Gay Bars And Gay Nightclubs

Through the 1940s-50s, gay bars were a crucial time for the gay community. Gay bars were not just a place for gays and lesbians to go to but it also was a “safe haven” for them because they were be able to be comfortable in their own skin. Homosexual men had more “freedom” to express themselves in public (such as parks, and bars) than homosexual women. The only places that homosexual women could express themselves were at lesbian bars. Lesbian bars enabled them to form their identity, including black lesbians. According to Elizabeth Kennedy and Madeline Davis, in their article “I Could Hardly Wait to Get Back to that Bar,” they define a lesbian bar as “a place where patrons felt relatively safe,” (33). This quote demonstrates the fact that

The Sunshine Coast is both a couples retreat and a family destination. You will be met with plenty of things to do including whale watching, surfing, paddle boarding and shopping!

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, society wasn’t the most accepting of places for people who were different from the “social norms”. Now I know, people today still struggle with trying to fit in and be “normal” but it was different. Being a gay man living in San Fransisco at the time, which had a large gay population, Richard Rodriguez had a hard time dealing with the discrimination he faced. Richard Rodriguez was an American journalist who wrote and published a memoir about his life as a gay man. In October of 1990, Rodriguez published his memoir “Late Victorians” in Harper’s Magazine, a critically acclaimed publication of the time. In his memoir, Rodriguez describes what it was like to realize he was gay and watch as the country changed to become a more accepting place. He does this by setting up how things can change and then explaining the actual ways things change for the gay population.

Laramie, WY, is a modest town which became ignominious overnight in the fall of 1998, when Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was found tied to a fence after being callously beaten and left to die, setting off a nationwide dispute about homophobia and hate crimes. My reaction to this moment in time initially is horror and shock that people did and do these unspeakable acts to their fellow human. However, I can also appreciate the many different views that were portrayed in the film.

Twenty-four-year-old Daniel Zamudio was walking through a park in Santiago, Chile, when four men appeared and began to burn Daniel with cigarettes and beat him with rocks and glass bottles, injuring him in various ways (Saul). The men used the broken glass to cut off a part of his ear, as well as, cut swastikas into his skin because Zumudio was gay (Saul). Less than a month later, Daniel Zamudio passed away due to this violent hate crime (Saul). Although only few instances of homophobic crimes are reported, FBI statistics show that attacks on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally, and pansexual (LGBT+) community, such as the Orlando gay nightclub shooting, are one of the common occurrences, right behind racial attacks (Saul). LGBT people have made outstanding progress on their goal to reach equality. For example, same-sex couples now have the right to adopt children in all the states of America and thanks to President Obama, federal workers cannot be discriminated upon sexual orientation or gender identity (Clinton). Although the LGBT+ community has civil rights that should be protected, due to society’s narrow-mindedness, the LGBT+ community gets treated as second class citizens.

For New York’s gay and trans communities the 1960’s marks a turning point in their history; Sodomy had been reduced to a misdemeanour, with a maximum sentence of six months in prison, the anti-gay accommodation rules of the New York State Liquor Authority had been overturned, allowing homosexuals to congregate and be served alcoholic beverages in bars, The American Psychiatric Association reclassified

The 1960’s was a decade of great change in America, from civil rights for African Americans to equal rights for women, the American people were rising up and discovering that their voice in the political discourse was just as important as those they elected to office. One other such group that awakened and challenged the existing status quo that kept them silent and scared were the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities across the country. From the first large-scale associations of LGBT individuals that formed in San Francisco in the 1950’s to the political and social groups that came to be following the Stonewall Riots of 1969, they would speak out and not allow themselves to be kept down anymore. The aim of this paper is to establish the events and opinions that led up to the uprising at the Stonewall Inn such as perceived and real discrimination by police, medical professionals, and society itself, what actually happened at Stonewall, and how they sparked the modern LGBT movement in the United States over the next half century to the present day.

This article from the New York Post helped us understand the pain the LGBT+ community had to go through on a daily basis. Additionally, it included details on how and why the police raided gay bars such as Stonewall Inn.

There are certainly various points in history that can be construed as trailblazing for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. One event in particular, however, sparked awareness and a call to action that previously could never have been conceptualized in the United States. This unforgettable incident, the Stonewall riots of 1969, altered the public’s view of the gay community and arguably jumpstarted the next revolution in an entirely new civil rights movement.

These local Kansas City publications show how the gay community functioned in the 1970s. As with other publications across the United States, each publication is a unique record of events, supportive businesses, gay rights issues, and the relationships between the members of the community during the period . The advancements in these publications are proof that there was a solid community in Kansas City that demanded more coverage as it continued to

“The Laramie Project” is a production that was created to addressed the cruel murder of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard who lived in a small town of Laramie, Wyoming. Due to this critical situation that occurred, the state of Wyoming suffered from major judgements from other states in the U.S and countries around the world. Laramie, had demonstrated stereotypical actions and discrimination towards the gay community, due to the people who had killed Matthew being homophobic. When the incident occur in 1998, the legislative had not introduced the end to anti- discrimination for the society, but is now introduced this year, 2017(King, 2017). Sexual prejudice includes stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination based on ones’ sexual identity or behavior, in which this term can relate to what occurred in the small town of Laramie, Wyoming (Blaine, pg. 163).

Hate crimes amongst the LGBTQ community have been a product stemmed from prejudices for centuries. The Stonewall Riots were the true catalyst of the Gay Rights Movement, and without it, many laws that affect LGBTQs would still be enforced. The Stonewall Riots were a congregation of events that garnered much attention during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. As many people were fighting for equality for African-Americans and an end to racial segregation, LGBTQ people were inspired “throughout the country to organize in support of gay rights” (2). The Stonewall Riots erupted at a well-known bar, Stonewall Inn, in Greenwich Village as police were wrongfully discriminating against and harassing crowds.

By 1969 there were roughly fifty Homophile organizations in the United States with memberships of a few thousand each. Around this same time, groups of prominent gays and lesbians in the United States began to advocate openly for equal rights. Among these were the Mattachine Society, an advocacy group for gay men, and the Daughters of Bilitis, which, like its male counterpart, “served as a support network for homosexuals who felt maltreated by or secluded from mainstream society” (“Gay Rights Movement”). Both establishments hoped to present a picture of gays and lesbians as no different from heterosexual citizens. However, these organizations were forced to operate largely in secret and under ambiguous names to conceal their purpose. Neither of these groups attracted more than a few hundred members. Therefore, while there was some organized activity for gay rights, the gay community throughout the United States was still essentially underground in the late 1960s. Its bars were only open as long as the police allowed them to stay open and it wasn’t unusual for the police to close down certain gay bars for weeks as a time. In June 1969, the NYPD shut down a number of clubs and bars, but the Stonewall Inn remained open.

Based on the discussion from the Williams Institute, it is evident that there continues to be a prevalence of discrimination among groups that are not viewed as culturally acceptable in our county. In this article, it is reported that people are more likely to experience hate crimes based on their sexual orientations. For instance, 44% of people reported experience physical violence (without a weapon) because of their sexual orientation, and 80% had been verbally harassed (Herek, 2009). Although the Hates Crimes Statistic Law became effective in 1990, the stigma surrounding the LGBTQ community continues to affect their everyday life. It may defer a person by identified their sexual orientation for the fear of being discriminating in the workplace,

Minority and sexual minorities understand the oppressive nature of majority groups. However, double minorities like Black gay men often suffer under virulent conditions such as the politics of Blackness, religious conservatism, homophobia, financial hardship, homelessness, lack of support systems, and isolation. Due to this Black gay men seek out comfort in spaces where other Black gay men frequent such as nightclubs. Sometimes nightclubs are the only spaces available where Black gay men feel safe. Often, stigma, racism, and homophobia force men into these spaces, but also these issues lead to negative health outcomes. These issues can prevent gay men from meeting up in healthier spaces and sharing their stories. And, because of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the community lost a number of men who could have passed on a rich history.