“Man, have you been in there yet?,” asked the clean-shaven bro in polo shirt and Oakley sunglasses. “Not yet,” I replied from my perch outside Splash Bar Florida, where I’d been interviewing Tony Boswell, the owner, for the past hour as part of the Who Needs Gay Bar Tour? “Man, you gotta go in there, … More Straight men in gay bars approach me
“This is the least-gay gay bar,” claimed Matthew Heath-Fitzgerald, the owner of Fat Mary’s in McAlester, Oklahoma. The bar is in a former goat barn on a country road, next to the cemetery for the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, whose lights gleam across the fields. The other major employer is the Army ammunition plant at the … More Road Notes 5: The Least-Gay Gay Bar?
The 2017 Who Needs Gay Bars Road Trip has begun, in West and East Virginia. Also, I may have received free sunglasses at DC Pride: The first bar on this leg of the tour was Vice Versa in West Virginia, the largest of the remaining five gay bars in the state. Co-owner Montaz Hazleton met his husband … More Road Note 1: Virginias are for Lovers
[This piece is an excerpt from the book I’m writing on changes in gay bars–written as it was for print media, it has a works cited rather than hyperlinks.] In 2016, two gay bars became national monuments, one in the early hours of June the 12th in Orlando, Florida. The way we learned of the … More Learning from Pulse, Listening to Latinx Queers
Gay bars that are an hour or more away from another are special. They are the only physical place where LGBTQ people gather in public–often for regions that cross multiple states. For example, I spent an evening watching the entertainers at Fort Wayne’s Babylon Nightclub in March 2017. As patrons were brought on stage to … More Regional gay bars as outposts
My data about the changes in the numbers of gay bars over time are based on Damron Travel Guides. These slim address books have been published by the same company since 1964 and under the same editor, Gina Gatta, since 1992. This stability and their national coverage makes them a unique resource in an era … More Counting bars with Damron Travel Guides
If you want to understand gay life in America today, you need to go to a city with a historic gay neighborhood and thriving a womyn’s center, where gays won victories against police harassment of gay bars in 1969, where its corporate titans win Supreme Court cases, a city that has confronted the realities of … More Oklahoma City bound
Two sides of the Phoenix cabaret in 2012 via Google Streetview, wreath visible above main door, R. For 5 years after it closed in 2011, a wreath adorned what used to be The Phoenix Cabaret and Embers Disco in Birmingham, Alabama. Don’t ask why I was looking up closed gay bars in a … More A Christmas Wreath for the Phoenix Cabaret
Holidays have always been important in gay bars, and most gay bars go all-out on decorations that change more frequently than the seasons. The Hawk’s crucifix is permanent, however, above the work schedules and sticky notes that change as often as the garlands and ribbons in the rafters. … More Gay bar holiday jukebox playlist
Presented at the CLAGS After Marriage conference today in NYC, my slideshow is here and here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Vou9LIJ1qppCx5q3VF5Y1-estLU9BPg2Ef5oZQOXSa4/edit?usp=drive_web
