Gay Bars 101: The Rise and Decle of Gay & Lbian Bars

Contents:

• A BRIEF HISTORY OF ATTACKS AT GAY AND LBIAN BARS
• GAY BARS AND GAY RIGHTS
• THE PANMIC IS HURTG GAY AND LBIAN BARS. THE NSEQUENC FOR THE MUNY ULD BE VASTATG
• GAY BARS 101: THE RISE AND DECLE OF GAY & LBIAN BARS

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ATTACKS AT GAY AND LBIAN BARS

AdvertisementSKIP Thornell/Associated PrsJune 13, 2016The lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr muny is no stranger to the 1969 police raid at the Stonewall Inn New York Cy that set off rts and helped touch off the morn gay-rights movement to the 1998 murr of Matthew Shepard to near-epimic levels of vlence agast transgenr women, the muny has been marked by flash of the massacre at a gay club Orlando, Fla., that left 49 ad and 53 others jured, Richard Kim, the executive edor of The Natn, wrote on Sunday that gay bars and clubs have often been sanctuari.

GAY BARS AND GAY RIGHTS

ViotranscripttranscriptA Day of Mourng for the Gay CommunyIn support of the victims of the massacre at a gay nightclub Orlando, Fla., hundreds gathered outsi the Stonewall Inn New York, where a rt 1969 helped lnch the gay rights support of the victims of the massacre at a gay nightclub Orlando, Fla., hundreds gathered outsi the Stonewall Inn New York, where a rt 1969 helped lnch the gay rights movement. Stonewall Inn, 2010 and 2016The Stonewall Inn played a central role the morn gay rights movement, but has also seen antigay and anti-transgenr vlence recent men attacked another man the rtroom 2010 after he rmed them that they were a gay bar. “The realy is, if people are lookg to perpetrate anti-gay bias and vlence, there are very few plac this world that are safe once that tent has formed, ” Sharon Stapel, the former executive director of the New York Cy Anti-Vlence Project, said at the time of the March this year, a transgenr woman said she was sexually asslted the unisex rtroom.

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. 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 PANMIC IS HURTG GAY AND LBIAN BARS. THE NSEQUENC FOR THE MUNY ULD BE VASTATG

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. 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 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.

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.

GAY BARS 101: THE RISE AND DECLE OF GAY & LBIAN 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 (cludg the Stonewall) were operated by the Mafia, who paid rpt police officers to look the other way and blackmailed wealthy gay patrons by threateng to “out” them. Acrdg to David Carter, historian and thor of Stonewall: The Rts That Sparked the Gay Revolutn, the “hierarchy of ristance” the rts began wh the homels or “street” kids, those young gay men who viewed the Stonewall as the only safe place their liv.

June 29-July 1, 1969: Stonewall be gatherg pot for LGBTQ 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. Though the gay rights movement didn’t beg at Stonewall, the uprisg did mark a turng pot, as earlier “homophile” anizatns like the Mattache Society gave way to more radil groups like the Gay Liberatn Front (GLF) and the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA). June 28, 1970: First Gay Pri para sets off om the first anniversary of the police raid on the Stonewall Inn, gay activists New York anized the Christopher Street Liberatn March to p off the cy’s first Gay Pri Week.

The enzy of activism born on that first night at Stonewall would eventually fuel gay rights movements Canada, Bra, France, Germany, Atralia and New Zealand, among other untri, beg a lastg force that would rry on for the next half-century—and beyond. " This sign was wrten by the Mattache Society–an early anizatn dited to fightg for gay reportg the events, The New York Daily News rorted to homophobic slurs s tailed verage, nng the headle: “Homo Nt Raid, Queen Be Are Stgg Mad.

1965: Philalphia – Dewey’s Rtrant S-InDewey's rtrant Philalphia, Pennsylvania as appeared May April 25, 1965, the 17th Street lotn of Dewey’s rtrant Philalphia nied service to approximately 150 people who appeared to be gay or genr non-nformg. McDarrah/Getty ImagAfter pourg their drks, a bartenr Juli's Bar ref to serve John Timms, Dick Lesch, Craig Rodwell, and Randy Wicker, members of the Mattache Society who were prottg New York liquor laws that prevented servg gay ctomers, 1966. McDarrah/Getty Imag)In sprg 1966, members of the early gay rights anizatn Mattache Society staged a “sip-”—a twist on “s-” prott— which they vised taverns, clared themselv gay, and waed to be turned away so they uld sue.

1966–1967: Los Angel – Black Cat Tavern Protts, Los AngelOpened November 1966, Black Cat Tavern was a haven for Silver Lake’s queer muny, who were subjected to harassment om police enforcg anti-homosexualy laws. The raid would bee part of an creasgly aggrsive mpaign by the police, cy, and state ernments agast gay bars and gay people that would set the stage for the rise of the morn-day LGBTQ rights movement the late 1960s. Thgs had been different only a few years earlier, and they were about to change policg of gay bars San Francis began earnt the 1940s durg World War II, as the ary attempted to crack down on so-lled “vice” Amerin ci, pecially port towns, orr to regulate their personnel.

” Warngs issued by the police uld lead to a bar beg publicly listed as off-lims to ary personnel, to arrts of any ary personnel who vised them, to a spensn of the bar’s liquor license, and ultimately to police 1951, all of the bars emed off-lims to the ary were believed to be gay bars, cludg all three lbian bars that existed at the time: Mona’s, the Chi-Chi Club, and Tommy’s 299.

” A ont-page article the San Francis Examer, published on June 28, 1954, reunted a raid on a gay bar that rulted the arrts of 13 men “for a variety of charg arisg om lewd and cent nduct”:Sex viat were unr stern warng yterday that San Francis will not tolerate their offensive nduct and will not allow self to bee a haven for homosexuals. The warng was backed up wh a sweepg seri of weekend raids on the known gatherg plac and a promise that police will ntue to keep the prsure on to stem what Chief Michael Gaffey scribed as a marked recent flux of acpanyg edorial tled “Need: A Cleanup, ” clared: [T]here mt be staed actn by the police and the district attorney to stop the flux of homosexuals. ’” The lurid news reports noted that the girls were exploed by men as well as women, but was the threat of homosexualy and genr nonnformy that transfixed public attentn, not the possibily that sex traffickg of mors might be raid led to a State Board of Equalizatn hearg December 1954 to terme whether to revoke the liquor license at Tommy’s Place and 12 Adler.