Author Jeremy Atherton L wr of the history of gay bars, as their existence is threatened by the populary of datg apps and risg property sts, and reflects on their prence his life.
Contents:
- THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI
- THE BT GAY CLUBS AMERI
- A YEAR GAY BARS
- IN ‘GAY BAR,’ TIME-HOPPG SNAPSHOTS OF QUEER NIGHTLIFE
- A MEMOIR ABOUT QUEER INTY, TOLD ONE GAY BAR AT A TIME
- 'GAY BAR' TRACKS THE WAVE OF A WHOLE CULTURE — AND ONE LIFE
- COME JO THE PARTY! LSONS OM VISG EVERY GAY AND LBIAN BAR THE COUNTRY
- GAY BARS AREN’T DISAPPEARG; THEY’RE CHANGG
- GAY BARS THE FRENCH QUARTER
- CHASG ‘PHANTOMS OF THE PAST’: 8 GAY AND LBIAN BAR ARCHIVISTS ON PRERVG LGBTQ+ NIGHTLIFE HISTORY
- 5 HISTORIC SAN FRANCIS GAY BARS WE WISH STILL EXISTED
THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI
In his new memoir, “Gay Bar,” Jeremy Atherton L documents his personal history and the history of queer inty by explorg gay bars around the world. * from gay bar *
When the bar fally reopened Sprg 2022, an entire borough’s worth of gays celebrated by floodg the new back pat all summer and Gger’s has been crowd wh queers ever sce. It began s life as a beer-and-we offshoot of the Metropolan Health Club, a gym that opened 1983 to serve the gay ctomers who’d been bullied out of other lol clubs at the height of AIDS hysteria.
THE BT GAY CLUBS AMERI
* from gay bar *
While you won’t fd any Pri flags at Farraguts, you will undoubtedly hear Cele Dn and Melissa Etheri blarg om the bar’s dty, old jebox and, hontly, isn’t that jt as gay? Live out your Brokeback Mounta fantasi at this verno club, where wboy stum are not nsired drag, and le dancg is not an explic exprsn of homophobia.
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.
) The glorly lively bar and rtrant scene is enhanced by a black box theater downstairs, where farcil plays, lbian standup, and gay dance troup reign.
A YEAR GAY BARS
The French Quarter has always embraced the New Orleans LGBT and Gay muny. Click here to fd the bt gay bars the French Quarter. * from gay bar *
If you want to get away om the typil scene at fellow gay bars Olly’s and Gregs Our Place, English Ivy is an ial place to meet iends: mature enough for a proper Ladi Lunch (or bnch or dner. It’s not a gay bar the tradnal sense, but a place where traed pianists play selectns om Broadway shows and all of the drama teachers and mil theater majors of the tri-state area nverge to sg along.
IN ‘GAY BAR,’ TIME-HOPPG SNAPSHOTS OF QUEER NIGHTLIFE
VePair terviewed eight LGBTQ+ archivers around the untry about documentg Ameri’s gay and lbian bars while they still n. * from gay bar *
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. The origal was burned down an anti-gay hate-crime a few years back, but the revival has jt opened across the street and is bigger and better, wh a new performance space.
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. 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.
A MEMOIR ABOUT QUEER INTY, TOLD ONE GAY BAR AT A TIME
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.
'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.
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.
COME JO THE PARTY! LSONS OM VISG EVERY GAY AND LBIAN BAR THE COUNTRY
In Hoton, while ambulance sirens blared at all hours, I ocsnally spent my afternoons walkg up and down the roads of our own lol gayborhood, Montrose.
GAY BARS AREN’T DISAPPEARG; THEY’RE CHANGG
I wished him luck, but I uldn’t hear his rponse over an unmasked group of whe gays, yellg about poppers and spillg their beer all over the June, my boyiend, L, and I flew to Los Angel for work.
GAY BARS THE FRENCH QUARTER
Portland has historilly been home to the untry’s send-largt populatn of queer people, behd only San Francis, but, pendg on who you ask, the cy lacks a dified gayborhood. In the rtrant, I sat at the bar unr a televisn blastg Conan O’Brien rens, and a gay Asian du dnkenly munchg on i bi me plaed that he’d been abandoned by his iends.
CHASG ‘PHANTOMS OF THE PAST’: 8 GAY AND LBIAN BAR ARCHIVISTS ON PRERVG LGBTQ+ NIGHTLIFE HISTORY
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.
5 HISTORIC SAN FRANCIS GAY BARS WE WISH STILL EXISTED
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.
) 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.