Licht Café, D.C.’s Newt Gay Bar, Is a Cozy, Art-Filled U Street Hiaway  - Eater DC

Contents:

• LICHT CAFé, D.C.’S NEWT GAY BAR, IS A COZY, ART-FILLED U STREET HIAWAY
• "FOR THE MORNG GAYS": THE IMPORTANCE OF LGBTQ-OWNED F AS SOBER, QUEER SPAC
• THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN
• WASHGTON, D.C.'S HIDN GAY HISTORY IS UNVERED 'SECRET CY'
• THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED
• A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
• GAY HEAD

LICHT CAFé, D.C.’S NEWT GAY BAR, IS A COZY, ART-FILLED U STREET HIAWAY

Owner Spencer Hurd moled Licht after his favore gay fé Mannheim, Germany. His dream: lnchg a cktail bar moled after his favore gay fé Mannheim, Germany.

“The goal is to foc on the classic cktails, rather than jt vodka-sodas and rose Kennedys, as you may get at other gay bars, ” he says. Licht Café is a reference to the spiratn om his go-to gay spot Mannheim, but also reflects his ial zy space.

“I love art and sign, ” Hurd says, “and I wanted to make the bar unapologetilly gay. “I want the to be a bid edgy—this is a part of gay culture.

"FOR THE MORNG GAYS": THE IMPORTANCE OF LGBTQ-OWNED F AS SOBER, QUEER SPAC

The U Street NW strip’s gay bar scene is on the up as of late. Kiki owner Keaton Fedak, the former general manager at nearby gay bar Dirty Goose, will expand Kiki to the next-door space that formerly hoed dive Dodge Cy.

“We’re hopg to make a gayborhood Shaw, ” he told Eater last month. Meet Kiki, an Excg New Gay Bar Replacg a Pair of Shuttered Shaw Div. Val Dupont Gay Bar Cobalt Is Closg After Two Des.

We're jt for the morng gays. "When people thk of gay spac or queer spac, they immediately thk of a nightclub or bar — maybe a ltle hole the wall, " he said.

THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN

Gay bars hold a eply important place the history of LGBTQ rights and visibily the Uned Stat. For s and s, jt visg a gay bar was a high-risk activy.

WASHGTON, D.C.'S HIDN GAY HISTORY IS UNVERED 'SECRET CY'

For young members of the LGBTQ muny, gog out to a gay or lbian bar was almost like a re of passage. Growg up as a queer, Black women Louisville, Kentucky, Arielle Clark said that she felt like there were certa "ton" she wanted to meet to feel at home the muny: She wanted to attend Kentucky Pri and meet other LGBTQ people, and then she wanted to get to some kd of gay bar or nightclub bee that's where everyone spent time on the weekends. Stunt is secretly anthetized and sodomized by his gay roommate.

THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED

Claim: A stunt who nsults a doctor at the mp medil center bee of ntual sorens his rectum disvers that his gay roommate has been secretly anthetizg and sodomizg him at night. After the exam the doctor asked the stunt if he was gay. In some tellgs the stunt already knows his roommate to be gay; others his roommate's homosexualy is unknown to him until he disvers the hidn anthetic.

A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.

Vada (“look at”), dolly eek (a pretty face), and chicken (a young guy) are all words om the lexin of Polari, a secret language ed by gay men Bra at a time when homosexualy was illegal. In the 1930s was spoken among the theater typ of the Wt End, om which crossed over to the cy’s gay pubs, gag s stat as the secret language of gay men.

In England, homosexualy was officially nsired a crime until 1967, when the Sexual Offenc Act legalized private “homosexual acts” between nsentg adults over 21.

) The Act me a after the ernment’s Wolfenn Report, which igned bate by remendg the partial crimalizatn of homosexual acts. Durg the terim years, when beg openly non-straight brought the risks of social isolatn and crimal prosecutn, Polari provid gay men wh a subtle way to fd one another for pannship and sex. Among nfirmed gay men, however, there was nothg subtle about Polari nversatns.

GAY HEAD

The Hidn History of Gay Life at Sea, Pl Baker and Jo Stanley wre that Polari played a role “allowg gay men to nstct a humoroly performative inty for themselv. In the late ‘60s, as gay liberatn groups were fightg for regnn and equaly, Polari h mastream Brish pop-culture the form of Julian and Sandy, two flamboyant, not-officially-but-pretty-obvly gay characters on a BBC rad show lled Round the Horne.

But the ‘60s, they were the extent of gay men’s media reprentatn Bra. Julian and Sandy prented a nundm: as lovable gay characters on a very popular show, they enared themselv to Brish dienc an era of homophobia. But some gay liberatn groups me to rent the image that they—and Polari—perpetuated.

By the early ‘70s, as LGBT groups fought for rights beyond those granted by the 1967 Sexual Offenc Act, the image of the mp gay man had bee the target of ire. Many who were lobbyg for sexual equaly, says Dolan, “felt was about gay people prentg themselv as jt ordary folks. “Gay men unr 40 barely know of at all.