The Gay Bathhoe Fire Of 1977

Contents:

• THE GAY BATHHOE FIRE OF 1977
• GAY BATHHOE EROS TO OPEN S NEW TENRLO LOTN FOR PRI WEEKEND
• A PEEK UNR THE TOWEL: INSI THE 500-YEAR HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO
• GAY NEW YORK · CY GUI
• NEW YORK CY GAY TRAVEL
• GAY SNA ETIQUETTE

THE GAY BATHHOE FIRE OF 1977

Given s glossy new terr and nvenient lotn, the Baths boomed populary, predomantly wh a whe, middle- and upper-class gay male clientele. In 1980, Mailman opened his own gay club, The Sat, whose name was spired by the Baths, jt a five-mute walk om each other. In an attempt to make The Sat profable, he opened the club to straight patrons on Fridays and ntued operatg until May 1988, when closed due to the loss of s re dience of whe, gay men.

The Towleroad blog has a great post that reviss New York’s first rerd anti-gay raid on the Ariston Baths Manhattan 1903. And though I was never an aficnado of the Bathhoe scene, the gay history buff me cid to do some rearch and even I was a b surprised by the strong historil and social signifince bathho have had on the gay muny Ameri. In fact, uld be argued that the very ncepts of the morn gay inty and muny first origated si a bathhoe.

Long before the ter, and even pre-datg the existence of gay bars, bathho served as the origal gatherg place for gay men. Bathho Amerin ci first beme popular wh the general public the late 19th and early 20th centuri due to a lack of tenement plumbg and bathg facili, but would rema popular wh gay men long after bathtubs beme standard apartment featur. The Everard NYC (which long ago received the nickname – The Everhard) was nverted om a church to a bathhoe 1888 and was known to have a gay clientele even before the roarg 1920’s.

GAY BATHHOE EROS TO OPEN S NEW TENRLO LOTN FOR PRI WEEKEND

In addn to providg spac for gay men to meet and have sex, the baths also provid a type of muny space and meetg place for gay artists and tellectuals durg a time that gay sex was still punishable by law. Bathho would ntue to be one of the most popular plac for gay men to ngregate well after the morn gay rights movement began the late 1960’s wh the Stonewall rts. And though gay bathho saw a cle populary begng the 1980’s wh the advent of the AIDS epimic, many gay bathho ntue to fill the same functn they always have: a safe place to be gay and have gay sex.

A PEEK UNR THE TOWEL: INSI THE 500-YEAR HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO

M., ne men — trapped si a buildg wh blocked-up wdows and no fire p — would not make out years after Stonewall, the tragedy at the Everard Baths — never vtigated as anythg but an accintal mattrs fire — marked the begng of the end of a brief, exuberant heyday of New York Cy gay life that was able to thrive part bee of cheap real tate and a cy ernment that was willg to look the other way when me to, say, S&M clubs like the Mhaft the Meatpackg District (drs clud no logne). But even as the '70s New York were a relatively open, excg time to be a gay man New York — pri paras, gay bars and clubs proliferatg, a mastream weekly gay newspaper, a gay rights prott at the 1976 Democratic Natnal Conventn New York — beg openly gay, whether on the street or the workplace, still me wh dangers. The bathhoe had long been an anonymo space where gay men uld be themselv whout shame — but the fire at the Everard rerced the ia for many queer men that the few spac they thought were tly their own weren't always safe.

Everard Baths was not jt any gay bathhoe; the wrer Michael Rumaker, his acunt of gog to the baths (A Day and a Night at the Baths) for the first time the wter of 1977, lled Everard "the most venerable, loathed, and affectnately teemed baths all of New York Cy. " Everard (or "Ever-hard, " as was nicknamed) had opened as a Turkish bath 1888, but by the 1920s had bee a known, and culturally signifint, gatherg place for gay men.

Author Gore Vidal met his longtime partner, Howard Aten, at Everard 1950; over the years Everard was reportedly vised by the wrer Tman Capote, theater director Aled Lunt, the ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, and gay rights activist and wrer Larry his memoir Cy Boy: My Life New York Durg the 1960s and 1970s, Edmund Whe remembers the Everard as "filthy...

GAY NEW YORK · CY GUI

If anythg, he looked aaid of gettg beaten up, or murred — not unmon fears the backs of the mds of most gay mal. "Ined, was an important and, s when much of gay life was lived secret, necsary space for gay men to associate wh each other — and, particularly for closeted men, a safe place to meet and have sex wh other men.

Bathho are private and exclive; whereas anyone generally has accs to other gay male spac, like bars and clubs, bathho were, and ntue to be, exclively for gay men — and th play a unique and signifint role gay life. They generally existed on the g of lawfulns; the Everard, along wh other gay bathho New York Cy, were perdilly raid by police, wh a few people beg rted off to jail for lewd behavr now and then, but generally left alone — the ultimate "don't ask, don't tell.

And th the fire shone a not-totally-wele light not jt on New York gay life, but also on the cy's negligence makg sure the buildg was up to . The tragedy galvanized the gay muny New York an unprecented and public way, and was nsired a ser tragedy a cy mired fisl crisis.

NEW YORK CY GAY TRAVEL

And the gay muny was quick to claim the tragedy: The pastor of the New York branch of the Metropolan Communy Church — the gay church found Los Angel 1968 that had held servic at the UpStairs Lounge jt prr to the fire — tablished a fund to help those jured the fire, as well as pay for the burials of the men who were aftermath was also vered the media. "Homosexuals Mobilize to Aid Fire Victims" was the headle a New York Tim article on May 26 that explaed that gay men "led up to donate blood" — which today, post-AIDS, they are still banned om dog, meang gay men uldn’t donate to their iends and loved on hospalized after Orlando — and "helped intify bodi and promised to raise money on behalf of the jured, " and that "telephone appeals for help volved a work of 15 homosexual relig anizatns as well as activist homosexual polil groups.

" In this way, the Everard fire serv as a kd of pre-AIDS era timtamp: Gay men uld still donate blood, bee AIDS hadn't happened yet; gay polil groups were actively advotg for gay rights a way that was startg to be supported by the mastream media. They had been a uple for six years— teachers their mid-30s, jt returned om jobs the Middle East" — and prience, wrg the same article that the Everard Baths were "a kd of 'Marlboro Country' among homosexuals' gatherg plac... " Bce Voeller, a -executive director of the Natnal Gay Task Force who would go on to be a leadg AIDS rearcher and activist (and die of AIDS 1994), told the Tim that "you uld often meet an off-duty p or fireman at the Everard.

Like the UpStairs Lounge fire of 1973, which 30 gay men were killed a spected arson, there was no attempt or sire on the part of policians or the media to claim as anythg but a gay tragedy. Today, the sh to claim the Orlando tragedy as "human, " as opposed to a specific attack on queer Latx people, the real danger that people of lor and queer people still face this untry n get lost — the first versn of the Tim' story about the Orlando shootg didn't mentn that Pulse was a gay club; the #AllLivMatter movement elis the fact that vlence by police agast black people is an tractable problem. Five months later, October, another article was headled "Homosexuals New York Fd New Pri" and opened wh Yom Kippur servic at a gay synagogue the Wt Village.

GAY SNA ETIQUETTE

"The cy's homosexual populatn, which only a few years ago began to 'e out of the closet' and to the street, has veloped markedly recent months to a hive, open and anized force. " The pot of the article seemed to be to reassure the Tim' rears that the gay populatn was not jt "terr rators, Fire Island and bars wh a leather motif" — although "this world do ed exist and flourish some neighborhoods. " No, now the gay populatn of New York was now "very much one of lawyers, physicians, teachers, policians, clergymen, and other upper-class profsnal men and women.