'Gay Bar' Tracks The Wave Of A Whole Culture — And One Life : NPR

Contents:

• THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
• 'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE
• FOR THE LOVE OF GAY BARS
• IN ‘GAY BAR,’ TIME-HOPPG SNAPSHOTS OF QUEER NIGHTLIFE
• A MEMOIR ABOUT QUEER INTY, TOLD ONE GAY BAR AT A TIME
• HOW TO BEE POPULAR AT A GAY BAR
• GAY BAR TEMPLAT
• GAY BAR STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG
• THE NUMBER OF GAY BARS HAS DWDLED. A NEW GENERATN PLANS TO BRG THEM BACK.
• A YEAR GAY BARS
• 'LIVG JOYOLY IS A RADIL ACT': WHY AMERI'S GAY BARS STILL MATTER
• THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI
• LEGENDARY GAY BAR ATLANTA EAGLE IS REOPENG MIDTOWN
• GAY SCENE K.C.
• BT GAY CLUBS SAN ANTON
• IN 1973, AN ARSON KILLED 32 PEOPLE AT A GAY BAR. FOR YEARS, IT WAS FOTTEN
• A GAY BAR FALLY RETURNS TO THE GOLD COAST WH HOP TO UNE 'DISNNECTED' MUNY
• INDY'S GAY BARS: SECRET HIAWAYS TO SPLASHY DISS
• HISTORY OF GAY MARRIAGE
• GAY BARS NEAR ME
• GAY KANSAS CY
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

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. And while succeeds on many levels, perhaps the most remarkable one is Atherton L's nstant qutng of himself, and the realizatns of how he's changed sce he walked to his first gay bar years ago: "Maybe, I thought, I'm a dis ball.

The nroticism of beg closeted is like that strs of seeg a p while you’re stoned, but 24/7, and also, you like gay turns out that Gay Bar Smell (a ee logne ia one of the Queer Eye guys should sh on) was an spic troductn for me, and an inic one at that.

A safe space, a therapist’s office, a dance club, a live theater, a place to get super dnk (or pleasantly tipsy), a spot to fd a hookup, an tablishment to drown sorrows, and an oasis to pe realy are jt some of the ways to scribe what queer waterg hol mean to the gay mass.

'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE

Though, that absolutely happens too; nothg pairs better wh the third sp of “I Wanna Dance Wh Somebody” than a plastic cup of seltzer that tast like bbg alhol and Bar: Why We Went OutGay Bar: Why We Went OutNow 11% Off“Some people treat them jt as a bar, but to so many others ’s a muny, ” Steven McEne says.

FOR THE LOVE OF GAY BARS

“You get a lot of first-time bar narrativ, pecially om olr gays, ” says Atherton L of the re of passage, as important as your first kiss, or the realizatn that “poppers” isn’t a nickname for buttered rn.

”It’s a sad irony that the release of Gay Bar me at a time when many gay bars were eher closed temporarily, danger of closg permanently—like one of New York’s only Black-owned gay bars, Alibi—or done for good, like the Chigo Boystown mastay Ltle Jim’s. In the openg scene, Atherton L and his partner (rather regrettably referred to as the Famo Blue Raat, after the Leonard Cohen song) go out to a London gay bar, lookg for a ltle adventure, and enter a crowd: “Wh a kd of btal elegance, the group spread apart like the blas of a pocketknife. Atherton L is a skilled rear of the signifiers of cloth and archecture, the fetishizatn of workg-class fashn, for example, and how the rise of AIDS fluenced sign cisns: “A new type of gay bar began to appear London’s Soho the ’90s — airy, glossy, ntental.

) Most jarrg, perhaps, are Atherton L’s efforts at mimickg the theorists he clearly admir, those sectns that e across as parodi of amic wrg: “If the word muny is ed a failure of vobulary — too broad, too utopian — perhaps the metaphor to bt replace is metaphor self”; “gay bars are about potentialy, not rolutn. He’s already told what he most miss about gay bars; how movgly he replit here, wh his wi, strobg tellect, enliveng skepticism, raslly allure: “Perhaps you uld ll a gay bar a galaxy: We are held together but kept om llidg by a fe balance of momentum and gravy.

IN ‘GAY BAR,’ TIME-HOPPG SNAPSHOTS OF QUEER NIGHTLIFE

AdvertisementSKIP Jeremy Atherton LWhen you purchase an penntly reviewed book through our se, we earn an affiliate 9, 2021GAY BARWhy We Went OutBy Jeremy Atherton LHistory, as is tght, is a straight le of domo fallg — the relentls clack of fact htg fact, an orrly que of aly stretchg on forever. History, as is lived, is a reelg spiral of flight and return; the erative reawakeng of new selv faiar plac; a never-endg terrogatn of our own nfed and nfg motiv; a msy slather of dots on a graph where the center n be plotted only Atherton L’s betiful, lyril memoir, “Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, ” cloaks this lived history that learned history, examg an objective subject — gay bars — to create a highly subjective object: a book about his life, flensed down to jt the bs that ma past the chapter foc on one particular gay bar (jumpg om London to Los Angel to San Francis and back), s history and s place the trajectory of Atherton L’s life. Atherton L himself is renred only relatn to the bars he walks through; you’ll fd yourself hard-prsed at the end to say where he was born or how many siblgs he has (and you won’t re) Atherton L has a five-octave, Mariah Carey-que range for discsg gay sex.

“Gay Bar” is well crafted (which is pecially pleasg nsirg this is a memoir about stctur), wh a strong thorial hand that mak the rear feel refully shepherd through the text, even as Atherton L jumps s and ntents. When he discs an important 1966 prott at the historic Greenwich Village gay bar Juli’, he c a New York Tim article to talk about the “tr of activists” volved — not realizg that the article left out a fourth man, Randy Wicker (the only one still alive, cintally enough) a half page later, though, Atherton L warns that spe the activist claim that gay bars “should be kept open to facilate knowledge passg between generatns, ” he himself had never really received gay wisdom “on a barstool. ” This book is not about history, the subject you study, but history, that thg you have wh that guy by the jebox whose name you n’t the fal chapter of “Gay Bar, ” Atherton L grappl wh gog to a new generatn of bars, created by very different forc, meetg very different needs.

A MEMOIR ABOUT QUEER INTY, TOLD ONE GAY BAR AT A TIME

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But engagg gay behavr public (holdg hands, kissg or dancg wh someone of the same sex) was still illegal, so police harassment of gay bars ntued and many bars still operated whout liquor licens— part bee they were owned by the Rights Before StonewallThe first documented U. In 1966, three years before Stonewall, members of The Mattache Society, an anizatn dited to gay rights, staged a “sip-” where they openly clared their sexualy at taverns, darg staff to turn them away and sug tablishments who did. When The Commissn on Human Rights led that gay dividuals had the right to be served bars, police raids were temporarily Stonewall Inn The crime syndite saw prof terg to shunned gay clientele, and by the mid-1960s, the Genove crime fay ntrolled most Greenwich Village gay bars.

And was one of the few—if not the only—gay bar left that allowed were still a fact of life, but ually rpt ps would tip off Mafia-n bars before they occurred, allowg owners to stash the alhol (sold whout a liquor license) and hi other illegal activi. Stonewall's LegacyThough the Stonewall uprisg didn’t start the gay rights movement, was a galvanizg force for LGBT polil activism, leadg to numero gay rights anizatns, cludg the Gay Liberatn Front, Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD (formerly Gay and Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn), and PFLAG (formerly Parents, Fai and Friends of Lbians and Gays) the one-year anniversary of the rts on June 28, 1970, thoands of people marched the streets of Manhattan om the Stonewall Inn to Central Park what was then lled “Christopher Street Liberatn Day, ” Ameri’s first gay pri para.

HOW TO BEE POPULAR AT A GAY BAR

”In 2016, then-Print Barack Obama signated the se of the rts—Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park, and the surroundg streets and siwalks—a natnal monument regnn of the area’s ntributn to gay Gallery The Stonewall Inn is a bar loted New York Cy’s Greenwich Village that served as a haven the 1960s for the cy’s gay, lbian and transgenr muny. ”Over the next several nights, gay activists ntued to gather near the Stonewall, takg advantage of the moment to spread rmatn and build the muny that would fuel the growth of the gay rights movement.

GAY BAR TEMPLAT

The earlit example of a gay bar San Diego me the 1957, when straight ally Lou Arko bought the popular lunch club of the 1930's, the Brass Rail, and extend to a meetg spot for gay people at post-World War II era herald the openg of many more bars, terg to the pennt men and women who had moved to the btlg port cy for ary jobs.

GAY BAR STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG

WCPC also hosted some of San Diego's first Pri events, but they quickly outgrew the AIDS began vastatg the gay muny the '80s, the bars beme the plac for folks to gather, grieve, and raise money for men dyg om the disease.

THE NUMBER OF GAY BARS HAS DWDLED. A NEW GENERATN PLANS TO BRG THEM BACK.

Pike and McDaniel know openg a bar durg a panmic may be risky, but they say they’ve learned one thg om years of visg and workg other queer tablishments: If they want to survive, they first have to build a better and more clive than a barThe gay bar was long the ma, and sometim only, space where queer people uld gather. She mentored foster children whose parents had kicked them out, and every Thanksgivg, she threw a dner for people whose fai didn’t accept 1987, Norfolk had four or five gay bars, and the number natnwi peaked at more than 1, 700.

Those servg lbians and people of lor were h all gay bar listgs cled by 37 percent between 2007 and 2019, the number of queer bars servg people of lor cled by 59 percent, and bars for lbians cled by 52 percent, Mattson Francis lost the Lexgton Club, and Rubyu Jungle shut s doors New Orleans. “Gay bars were never jt hookup plac, but they were plac to meet other LGBTQ+ people, and now that you n meet them om your bedroom or while you’re wag for the b, that has taken away some of gay bars’ monopoly on beg the place where you fd other LGBTQ+ folks, ” he bars are also no longer the only place some queer people, pecially Whe and cisgenr men, feel safe.

A YEAR GAY BARS

Pike did secury for Nellie’s Sports Bar, and McDaniel bartend at APEX, Cobalt and other gay bars before workg alongsi Pike at A League of Her Own (ALOHO) Adams was one of jt 21 lbian bars left the untry when Pike and McDaniel worked there, but durg the early days of the ronavis panmic, the uple cid they wanted to create a new spot, one they owned. As You Are won’t have secury guards; stead, Pike is trag a fleet of “safety managers” — a change Pike hop will attract applints who are ls ncerned wh actg tough and more terted creatg a safe atmosphere for and McDaniel know that some people thk the gay bar era is over, that spac like theirs are no longer need, but people who say that tend to have more privilege, McDaniel said. “My experience of tryg to fd safe space here the Stat, and parg wh trips back to vis fay Mexi, has probably rmed my fervor for creatg a space where you are able to jt exist regardls of how or where you were born, who you want to love and how you intify, ” Castellanos, the owner of Hershee Bar Norfolk, nsirs herself an “old-school gay girl, ” but she’s rootg for the next generatn of queer bar owners.

The siwalks were dimly l, and I glid om light to light through the eply balmy eveng, and beyond the pat I found a panmic-era simulacm of a Texas gay bar’s ual weekday crowd: a few (whe) guys watchg sports on their phon, a (whe) man talkg to the bartenr, alongsi a handful of skny (whe) dus lookg to get laid. Jeremy Atherton L, the thor of the book “Gay Bar, ” may have scribed the allure of the spac bt: “It’s not about holdg out for a good night, but rather a lettg go, ” givg to the “unnvcg promise of pe.

'LIVG JOYOLY IS A RADIL ACT': WHY AMERI'S GAY BARS STILL MATTER

Fifty years after the Stonewall Inn New York beme the symbol for a new wave of gay activism, the three horsemen of the gay bar apolypse – gentrifitn, assiatn and technology – have hollowed out their rents have shuttered gay bars; more straight venu are “acceptg” of gay patrons; and datg is somethg people now do wh their phon.

Even the term “gay bar” looks a ltle tired as the LGBTQ muny fally to terms wh s many rabow numbers are hard to e by, but Yelp lculat the number of gay bars listed on s service fell 16% between 2014 and 2018.

'This is where we live our tth': visg Ameri's gay bars – vio The oasis: Wonrlt Jackson, MississippiYou n fd Wonrlt, the only gay bar Jackson, Mississippi, on the northern edge of town, jt past the Piggly Wiggly supermarket and the duellg disunt stor Dollar General and Dollar Tree.

THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI

Gay people – and pecially whe gay men – have ma great stris sce Stonewall, but even the gay muny, transphobia and racism are still ’s a bter irony that 50 years after Stonewall, while Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera – two trans women of lour and two of the ma actors the Stonewall rts – are beg celebrated, trans people are still beg “thrown unr the b”, and trans people of lour are “beg killed left and right – and nobody giv a sh”, says Boroski. A gay gatherg spot sce 1939, and gay bar sce 1963, and the Bar Complex sce the 80s, s unassumg exterr beli a triple-threat treat of lounge, performance space, and a mirrored dance club reportedly moled after Stud 54.

It was the se of an early gay-liberatn “sip ” 1966, years before Stonewall, and has been a low-key haven ever sce, wh a diverse clientele, a small menu, classic cktails, and an extensive (and packed) 4:00-7:00 happy hour.

LEGENDARY GAY BAR ATLANTA EAGLE IS REOPENG MIDTOWN

CourtyWashgton DC: TraIn a town where n feel like every other bar is crawlg wh Capol Hill staffers lookg to talk shop, Tra is the rare, glorly gay dive where absolutely everyone is wele to jt kick back. The events durg that six-day perd are seen as a key turng pot and a talyst for explosive growth a gay rights movement that began the Uned Stat 1950 wh the foundg of the Mattache Society Los Angel.

The clud on at Cooper Do-Nuts Los Angel 1959; a fundraiser for the Council on Relign and the Homosexual San Francis 1965; a Dewey’s rtrant Philalphia, also 1965; San Francis’s Compton’s Cafeteria 1966; and the Black Cat Tavern Los Angel 1967. The unual reactn of the Stonewall’s patrons spurred the crowd outsi, which me to clu a diverse segment of the lol LGBT muny – homels LGBT teens, trans women of lor, lbians, drag queens, and gay men – as well as other rints of Greenwich Village and visors. Even before the 1969 Stonewall uprisg, Christopher Park was a favore hangout for a diverse group of (often homels) gay street youth and those who might intify today as queer, transgenr, or non-bary.

GAY SCENE K.C.

At the one-year anniversary, the first annual Christopher Street Liberatn Day March (later known as the Gay Pri March and then the LGBT Pri March) took place New York, wh siar events other ci the Uned Stat; the number of march expand ternatnally over the next few years. The nomatn, available the “Read More” sectn below, was wrten by Dolkart, wh Shockley, g, part, rearch om David Carter (who published his Stonewall: The Rts that Sparked the Gay Revolutn book 2004).

"By early fall, there was creasg evince that the tragedy had roed a dre of gay New Orleanians ways unthkable jt a season before, " thor Robert Fieler wr Trbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberatn.

BT GAY CLUBS SAN ANTON

There is new hope that the Gold Coast's "sttered" LGBTQI+ scene will fd a greater sense of muny after the cy's first gay bar more than two years pots:There hasn't been a dited LGBTQI+ safe venue on the Gold Coast for more than two yearsA new bar has opened Broadbeach aimed at the muny and s alliGold Coast Rabow Communi has weled the venue and says more are on the wayDan Dunn lnched Chameleon Lounge Bar last week to addrs what he scribed as a "disnnected" muny. Michael Bohr is the founr and curator of the Chris Gonzalez Library & Archiv, a sort of gay mm whose ventory clus rare, origal pi of Indianapolis' first gay publitn, a mimeographed monthly om 1966 lled "The Screamer. Hudnut issued a proclamatn clarg was cy policy not to discrimate agast died of AIDS Déjà vu, an old, narrow buildg on ground now occupied by the Indianapolis Zoo, is believed to have been the first Indianapolis gay bar to employ a ejay.

Before ejays, the background mic me om jebox and ocsnally om live performers, such as the piano player named Flo (her last name is lost to history), who the early '60s lighted McCann and others wh Cole Porter tun at a long-gone gay bar at 22nd and Meridian lled Bolland' first ejay, at the Déjà vu, was Jimmy Spldg the mid-1970s. Wh s massive sound system and s mirrors, and wh the advent of dis, of Gloria Gaynor's and Donna Summer's mic (mixed expertly by a ejay who was very small and went by Turtle), the Hunt and Chase soon eclipsed all gay dance clubs. Downtown Olly's is now a sports bar, a gay sports bar, a gay sports bar wh picture wdows and afternoon, the reverg alholic wh the Diet Coke, reflected on the new, open era, specifilly on the sunlight pourg .

One high-profile opponent of gay rights was sger and former Miss Oklahoma Ana Bryant who found the group Save Our Children and mpaigned to repeal lol ordanc that prohibed discrimatn based on sexual orientatn. Although a gay marriage was never performed Hawaii, the issue gaed natnal attentn and prompted over 40 stat over the next to pass Defense of Marriage Acts (DOMAs) that fed marriage as a legal unn between one man and one woman. The feral DOMA statute ensured that no state would be forced to regnize gay marriag performed other stat and prevented same-sex upl om receivg feral protectns and benefs given to married heterosexual upl.

IN 1973, AN ARSON KILLED 32 PEOPLE AT A GAY BAR. FOR YEARS, IT WAS FOTTEN

11, 2010, CNN released the rults of the first natnal poll to show a majory support for gay marriage, wh 52% agreeg that “gays and lbians should have a nstutnal right to get married and have their marriage regnized by law as valid. On May 9, 2012, Print Obama beme the first stg US print to clare his support for gay marriage, statg: “At a certa pot, I’ve jt nclud that for me personally is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I thk same-sex upl should be able to get married. Six other stat which gay marriage bans had been overturned, Colorado, Kansas, North Carola, South Carola, Wt Virgia, and Wyomg, were also affected by the Supreme Court lg bee they were the jurisdictns of the lower urts that had overturned the gay marriage bans.

A GAY BAR FALLY RETURNS TO THE GOLD COAST WH HOP TO UNE 'DISNNECTED' MUNY

INDY'S GAY BARS: SECRET HIAWAYS TO SPLASHY DISS

HISTORY OF GAY MARRIAGE

GAY BARS NEAR ME

GAY KANSAS CY

THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW