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

Contents:

• AS SEATTLE’S GAYBORHOOD MIGRAT, CAPOL HILL QUEER BARS FIGHT TO REMA A REFUGE
• STEP-BY-STEP INSTCTNS FOR SHOOTG YOUR SHOT WH GAY GUYS
• THE 7 BT GAY BARS PHILALPHIA
• A FRIDAY ON THE “F LOOP”: A STRAIGHT MAN’S GAY BAR CRAWL
• GAY NIGHTLIFE QUEBEC CY: BT BARS, CLUBS, & MORE
• 'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE
• IN THE FACE OF HOSTILY AT CHIGO GAY BARS, TWO BLACK LBIANS CREATE THEIR OWN
• THE GAY ‘SIP-IN’ THAT DREW OM THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT TO FIGHT DISCRIMATN
• HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE

AS SEATTLE’S GAYBORHOOD MIGRAT, CAPOL HILL QUEER BARS FIGHT TO REMA A REFUGE

41) Bar Gaytherg (Miami Beach, FL)42) Cafe Lafte In Exile (New Orleans, LA)43) Cubbyhole (New York, NY)44) Srlet Honolulu (Honolulu, HI)45) The Goln Lantern (New Orleans, LA)46) Freddie’s Beach Bar & Rtrant (Arlgton, VA)47) Replay Beer and Bourbon (Chigo, IL)48) Berl (Chigo, IL)49) Marty’s Marti Bar (Chigo, IL)50) The North End (Chigo, IL). We intified bs the gay bars tegory, then ranked those spots g a number of factors cludg the total volume and ratgs of reviews between January 1, 2016 and April 28, 2021. At the time, the queer bars I pass are stg silent and shuttered: Pony, whose signage announced 2014 to a changg neighborhood, “This is a very gay bar.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTCTNS FOR SHOOTG YOUR SHOT WH GAY GUYS

As spac close or relote search of cheaper rent, there is an opportuny to rethk both the nature of queer space and the boundari of Seattle’s gayborhood. My two gay bt iends and I were dner regulars at the Broadway Grill; hnted mortuary-turned-gay-bar Chapel; and danced our hearts out at club and drag performance venue R Place, where I always felt wele, both before and after I me out as queer and genr-expansive.

THE 7 BT GAY BARS PHILALPHIA

Its five female founrs chose the space for s large wdows, a revolutnary move durg a time when “gay bars were more like speakeasi, ” as Manng told the Seattle Channel, hoed dark, hidn spac. The gayborhood of my youth was punk-rock and unashamedly queer, a rehg ntrast to the homogenized culture and merce that domated downtown and the suburbs. Dpe the “myth of gay affluence, ” LGBTQ people face higher rat of poverty than their cisgenred, heterosexual peers, along wh barriers to social servic and health re.

A FRIDAY ON THE “F LOOP”: A STRAIGHT MAN’S GAY BAR CRAWL

At the time, strict laws regulatg sodomy, same-sex dancg, and drag forced them unrground, but most “gay bars end up simply payg off the police to prevent them om beg harassed, ” says Peter Boag, profsor and Columbia Chair the History of the Amerin Wt at Washgton State Universy.

GAY NIGHTLIFE QUEBEC CY: BT BARS, CLUBS, & MORE

This bribery system ma Seattle “a hot town for gay people, ” as turn-of-the-century performer Hannah Banana once scribed , wh vville and drag at s center. At the Garn of Allah, Seattle’s first gay-owned baret, renowned performers such as Skippy LaRue were drawg both gay and straight crowds 119 years before Ru Pl’s Drag Race beme a cross-cultural phenomenon.

The historic Dorian Society opened a muny center there 1969; the Uned Ebony Council, a Black gay male anizatn, formed 1975, and both groups met at the Mombo Rtrant and Lounge, whose owner helped end the police bribery system.

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

But as gay and lbian activism gaed tractn the 1970s and 1980s, however, s lears displaced many of the genr-expansive people and BIPOC who drove the origal movement.

O’Stayformore has found hom Geetown for her drag show, Ban Strip; Burns scrib Whe Center’s nascent gayborhood as remiscent of “old Capol Hill, ” wh a more diverse scene that clus some of the olr lbians who might once have graced the Rose’s booths and barstools.

IN THE FACE OF HOSTILY AT CHIGO GAY BARS, TWO BLACK LBIANS CREATE THEIR OWN

While much of this progrs n be creded to the gay and lbian activist cultur of the 1960s and ’70s, the irony is that they created a future where the next generatn of queer people feel ls affy wh the “G” and “L” labels — and the spac that go along wh them.

Even Toce, spe her publitn’s name, don’t necsarily intify wh the word “lbian” (she prefers “gay”), but feels that the Seattle Lbian is “fillg a niche the muny that I thought need to be there.

Gay women are more likely than men to marry or habate, pecially Washgton state, as well as to divorce; this siphons patrons off the lbian bar scene first when they “nt, ” and aga when they bee sgle parents. ” She would like to see more queer space that targets patrons at “different pots our liv, ” such as 25-year Hill veteran Gay Cy, which boasts a library and ffee shop along wh arts and culture programmg, youth servic, and health and tnal rourc.

THE GAY ‘SIP-IN’ THAT DREW OM THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT TO FIGHT DISCRIMATN

Try Grdr, Adult Friend Fr, or Tr to meet gay or bi people lookg to hook up, or OK Cupid or Hge if you’re terted makg a eper nnectn.

HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE

Before we prent you wh our list of bt gay bars Philalphia, a few tertg facts about the lol LGBTQ scene: almost every LGBTQ-centric statn the cy is found Gayborhood, an enclave Center Cy Philalphia that has quickly bee one of the most regnize neighborhoods town. 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. 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. Police raids forced them to disband 1925, but not before they had published several issu of their newsletter, “Friendship and Freedom, ” the untry’s first gay-tert newsletter.

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.