrons were arrted si the Black Cat, and police chased two more men to New Fac, another gay bar nearby. 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. 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.
'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE
Author Jeremy Atherton L wr of the history of gay bars, as their existence is threatened by the populary of datg apps and risg property sts, and reflects on their prence his life. * why was sal at the gay bar *
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.
A MEMOIR ABOUT QUEER INTY, TOLD ONE GAY BAR AT A TIME
In his new memoir, “Gay Bar,” Jeremy Atherton L documents his personal history and the history of queer inty by explorg gay bars around the world. * why was sal at the gay bar *
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. "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.
THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
* why was sal at 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. The new gay-rights groups had learned how to draw attentn to their e, anizg "zaps"—splashy, media-iendly protts—whenever they intified homophobic behavr on the part of policians, police, or the prs.
In March 1970, for example, after a police raid on the Snake P, a (non-Mafia) Village gay bar, a terrified young Argente jumped out of a send-floor wdow and impaled himself on a 14-ch spike while attemptg to pe om police ctody.
HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE
Today, gay bars routely make lol bar rags and gay newspapers available, but that tends to be the extent of their engagement. It also beme ls val to anize bars as more gays and lbians me out and the bar lost s central role gay life.
Urvashi Vaid, the former head of the Natnal Gay and Lbian Task Force, scribed the failure of LGBT polil groups to nnect wh gay bars as "a huge missed opportuny.
" Today, gay polil groups largely ignore the hundreds of thoands of Amerins who spend Saturday night their lol gay bar. A loudspeaker pumped gay anthems to Sheridan Square—Madonna's "Holiday, " Gee Michael's "Fah"—while upl planned weddgs, sought out hbands-to-be (one guy yelled: "I'm gettg married!
REEVALUATG THE GAY BAR
Gay Bar b memoir, history and cricism; 's a difficult book to p down, but that's what mak so readable and so endlsly fascatg. Atherton L's book starts off a crowd room a gay bar where he's gone cisg wh his partner, whom he refers to throughout the book wh the Leonard Cohen-spired nickname Famo Blue Raat. That kd of gay bar — all kds of gay bars, really — are danger of closg, Atherton L wr, due to the populary of datg apps and risg property sts.
He's ambivalent about the velopment, wrg, "I had to nsir whether gay bars promised a sense of belongg then lured to a trap. In a gay bar, am I penned to mory stat, swallowg drks that nourish my opprsn — have gay bars kept me my place? He wr betifully about his llege days Los Angel, where he went to his first one, though he n't rell the name, wryly notg, "Of urse I n't remember my first gay bar — I was dnk.