Raisg the Bar: A Brief History of Gay Bars – World Queerstory

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

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. 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. 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.

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

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.

A BRIEF LERARY HISTORY OF GAY AND LBIAN BARS

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.

)Social reforms brought about by Print Lázaro Cárnas of Mexi brought about the creatn of roughly a dozen gay bars Mexi after he me to office 1934, cludg El Triunfo and El Ái Mexi Cy. All of Mexi Cy’s gay bars were closed 1959 and even though there are gay bars the cy now, none of the origal on first gay bar South Ai opened the Carlton Hotel Johannburg the late 1940’s — terg to wealthy whe gay men. However, some of the bars, such as the Butterfly Bar (now the Skyle) began to tegrate the mid-1980’ Amerin occupatn of Japan followg World War II brought gay bars to the untry — New Sazae opened Tokyo durg this perd, 1966, and is still open the 1970’s, a lot of clubs Sgapore began havg gay nights but no actual gay bars opened until the lbian bar Crodile Rock opened the 1980’s.

GAY CLUBS

They “officially” beme a gay bar 1950 (spe already beg popular wh gay men like, y’know, Tennsee Williams) and still operat as one today. Some honorable mentns that aren’t really the “olst gay bars” their untri but are still historilly important and that you n still vis today:. Juli’ – Juli’ opened Manhattan 1864 but was cidly not a gay bar but by the late 1950’s, gay men started equentg but were often thrown out or simply refed service bee was illegal to serve homosexuals New York Cy at the time.

After the Stonewall rts, the owners of the the Eagle’s Nt (which had been open sce 1931, and is now Eagle NYC) ma their club a gay bar and beme a very popular spot for more mascule gay men, and pecially the leather scene, to hang out. Other Eagl opened elsewhere, even other untri, and “the Eagle” beme a sort of for gay men lookg to nnect to their muny a new cy. I know this breez past a lot of fascatg tails and there’s an awful lot of untri that didn’t get a mentn — I simply haven’t found what their olst gay bars were yet.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the gay bar wh the LGBTQ+ rights movement over the past uple hundred years. In honor of Pri Month, we wanted to highlight the historil signifince of gay bars and their impact on equaly for all. Although is nice to thk of gay bars as unanimoly safe plac, where the LGBTQ+ muny uld exist whout threat, that clearly wasn’t always the se.