How Gay Culture Blossomed Durg the Roarg Twenti | HISTORY

Contents:

• THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
• HOW GAY BARS HAVE BEEN A BUILDG BLOCK OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNY
• RAISG THE BAR: A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY BARS
• HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
• HISTORY OF GAY BARS
• DANCE PRI: THE GAY ORIGS OF DANCE MIC
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW
• GAY MOSW · CY GUI
• MOSW GAY BARS
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

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

” Unfortunately, police reports and mastream media verage of a gay bar 1880 proved to be extremely unreliable and hyperbolic, fueled mostly by pearl-clutchg and fear-mongerg rather than actual rmatn.

“But that night, for the first time, the ual acquicence turned to vlent that night the liv of lns of gay men and lbians, and the attu toward them of the larger culture which they lived, began to change rapidly.

HOW GAY BARS HAVE BEEN A BUILDG BLOCK OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNY

Whether you are a member of the LGBTQ+ muny, work at a gay bar, are an ally the dtry, or if you plan on celebratg this June, jt remember the bars and people who helped make all possible. Dpe the massive stris the lbian, gay, transgenr, bisexual, and queer muni have ma the last few s, the shockg horror of the weekend’s shootgs ma clear the ntued relevance and importance of the bars and nightclubs. While the protts and march at The Stonewall Inn turned the bar to a symbolic headquarters for the Gay Pri movement, gay nightlife has always served as val space for muny buildg and pg societal persecutn.

The people behd the plac have sparked polil activism (Joe Scialo, the late former owner of The Monster, supported employe the ‘80s fightg AIDS and even traveled to Mexi to brg back life-savg dgs) and have fostered mic and creative exprsn for s (gay clubs such as the Warehoe Chigo and Paradise Garage New York gave birth to hoe and var stras of electronic mic). Jt a ltle more than 60 years ago, famo police raids Miami attempted to shut down the cy’s gay nightlife, rultg newspaper headl such as "Perverts Seized Bar Raids, " "Crackdown on Deviant Nts Urged, " and "Great Civilizatns Plagued by Deviat. The notor "Purple Pamphlets" dissemated by state Senator Charley Johns, who had led wch hunts agast gays state ernment and led vtigative mte that fired hundreds of gay schoolteachers, portrayed the culture as viant and dangero.

The sgle-sex arrangement of ary life, as well as creasg pennce (and enomic advanc) of women workg on the homeont, offered many gay Amerins the abily to ngregate greater numbers for the first time.

RAISG THE BAR: A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY BARS

While this risg awarens helped create new gay rights anizatns, such as the Mattache Society and the Dghters of Bilis, was quickly untered wh a nservative backlash of nformy and Communist paranoia, exemplified by Senator Joseph McCarthy.

His vtigatns, part of an anti-gay wch hunt the feral ernment lled the Lavenr Sre, would persecute leftists for years, and along wh sual bigotry and wispread amement over terms such as ‘pixie, ’ would help falsely lk beg gay wh viance and anti-Amerin behavr the popular imagatn. In Provcetown, Massachetts, the A-Hoe, a gay hangout, beme one of the landmarks of the northeastern vatn muny, famo for a nu photo of Tennsee Williams strollg a lol beach hangg on the wall.

HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI

The Cab Inn, opened by Nat "Big" Ivy Chigo’s South Si Bronzeville neighborhood, put on regular drag shows featurg a chos le of black men, while Esta Noche, a pneerg Missn District gay bar, opened for a predomantly Hispanic clientele 1979. Durg the ‘50s and ‘60s, ps nstantly harassed LGBTQ tablishments, pullg cisers up near the entrance to disurage anyone om gog si, parkg police wagons ont of the door durg equent raids, and even sendg unrver ps to try and get someone to h on them—a daily occurrence every bar, gay or straight—which would trigger a lewd nduct charge. By 1964, when Bob Damron’s Addrs Book, a self-published gay travel gui, was first issued, ntaed more than 750 bars, rtrants, and clubs across the untry, all personally vised by the thor, a bsman who was equently on the road.

Woln was cricized, lost the electn, and as was often the se when crics or moralizers attacked the LGBTQ muny, merely broadst to others that San Francis was a great place to meet fellow gay and lbian people.

HISTORY OF GAY BARS

After pourg their drks, a bartenr Juli's Bar ref to serve John Timms, Dick Lesch, Craig Rodwell, and Randy Wicker, members of the Mattache Society, an early Amerin gay rights group, who were prottg New York liquor laws that prevented servg gay ctomers, New York, New York, April 21, 1966. " Wrer Daniel Harris noted that "assiatn … has profound ramifitns for the untry’s cultural life, which will be prived of a major source of artistic and tellectual energy as homosexuals are fally tegrated.

That sense of openns, pri, and eedom, and the welg nature of plac that allow everyone, pecially the gay muny, to exprs themselv, was one of the reasons police believe that Pulse was targeted earlier this week.

But I’m not here to weigh the pros and ns of gay bars — we n all do that on Twter (and we do) — I jt want to talk briefly about the history of gay bars, talk a teeny b about some of the first on to exist, and some of the olst on that we still have today.

DANCE PRI: THE GAY ORIGS OF DANCE MIC

So, to separate molly ho om gay bars — and I’m not gog to claim this is the official fn, ’s jt what I’m workg wh here — I’m gog to fe gay bars as legimate, legal bs foced entirely (or almost entirely) on the sale of alhol to queer ctomers. Meanwhile, Berl had also bee a hotspot of gay and lbian nightlife by 1900, thanks largely to the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee‘s prence there, though a lot of the specific rerds about the spots were lost thanks to the Nazis.

Still, ma a reputatn for s wild parti and fluenced a lot of gay bars ’s Hangout New York Cy was one of the first, if not the first, lbian bar the Uned Stat, openg 1925 and closg at the end of 1926 due to police raids.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

All of Mexi Cy’s gay bars were closed 1959 and even though there are gay bars the cy now, none of the origal on first gay bar South Ai opened the Carlton Hotel Johannburg the late 1940’s — terg to wealthy whe gay men. However, some of the bars, such as the Butterfly Bar (now the Skyle) began to tegrate the mid-1980’ Amerin occupatn of Japan followg World War II brought gay bars to the untry — New Sazae opened Tokyo durg this perd, 1966, and is still open the 1970’s, a lot of clubs Sgapore began havg gay nights but no actual gay bars opened until the lbian bar Crodile Rock opened the 1980’s. Juli’ – Juli’ opened Manhattan 1864 but was cidly not a gay bar but by the late 1950’s, gay men started equentg but were often thrown out or simply refed service bee was illegal to serve homosexuals New York Cy at the time.

After the Stonewall rts, the owners of the the Eagle’s Nt (which had been open sce 1931, and is now Eagle NYC) ma their club a gay bar and beme a very popular spot for more mascule gay men, and pecially the leather scene, to hang out.

HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE

The Begngs of a New Gay World“In the late 19th century, there was an creasgly visible prence of genr-non-nformg men who were engaged sexual relatnships wh other men major Amerin ci, ” says Chad Heap, a profsor of Amerin Studi at Gee Washgton Universy and the thor of Slummg: Sexual and Racial Enunters Amerin Nightlife, 1885-1940. By the 1920s, gay men had tablished a prence Harlem and the bohemian mec of Greenwich Village (as well as the seedier environs of Tim Square), and the cy’s first lbian enclav had appeared Harlem and the Village. Each gay enclave, wrote Gee Chncey his book Gay New York: Genr, Urban Culture, and the Makg of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940, had a different class and ethnic character, cultural style and public reputatn.

”At the same time, lbian and gay characters were beg featured a slew of popular “pulp” novels, songs and on Broadway stag (cludg the ntroversial 1926 play The Captive) and Hollywood—at least prr to 1934, when the motn picture dtry began enforcg censorship guil, known as the Hays Co. In the mid- to late ‘30s, Heap pots out, a wave of sensatnalized sex crim “provoked hysteria about sex crimals, who were often— the md of the public and the md of thori—equated wh gay men. ” By the post-World War II era, a larger cultural shift toward earlier marriage and suburban livg, the advent of TV and the anti-homosexualy csas champned by Joseph McCarthy would help ph the flowerg of gay culture reprented by the Pansy Craze firmly to the natn’s rear-view mirror.

Where homosexual activy or viance om tablished genr rol/drs was banned by law or tradnal ctom, such nmnatn might be munited through sensatnal public trials, exile, medil warngs, and language om the pulp. However, throughout 150 years of homosexual social movements (roughly om the 1870s to today), lears and anizers stggled to addrs the very different ncerns and inty issu of gay men, women intifyg as lbians, and others intifyg as genr variant or nonbary. Such eyewns acunts the era before other media were of urse riddled wh the bias of the (often) Wtern or Whe observer, and add to beliefs that homosexual practic were other, foreign, savage, a medil issue, or evince of a lower racial hierarchy.

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

The European powers enforced their own crimal s agast what was lled sodomy the New World: the first known se of homosexual activy receivg a ath sentence North Ameri occurred 1566, when the Spanish executed a Frenchman Florida. Biblil terpretatn ma illegal for a woman to wear pants or a man to adopt female drs, and sensatnalized public trials warned agast “viants” but also ma such martyrs and hero popular: Joan of Arc is one example, and the chillg origs of the word “faggot” clu a stick of wood ed public burngs of gay men. ” In Wtern history, we fd ltle formal study of what was later lled homosexualy before the 19th century, beyond medil texts intifyg women wh large cloris as “tribas” and severe punishment s for male homosexual acts.

Their wrgs were sympathetic to the ncept of a homosexual or bisexual orientatn occurrg naturally an intifiable segment of humankd, but the wrgs of Krafft-Ebg and Ellis also labeled a “third sex” generate and abnormal. His efforts, and Germany’s more liberal laws and thrivg gay bar scene between the two World Wars, ntrasted wh the backlash, England, agast gay and lbian wrers such as Osr Wil and Radclyffe Hall.

The blu mic of Ain-Amerin women showsed varieti of lbian sire, stggle, and humor; the performanc, along wh male and female drag stars, troduced a gay unrworld to straight patrons durg Prohibn’s fiance of race and sex s speakeasy clubs. This creasg awarens of an existg and vulnerable populatn, upled wh Senator Joseph McCarthy’s vtigatn of homosexuals holdg ernment jobs durg the early 1950s outraged wrers and feral employe whose own liv were shown to be send-class unr the law, cludg Frank Kameny, Barbara Gtgs, Allen Gsberg, and Harry Hay.

GAY MOSW · CY GUI

Awarens of a burgeong civil rights movement (Mart Luther Kg’s key anizer Bayard Rt was a gay man) led to the first Amerin-based polil mands for fair treatment of gays and lbians mental health, public policy, and employment. Studi such as Aled Ksey’s 1947 Ksey Report suggted a far greater range of homosexual inti and behavrs than prevly unrstood, wh Ksey creatg a “sle” or spectm rangg om plete heterosexual to plete homosexual.

In 1951, Donald Webster Cory published “The Homosexual Ameri, ” assertg that gay men and lbians were a legimate mory group, and 1953 Evelyn Hooker, PhD, won a grant om the Natnal Instute of Mental Health to study gay men.

MOSW GAY BARS

Throughout the 1950s and 60s, gay men and lbians ntued to be at risk for psychiatric lockup as well as jail, losg jobs, and/or child ctody when urts and clics fed gay love as sick, crimal, or immoral. Fstrated wh the male learship of most gay liberatn groups, lbians fluenced by the femist movement of the 1970s formed their own llectiv, rerd labels, mic ftivals, newspapers, bookstor, and publishg ho, and lled for lbian rights mastream femist groups like the Natnal Organizatn for Women. And polil actn explod through the Natnal Gay and Lbian Task Force, the Human Rights Campaign, the electn of openly gay and lbian reprentativ like Elae Noble and Barney Frank, and, 1979, the first march on Washgton for gay rights.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

The creasg expansn of a global LGBT rights movement suffered a setback durg the 1980s, as the gay male muny was cimated by the Aids epimic, mands for passn and medil fundg led to renewed alns between men and women as well as angry street theatre by groups like Aids Coaln to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Queer Natn. In the same era, one wg of the polil gay movement lled for an end to ary expulsn of gay, lbian, and bisexual soldiers, wh the high-profile se of Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer publicized through a ma-for-televisn movie, “Servg Silence.

” In spe of the patrtism and service of gay men and lbians uniform, the unfortable and unjt promise “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” emerged as an alternative to s of ary wch hunts and dishonorable discharg. Durg the last of the 20th century, lns of Amerins watched as actrs Ellen DeGener me out on natnal televisn April 1997, heraldg a new era of gay celebry power and media visibily—although not whout risks.