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

Contents:

• IN ‘GAY BAR,’ TIME-HOPPG SNAPSHOTS OF QUEER NIGHTLIFE
• LICHT CAFé, D.C.’S NEWT GAY BAR, IS A COZY, ART-FILLED U STREET HIAWAY
• WHAT DO A GAY BAR LOOK LIKE?
• ARTS DISTRICT GAY BAR OWNER PLANS OPENG OF LGBTQ+ HOTEL AND NIGHTCLUB
• WHY GAY BARS ARE VAL FOR LGBT COMMUNI
• BEER IS SO GAY
• LGBTQ MEMORABILIA DIGNER HONORS DEFUNCT FLORIDA GAY BARS
• THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI
• 'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE
• 13 BT GAY BARS IN BROOKLYN, NY
• HOW ‘GAY’ SHOULD A GAY BAR BE?

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

If you felt a twge of boredom (bon if you thrill to disheveled, elive, gamy), then I have a book for Atherton L’s “Gay Bar” is a rtls and telligent cultural history of queer nightlife. 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. Sometim that history is his Atherton“Gay Bar” offers a twist on the nventnal memoir; ’s a life seen snapshots, the bars as the backdrop.

LICHT CAFé, D.C.’S NEWT GAY BAR, IS A COZY, ART-FILLED U STREET HIAWAY

Amaretto sours Wt Hollywood, Atherton L llege, still strenuoly datg women and meetg his first groups of gay men. “Everythg about beg gay was so crowd: the ads for bars and rts and waxg servic rammed together, shallow and histrnic and imper, ” he wr. ) 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.

WHAT DO A GAY BAR LOOK LIKE?

In the gay dark ag (sometime before Ksey’s rearch revealed how many of there actually are), the sparse rmatn available about the gay muny was pure famatn. ‘Homosexual, ’ a medil term associated wh mental illns and synonymo wh pedophilia, was often the only word available for scribg queer people of any kd (excludg slurs).

ARTS DISTRICT GAY BAR OWNER PLANS OPENG OF LGBTQ+ HOTEL AND NIGHTCLUB

When the Amerin gay liberatn movement started the late sixti, clil terms like ‘homosexual’ and ‘transexual’ were dropped for the more posive ‘homophile’ (and then simply ‘gay’) and ‘transgenr’.

The pk triangle, a hate-fueled mark assigned to gay men by the Nazis, and the black triangle for lbians were both appropriated by the muny.

Graphic signer Tom Doerr chose the Greek lambda for the Gay Activists Alliance, and would eventually bee the symbol for gay and lbian rights worldwi. For gay bars, pri events, important msag, and any tablishment that is lookg to stake out a fively queer space, say loud and proud wh a bold sign. Most gay liberatn movers and shakers probably weren’t tryg to be pneers—they were jt tryg to be themselv and live their liv an thentic way.

WHY GAY BARS ARE VAL FOR LGBT COMMUNI

The followg signs take their cue om the past, transformg classic genr symbols or a vtage athetic to a progrsive future wh that special gay flair. “The goal is to foc on the classic cktails, rather than jt vodka-sodas and rose Kennedys, as you may get at other gay bars, ” he says. Kiki owner Keaton Fedak, the former general manager at nearby gay bar Dirty Goose, will expand Kiki to the next-door space that formerly hoed dive Dodge Cy.

While I n’t say for certa that this work picts a gay bar, we know Perl was active the 1950 gay bar scene of New York Cy. A WWII-propaganda and magaze illtrator, Perl was an tablished artist who extensively created work pictg gay life.

The nonscript figur the patg are male-prentg and the limed choice of warm lor suggts a level of uny, so wouldn’t be outlandish to suggt the bar he is pictg might be a gay bar. Due to assiatn, gentrifitn, and dozens of other factors, the last twenty or so years have seen signifint closur of gay bars. Perhaps I’ll be stg next to the next Perl—jt as was possible, he was stg next to Jared French or Pl Cadm at a gay bar 1957.

BEER IS SO GAY

The team behd one of Las Vegas’ most popular gay bars announced Wednday s lnchg an LGBTQ+ boutique hotel, rtrant, gamg lounge and nightclub next month. “It has been my missn to create a vibrant and clive entertament district for our LGBTQ+ muny, and I’m thrilled to announce that Q Hospaly Group has secured a prime lotn on the inic Las Vegas Strip to create the Gayt statn Las Vegas, ” Cordova said a statement. Gay bars and nightclubs have long served as sanctuari for LGBT muni, but many of the venu have been disappearg.

On June 12, the adlit mass shootg the history of the Uned Stat took place Orlando, Florida at Pulse, a gay nightclub. Kyle Fzpatrick, -founr of the gay culture magaze Boy Club, recently wrote “Why Gay Bars Are So Important” for ATTN. If you thk about the gay muny as other muni, à la relign or somethg, our rallyg pots, our church are gay bars.

LGBTQ MEMORABILIA DIGNER HONORS DEFUNCT FLORIDA GAY BARS

There’s been a lot of theori that wh apps like Grdr and Tr, people don’t need to go to a gay bar to meet other gay people, or other queer people, or other trans people, etc. Stone Bar Hollywood was another one, which is now Harvard & Stone, but ed to be … a gay bar for primarily the Thai muny.

There’s a bar lled La Plaza, which is a primarily Lato gay bar that people pass and have no ia that ’s a gay bar. DnA: The spac are safe spac for the reasons you’ve explaed, but they n also be – at the very same time – unsafe spac, precisely bee the gay muny gathers there, and they n bee a target. DnA: The straight muny has always known that the gay muny bars, or certaly the gay dance clubs, are more fun than the straight dance clubs.

THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI

KF: It’s always great when you have straight or cisgenr people at gay bars or queer spac, bee that’s the moment of celebratn, that we all are g together to really acknowledge and experience and really celebrate each other.

Where n get tricky – and LGBT people have been gay bars where you have a bachelorette party, or even a bachelor party, or some group that is sort of en masse, g like tourists to poke their head , see what’s gog on, and then leave – we feel kd of like zoo animals. On top of that, a lot of tim when you have the groups that are not necsarily a part of the gay muny g to “vis, ” they mand the space.

Micky’s WeHo has long been a staple on Wt Hollywood’s strip of gay nightclubs and bars on Santa Moni Boulevard, known for s open-walled two-story buildg where passersby n see the party ragg om the street. The venue is the only Latx gay bar LA that explicly ters to a gay and Mexin dience every night, not jt as a theme once a week. But ’s the perfect space to grab a workday bnch wh a lleague or for -workg ssns -hosted on Tudays wh Gay Asstrology.

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

Though Sweetwater isn’t officially known as a lbian bar, the humble tablishment has long been the go-to spot for queer women the lol gayborhood, which featur nearly half a dozen gay bars that le Broadway Long Beach. One of Long Beach’s few, if not only, three-level gay bars, Executive Sue boasts a karaoke bar, vio gam, pool tabl for rent, and regular drag shows.

Dubbed by KCET as Montebello’s bt Lato gay bar, Chi is the sister to Club Cobra, servg as a groundg se for the queer Latx muny the suburbs of East LA.

13 BT GAY BARS IN BROOKLYN, NY

Gay Beer, Dyke Beer, and Queer Brewg are among the emergg group of beer producers that are centerg queer inty and queer muny, whether by highlightg queer brewers, donatg some profs to queer chari, or creatg queer third spac — munal spac distct om home and work — at a time when they’re disappearg. The pair were spired while drkg at Juli’, a historic gay bar New York Cy that was the se of early “sip-” protts, where gay men would drk at bars that refed to serve homosexuals.

Together, they were tryg to figure out why there wasn’t already a beer posned more for queer people, which led Moore and Pazmo to realize that gay beer was a project they uld take on themselv themselv.

HOW ‘GAY’ SHOULD A GAY BAR BE?

Growg up, they’d both heard “gay” ed as an sult or to scribe somethg pejoratively, so llg their beer Gay Beer was also a reclamatn.

Moore and Pazmo note that “gay” also means “happy, ” a nnotatn hasn’t really held s, but still gets ed as a cheeky way to eli the haters. “A lot of bars are not wantg to say they’re lbian bars, they’re wantg to say they’re queer bars — but a lot of gay male bars keep sayg they’re gay male bars, ” she says.

For Moore and Pazmo, that meant an “Amerina whout the Amerin flag” sign, somethg that reflected the athetics of Juli’ Bar, and the gay men of the ’60s who participated the “sip ” protts. Buyg Gay Beer at the grocery store signals to everyone who se you that you’re the kd of person who buys Gay Beer.