The History of How Gay Bars Beme the Battleground for LGBTQ+ Rights

Contents:

• THE GAY BAR: CAN YOU MAKE MONEY NNG ONE?
• 'LIVG JOYOLY IS A RADIL ACT': WHY AMERI'S GAY BARS STILL MATTER
• HOW CORPORATNS ARE PROFG OM GAY PRI
• THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
• GAY USA
• THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI
• THE SALOON, A MNEAPOLIS GAY BAR, DROPS ANHSER-BCH BEERS FOLLOWG THE BUD LIGHT CONTROVERSY

THE GAY BAR: CAN YOU MAKE MONEY NNG ONE?

The Gay Bar. Gay bars have an even tougher road to profabily. Damron, which has been keepg track of gay bars sce 1964, showed a 12 percent drop their number between 2005 and 2011, om 1, 605 LGBT bars and clubs to 1, 405.

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

Gay people were so sperate for a place to gather that they would patronize jt about any bar that permted their prence, no matter how gdggly.

Operatg sts were kept check bee gay bars uld be suated out-of-the-way plac and required ltle by way of terr ratn. In 1977, Brandon Jull wrote about the then-popular backroom bars—that is, bars where gay men would go to have sex—for gay magaze Blueboy.

HOW CORPORATNS ARE PROFG OM GAY PRI

" Today's bar owners n their bs at a time when gays feel more fortable spendg time all kds of plac, when the AIDS crisis has ma backroom hookups far ls mon, and when gays are as likely to meet on an iPhone app as at a bar. Many "gay bars, " pecially outsi the major urban centers, attract both male and female ctomers, but big ci, far more bars ter to gay male patrons than to lbians.

Acrdg to the bar listgs the 2011-12 edn of the Gayellow Pag San Francis has one lbian bar, 24 ditg a mostly gay male clientele, and seven drawg both gay men and lbians; Atlanta has two lbian bars, 12 for gay men, and eight mixed; Manhattan has two lbian, 28 for men, and 13 mixed; and Seattle has one lbian, four for gay men, and six mixed. Lbians' ntg stcts mean they h the bars ls equently than gay men.

THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS

" She adds, "Gay men go out a lot more bee they cise.

GAY USA

In the past, gay men and lbians were more apt to vis the same bars.

Mercer wrote, "Male and female homosexuals seldom equent the same plac. " Today, women might take advantage of the cheap, strong drks available gay bars, but when 's time for dancg and romancg, they'll head off to the no-man's land of the girl bar. Which means that gay bars aren't jt limg themselv to the gay muny—often, they're limg themselv to one-half of the gay muny.

THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI

How gay bars have rpond to the particular challeng of their dtry has varied over time. Tradnally, lbian and gay bars suated themselv remote lotns, even though that meant potential ctomers had to have the means and motivatn to get to them. It wasn't jt the cheaper rents of dtrial zon and rough neighborhoods that attracted gay-bar owners to those lotns.

The last thg closeted gay men and lbians wanted was for -workers, fay members, or potential blackmailers to wanr to their sanctuary—nor did they want to be seen g and gog om such tablishments. In Gay Bar, her memoir of nng such an tablishment the 1950s, Helen Branson wrote that "If an owner of a gay bar do not want the harassment and plats om the neighbors, he tri to choose a lotn that is not very ele.

THE SALOON, A MNEAPOLIS GAY BAR, DROPS ANHSER-BCH BEERS FOLLOWG THE BUD LIGHT CONTROVERSY

The days, urban gay bars tend to clter together "gayborhoods"—New York's Greenwich Village and Chelsea, San Francis's Castro and SoMa, or Dupont Circle Washgton, D.

In Seattle, Pony is jt steps away om another gay bar, the Madison Pub, though is a uple of blocks om Capol Hill's ma entertament strip, home to Seattle's livelit bars and clubs, both gay and straight. Stoner believ that beg close to other gay bars, and to other nightlife spots generally, is a big pl.

Though Stoner's bar is close to the heart of town, Pony don't downplay s gayns.