Two South Bronx Bars Look to Attract Gay and Lbian Clientele - Port Morris - New York - DNA

Contents:

• GAY DATG BRONX
• THE BT GAY HOOK-UP SPOTS NYC
• COMG OUT OF THE CLOSET AS A GAY MAN THE BRONX
• GAY DATG BRONX
• THE 30 BT GAY BARS NYC
• THE WAREHOE: THE GAY CLUB WHERE HOE MIC GOT S NAME
• NEW YORK CY GAY CISE CLUBS
• TWO SOUTH BRONX BARS LOOK TO ATTRACT GAY AND LBIAN CLIENTELE

GAY DATG BRONX

As a child of the 70s and 80s, my own g of age story and admtg to myself (and others) who I tly was—a gay, Puerto Rin male om The Bronx—me at a pivotal moment history as the LGBTQ muny was beg more accepted and mastream.

Sce the age of four years old I knew I was not like the others boys growg up around me and many will argue that you n’t possibly know you’re gay at such a young age and that is te bee I didn’t have the language to exprs yet but I knew.

THE BT GAY HOOK-UP SPOTS NYC

Even though I attend Catholic school all my life, I saw passn the ey of the teachers and even nuns who wnsed the tntg of gay children. In retrospect, although clearly a cel form of punishment, gave some of gay kids some fort.

By the time I graduated 1993, I had somewhat cemented my fx heterosexualy wh a few flgs and romanc but by then I knew that I was gay and had already had many sexual experienc wh other gay mal. My heart and soul was gay but I uldn’t show the world. Durg my hman and sophomore years 1990, 653 people were killed The Bronx alone.

So I always traveled groups which meant I uldn’t let my te gay self peek through even for a ltle b on my daily trek to and om school om my home Melrose the South Bronx to Spellman up Baychter near the Wtchter County/NYC boarr. We didn’t have safe spac for LGBTQ teens The Bronx, at least any that I was aware of and travelg to Manhattan’s gay mecs beckong wh their well-known reputatns as gay neighborhoods, meant that even trips to The Village and Chelsea were risqué bee back then, “only gays” would hang out there.

COMG OUT OF THE CLOSET AS A GAY MAN THE BRONX

By my sophomore year llege, I was already more fortable wh my sexualy as a gay man. I no longer red much if people knew I was gay. I began to feel more liberated and fortable my own sk and spent all my wakg hours on mp or cisg known gay hangouts Orchard Beach, Van Cortlandt Park and the rt stops of Wtchter County.

When I stumbled upon my first gay cisg ground The Bronx, I was absolute awe. Here were men, gay men, havg nversatns the open. Terror and fascatn gripped me as I dipped my to the forbidn zone of beg seen wh other gay men on my home turf of The Bronx.

Durg one of my early viss to “Gay” Orchard Beach, I met many tertg characters, but there was one particular, who until this day, remas forever ntled my heart and soul. He troduced me to Andrew Holleran’s ‘Dancer From the Dance’ which should be required readg for gay men, among other thgs queer. He had bee my lighthoe the nfg ocean of what meant to be a gay man those years the 90s but more importantly, that there were many others like me om even my own neighborhood that ped to the plac.

GAY DATG BRONX

Gay men were strictly portrayed as mockeri of themselv so he was a wealth of knowledge and spiratn of the past and prent.

THE 30 BT GAY BARS NYC

He was my first, real, gay iend. Throughout the s that followed, he was ever prent for my happit of moments wh lovers or jt losg ourselv unr the dis ball at The Roxy or Twilo wh thoands of other gay men dancg rapture to the beg my pillar when faced wh the endg of love tert or worse: When I was the victim of domtic vlence. I remember mom askg wh dread her ey what was that I was, and I yelled back, “I’M GAY MOM, GAY!

Sure I was fally an openly gay man and never aga did I hi but wasn’t until really the past 10 years that I beme more fortable wh sharg my full life wh them cludg my love terts and iends. Throughout the years sce g out, my parents showered me wh unndnal love but that moment to me was perhaps one of the most important my life so far for they celebrated publicly me my entirety as a gay man. The unlikely succs story of a black gay party the Bronx the late ’90s to rival New York’s most famo clubs March 16, 2017 Better known as the birthplace of hip-hop, the late ’90s the South Bronx beme home to a club to rival Paradise Garage and New York’s other fluential black gay parti.

“I had been brought up the projects and beg gay there was hard, ” he says. “The Gallery allowed me to be around olr gay people and to hear mic that was tellg our story.

THE WAREHOE: THE GAY CLUB WHERE HOE MIC GOT S NAME

That was the first time I had played somewhere like that and on that sle – basilly a room of 5-700 gay black men. ” For the gay crowd, havg the Warehoe was like havg the Garage or Better Days back.

Beg this big, rnchy, raw, out--the-backwoods place the Bronx that hadn’t seen a big gay black party like this before, I thought the Warehoe uld create s own mystique. For his new club the Bronx, Stone wanted to brg another veteran of New York’s gay black clubs. “There were small taverns but no really big clubs for gay black men.

NEW YORK CY GAY CISE CLUBS

“We had our next party on Gay Pri weekend June and brought DJ Sedrick om Washgton D.

I thk for the gay crowd, havg the Warehoe was like havg the Garage or Better Days back. The real down hard, soulful gay kids had kd of sttered sce those plac had shut, so once the Warehoe opened they uld e all e back together aga. As a young gay black man beg brought up a Jehovah’s Wns I was told there was no hope for me.

“I said that don’t make sense, bee hip-hop was buildg the gay muny at the time.

TWO SOUTH BRONX BARS LOOK TO ATTRACT GAY AND LBIAN CLIENTELE

At the time hip-hop and R&B was beg ever more domant on the black gay scene, and soon the ground floor was packed. She said, ‘I love the gay kids. Durg that time a lot had changed on the gay black club scene, and the Warehoe would provi an important bridge between the old and new generatn.