As the world regniz the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, we sent photographers to three of the cy's olst gay bars — one on the South Si, one on the North Si, and one right between.
Contents:
- RAISG THE BAR: A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY BARS
- THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
- A BRIEF LERARY HISTORY OF GAY AND LBIAN BARS
- GAY CLUBS
RAISG THE BAR: A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY BARS
In honor of Pri Month, take a ep dive to 200+ years of gay bar history and how they paved the way for the LGBTQ rights movement. * first gay bar in the world *
I’m not sayg you’re dog queerns wrong if you haven’t been to a gay bar, I’m jt sayg ’s a pretty mon shared experience.
THE HISTORY OF HOW GAY BARS BEME THE BATTLEGROUND FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
There's a first time for everythg, but the first vis to a gay bar occupi an entire place of s own. * first gay bar in the world *
But I’m not here to weigh the pros and ns of gay bars — we n all do that on Twter (and we do) — I jt want to talk briefly about the history of gay bars, talk a teeny b about some of the first on to exist, and some of the olst on that we still have today. Gay bars were not, at least ially, all that different om molly ho and, terms of their purpose, still aren’t. So, to separate molly ho om gay bars — and I’m not gog to claim this is the official fn, ’s jt what I’m workg wh here — I’m gog to fe gay bars as legimate, legal bs foced entirely (or almost entirely) on the sale of alhol to queer ctomers.
A BRIEF LERARY HISTORY OF GAY AND LBIAN BARS
From Berl's notor leather bars to the afeng gay clubs of New York, Out has the sir sop on where to go, what to wear, and how to party. * first gay bar in the world *
And so gay bars began to pop up — the first, as far as we n tell was Cann, France (where homosexualy had been crimalized sce 1791.
Meanwhile, Berl had also bee a hotspot of gay and lbian nightlife by 1900, thanks largely to the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee‘s prence there, though a lot of the specific rerds about the spots were lost thanks to the Nazis.
GAY CLUBS
Wh weeks of the Nazi party takg power Germany 1933, fourteen gay and lbian nightclubs were closed, cludg an ternatnally renowned drag bar lled Eldorado. But the most lastg effect of Prohibn, at least for gay bars the USA, was that alhol sal beme part of the world of anized crime.
It might be the first gay bar the Uned first rerd mentn of the then-popular Amsterdam gay club The Empire was 1911, but seems to have already been tablished several years prr. The Cave of the Goln Calf, found 1912, was the first “official” gay bar England, though went bankpt and closed 1914. Still, ma a reputatn for s wild parti and fluenced a lot of gay bars ’s Hangout New York Cy was one of the first, if not the first, lbian bar the Uned Stat, openg 1925 and closg at the end of 1926 due to police raids.