Hoton LGBT Nightlife | Gay Friendly Bars, Clubs & Live Mic

Contents:

• THE PAST AND FUTURE OF ONE OF HOTON’S MOST HISTORIC GAY BARS
• GUI TO GAY BARS HOTON
• MONTROSE "GAYBORHOOD"
•  TEXAS LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF ONE OF HOTON’S MOST HISTORIC GAY BARS

Historilly known among lols as the Gayborhood, Montrose ed to be where the weirdos were. The Gulf Coast Archive and Mm of Gay, Lbian, Bisexual and Transgenr History timat that was the se of more than three hundred funeral servic and remas the fal rtg place of an unknown number of people’s 1970 to 2009, this space was part of the legendary Hoton gay bar Mary’s…Naturally!, which fostered such a close muny that some regulars chose to have their funerals there. Mary’s, as wrer Ed Martez put a sprg 1983 issue of Out Texas, was “the mother hoe of all the gay bars Hoton.

” When origal owner Joe Anthony opened Mary’s, was primarily a leather bar where gay bikers would ngregate. But quickly beme known as a place where anyone was wele: gays, lbians, punk micians, wrers, hippi, and bohemians all termgled.

“The Gayborhood is marked as much, if not more, by absenc as by the visible markers of s past, ” says curator Junr Fernanz, who anized the event along wh S Rodriguez. “We are terted how the disappearance or ‘revelopment’ of the spac to bnch spots and ffee ho might mirror the overall trajectory of gay liberatn, om s earlier ialism to late-palist intarian pfalls like rabow-packaged Oreos. But one uld argue that Mary’s, too, was a gentrifier—one former patron remds me that gay men the seventi phed Montrose’s heavily Hispanic populatn out of the area to claim a space for themselv.

GUI TO GAY BARS HOTON

In one vio piece, for example, Penagos manvers his body to rg a bell agast a brick, which symboliz the mythologized “first brick of the gay rights movement” thrown by gay activists at the 1969 Stonewall uprisg.

MONTROSE "GAYBORHOOD"

”The exhib celebrat the full breadth of Mary’s, which— the way that only a historic gay gatherg place n—served as a hookup spot, a muny anizg hub, and the se of many, many funerals. After Stonewall and the ceptn of the the AIDS crisis, the bar beme a place for gays to meet, anize, and prott. Acrdg to one archive of Hoton LGBT history, the group that beme the Hoton GLBT Polil Cc, which bills self as the olst gay-rights anizatn the South, began at Mary’s.

Don Gill, a “fundraiser supreme” at Mary’s, rells s shift om grty gay hookup spot to the go-to venue where LGBT social anizatns uld munite wh the muny.

In a 2002 Hoton Prs article, bartenr and part-owner Gaye Yancey said “wasn’t unmon for three Mary’s ctomers to die each month.

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

And although wispread gay acceptance, cemented by the legalizatn of same-sex marriage 2015, has phed society forward, this exhib is a remr that the need for queer spac like Mary’s is as important as ever—specifilly for brown and black queers and trans dividuals.

There really is no perfect route, so thk of as a “gay bar choose your own adventure. This gay party spot is a staple Hoton nightlife and has been servg the LGBT muny for s.

For more than a century, even before Pri Month’s orig 1969, gay bars have persevered around the world as a way for the LGBTQ muny to nnect and celebrate. Hoton’s gay bars, particular, have been a place where people n nvene regardls of their inty and have played a key role Montrose velopg s reputatn as the cy’s “gayborhood. ” While more safe spac exist, gay bars are still a rnerstone the muny, while also beg a prime place to enjoy a happy hour cktail, a drag show, or a night of dancg.