Oral History of Harassment of San Anton Gay Bars (1993)

Contents:

• ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL MEN NYC'S GAY NIGHTLIFE SCENE FAC OVER A OF SEXUAL MISNDUCT ALLEGATNS
• WHY HASN’T THE GAY MUNY HAD A #METOO MOMENT?
• THE GAY BAR: WHY THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT WAS BORN ONE
• CO WORDS, HIDG PLA SIGHT HELPED GAY BARS TAMPA ENDURE HISTORY OF HARASSMENT
• HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE
• POLICE ARRT SPECT ALLEGED ANTI-GAY ATTACK BROOKLYN
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL MEN NYC'S GAY NIGHTLIFE SCENE FAC OVER A OF SEXUAL MISNDUCT ALLEGATNS

This clud five who said that when they were their late teens or early 20s and yearng for a sense of gay muny, Cohen grabbed their genals or buttocks at parti he hosted or at Motel 23.

Six of the ne accers said that bee they were newly out of the closet and didn’t know many queer people when the enunters occurred, they prumed that the cints were normal wh the gay muny, even though they were upset by them at the of Cohen’s accers add that havg accs to New York’s gay bars and parti meant so much to them, pecially for those who were unr 21, that they were willg to put up wh Cohen’s advanc.

WHY HASN’T THE GAY MUNY HAD A #METOO MOMENT?

The five men who said Cohen groped them said that while they were dismayed and tried to manver away om him, they did not tell him to stop, bee they didn’t want to lose their nnectn to gay nightlife. It wasn’t jt about experiencg fun nights out wh their iends —  was about the sense of eedom and acceptance they felt when surround by other gay people, some s for the first time their liv, they said.

There is no ditn that they knew about the allegatns of misnduct agast Cohen and Motel 23 reported by NBC allegatns ept to public viewCohen has hosted gay parti at glamoro New York nightclubs — cludg Goldbar, PHD Rooftop Lounge at the Dream Downtown hotel and Fishbowl at the Dream Midtown hotel — wh reliable crowds of attractive men and star-studd gut lists. Some of the world’s most well-known gay celebri, cludg Brish Olympic gold medalist Tom Daley, actor Neil Patrick Harris and rapper Lil Nas X, have been photographed wh Cohen or ma an appearance at Motel 23. Allegatns about Cohen’s behavr circulatg among New York’s gay men epted to public view early July, when dozens of allegatns about Motel 23 were posted on an anonymo Instagram acunt.

At the door, the man, who said he had never met Cohen before and do not equent New York’s gay nightlife scene, said that Cohen was gog to let him for ee, but charge his iend, who is Black, $250 for admissn.

THE GAY BAR: WHY THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT WAS BORN ONE

” Wh days, he had received a flood of msag wh allegatns, he anonymo claims posted by the acunt llectively allege that Motel 23’s owner turned gay parti and bars, which some see as queer safe spac, to toxic environments where young men were subjected to unwanted sexual advanc. Brtany Bent, 31, said that this sprg, the bar’s door staff told her she would have to pay a $150 ver to enter, while the three iends who acpanied her — all gay men — uld get for ee.

Seekg New York newers Long before he opened Motel 23, Cohen had a knack for nnectg wh young, gay men new to New York Cy, reachg out to them wh weeks of their arrival, five men said.

CO WORDS, HIDG PLA SIGHT HELPED GAY BARS TAMPA ENDURE HISTORY OF HARASSMENT

Fifty years after the Black Cat protts Los Angel, which directly led to the lnch of The Advote, we take a look at some of the most nsequential strik on gay bars and bathho datg back more than a century. The rmatn gathered actually led to a wir vtigatn of homosexualy nearby ci, which rulted 20 arrts, cludg two ps on the Baker Street beat, acrdg to Allan Bebe’s A History of Bathho. A German gay magaze 1929 published an acunt of a 26-year-old European visor that said eight tectiv went unrver the bathhoe, then round all patrons the ont room and beat the guts.

A New Year’s police raid on the Black Cat, a gay bay the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angel, rulted the beatgs of more than a dozen people; two men were arrted for the crime of kissg and a bartenr suffered a ptured spleen. California lawmakers 1976 passed a nsentg adults law part to stop persecutn of gays through bathhoe raids, but that didn’t stop San Francis ps om raidg Liberty Baths an apparent tt of that law, acrdg to A History of Bathho.

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office nducted jot raids of Florida gay bars Club 21 and Copa on May 3, 1991, and the cints would play a role Sheriff Nick Navarro eventually losg reelectn, ironilly after nductg such raids an apparent publicy stunt. Durg what AIDS activist Wan Yahai suggted was a crackdown on gays Beijg, the Dtatn got closed March 9, 2008, by police supposedly for playg mic too loud and hostg too large a crowd, acrdg to an article the Shangaiist.

HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE

When the Atlanta Police’s “Red Dog” un raid gay bar the Eagle September 2009, patrons reported beg forced onto the ground while officers ed homophobic slurs and nducted background checks on everybody there.

Police arrted 40 people standg outsi popular Mosw gay bar Central Statn December 2013, shortly after a number of disput between the bar owner and buildg landlords, acrdg to The Mosw Tim.

After a July 6, 2014, raid which around 65 gay people were round up and taken to the police statn, Nairobi news outlet Ghafla reported that the arrts were ma simply bee the patrons were homosexual.

POLICE ARRT SPECT ALLEGED ANTI-GAY ATTACK BROOKLYN

Police apparently regularly me to mand the IDs of guts, then end up arrtg Mlims to charge them not wh any homosexualy-related crime but wh the illegal nsumptn of alhol, a vlatn of Sharia law largely unenforced straight nightclubs.

The Stonewall Rts, also lled the Stonewall Uprisg, began the early hours of June 28, 1969 when New York Cy police raid the Stonewall Inn, a gay club loted Greenwich Village New York Cy. For stance, solicatn of same-sex relatns was illegal New York such reasons, LGBT dividuals flocked to gay bars and clubs, plac of refuge where they uld exprs themselv openly and socialize whout worry. However, the New York State Liquor Authory penalized and shut down tablishments that served alhol to known or spected LGBT dividuals, argug that the mere gatherg of homosexuals was “disorrly.

THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

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. ”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.

Most gay bars and clubs New York at the time were operated by the Mafia, who paid rptible police officers to look the other way and blackmailed wealthy gay patrons by threateng to “out” them.

After the Stonewall Rts, a msage was pated on the outsi of the board-up bar readg, "We homosexuals plead wh out people to please help mata peaceful and quiet nduct on the streets of the village. ”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.

Acrdg to an article the gay publitn This Week Texas, the Armed Forc Disciplary Control Board sent Ford a letter on January 8, 1987, threateng to make the Jezebel off-lims to ary personnel should she not take "satisfactory measur to elimate homosexual activy on the premis. Leave your mentTaped on November 22 and 23, 1993, this home vio ptur a pair of oral histori reuntg the police and ary harassment of gay bars San Anton om the 1970s through the 1990s.