Bars and Clubs

NY Magazine records that the first “gay bar” in New York City opened in the 1890s.

Yes, 1890.

As same-sex attraction became a distinct identity and conceptualizations of "straight" and "gay" began to form throughout the 20th century, communities of like-minded people also began to form. And for communities to form, they needed a meeting place.

Enter, the bar.

LGBT+ bars and clubs are well-known for providing a safe space for people whose gender and sexualities didn’t align with mainstream society’s expectations. Bars (and later, nightclubs) - along with people’s homes, private salons, cafes, and more covertly, cruising grounds like bath houses - were among the first places the LGBT+ community created a social hub. Social tolerance, even acceptance, of LGBT+ activities was not unheard of - particular for the upper class and privileged. As distinct identities (e.g. rather than a man who had sex with men, a homosexual man) began to form and were medicalised and penalised, for a long time it was unsafe to admit to or act on any feelings of same-sex attraction. Bars, clubs and salons offered some small amount of safety to socialise. LGBT+ communities developed differently and unevenly in different countries - and much progress was lost during and as a result of major conflicts like WWII - so it is difficult to take a broad look at the development of LGBT+ bars. For example, in the USA moving into the 1900s, a distinct LGBT+ identity was conceived and those who engaged in same-sex activity or gender bending began to be viewed as social degenerates, and resulted in a lot of legal issues around serving known members of the LGBT+ community alcohol. This meant that establishments that did serve people known or suspected of belonging to the LGBT+ community were closed down, which resulted in a lot of gay bars and LGBT+-friendly establishments were run by illegal organizations and liable to shakedowns by the police. (This is actually what led to the Stonewall riots: patrons of the bar were so fed up of the disgusting conditions as a result of neglectful ownership and the constant disparaging and violent raids that they joined an emerging trend of fighting back against such derogatory treatment and started a riot that stretched over the course of multiple days). The book ‘When Brooklyn Was Queer’ provides an excellent exploration within the United States, and more specifically New York, during this time period.

As the LGBT+ liberation movement got underway in the 1960s and 70s, gay bars remained central to LGBT+ socialising. These were the days before the internet and dating apps; if you wanted to meet fellow LGBT+ people and fully express yourself, the gay bar was the place to go. In Northern Ireland, this was also a time of conflict - yet women and men would travel many miles to attend LGBT+ gatherings in bars and clubs, going through checkpoints in the city centre and ‘pairing up’ in opposite sex couples to evade discrimination (which was ultimately inescapable, as many remember raids occurring with some frequency).

Unfortunately, for a lot of reasons - certainly dating apps, but also the 2008 recession, rising rents, a wider atmosphere of acceptance that renders LGBT+ bars and clubs vital but not a necessity - gay bars and clubs are beginning to disappear from the landscape. While there is certainly room to discuss the disproportionate rates of alcoholism in the LGBT+ community, nevertheless, gay bars remain important spaces of LGBT+ heritage and culture. Dating apps may provide a convenient way of finding a partner, but they cannot provide a replacement for the sense of community that a gathering place provides. If you have such a bar in your neighbourhood, don’t be afraid to visit and spend some time - even if you only drink a lemonade.

Below is a list of historic and current ‘gay bars’ - important and vibrant LGBT+ bars and clubs that hold a special place in LGBT+ history and culture. This is by no means extensive as you’ll often find, throughout history, that LGBT+ people would gather where they could - including bars and clubs that did not have exclusively queer clientele. Some establishments would have been off-limits to the working class and people of colour, which in the UK led to the creation of ephemeral, ‘illegal’ bars that provided a safe place to relax and socialise. The work of Florence Tamagne is highly recommended for English, French and German LBGT+ history. You will notice that the list skews towards countries that are more friendly to LGBT+ people - this is because we will not publicly include current LGBT+ bars in places in which they may be the only oasis for oppressed communities. If you’d like to see your local on the list below, let us know!

Stonewall Inn

The Stonewall Inn in New York City, USA, is probably the most famous LGBT+ bar thanks to the Stonewall riots that propelled the LGBT+ rights movement to the mainstream. It was founded in 1967 by mafia member Tony Lauria, and operated exactly how you would imagine a mafia-run, covert LGBT+ bar to be run.

The current Stonewall Inn operating at 53 Christopher Street is a spiritual successor to the original bar, which was closed shortly after the 1969 riots. The nights of riots that occurred at the Stonewall Inn in 1969 have become a legend, and you may be aware of a few key LGBT+ activists who emerged from this period as legends in their own right - including Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Stormé DeLarverie, and Brenda Howard. This Stonewall Factsheet, produced by NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, Making Gay History, New York Public Library, GLSEN, National Parks Conservation Association, and the Stonewall 50 Consortium, provides some answers to FAQs, and provides an excellent list of resources for you to learn about the history of what is objectively the most famous gay bar in LGBT+ history.

Le Monocle

Finding information on Le Monocle online is a little difficult, but the photographs taken there by Georges Brassai are iconic. Le Monocle was one of the first lesbian clubs of the day, and as you can see from the photograph, the name comes from the lesbian fashion of the day, with patrons often wearing tuxedos and short hair. Le Monocle was open from the 1920s to the 1940s, but the bar did not survive the Nazi occupation of France.

Eldorado, Berlin

It is well-known that Berlin in the early 1900s was a haven for queer people. Bars existed for every letter of the acronym, and the most popular for the gender diverse - those who may have, if they were born today, identified as transgender, non-binary, or who may have been drag queens or kings, etc. - was the Eldorado. According to Florence Tamagne, it was ‘the place one had to be seen’, with artists, writers, actors, and people of all sexualities, genders, and social status frequenting the bar. It remained wildly popular, even undergoing expansion, until growing hostilities and criminalisation closes the bar in 1931.

You can learn more about Berlin in the early 1900s from this conversation between ‘Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity’ author Robert Beachy and Eric Marcus of the podcast Making Gay History hosted by the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

Tony’s Bar

Tony’s Bar was the first recorded gay bar in Spain. It opened in 1962, in the middle of the dictatorship regime that gripped Spain until 1975, when homosexuality was still illegal. The region Tony’s still operates in was heavily influenced by tourism, which contributed to its success and longevity.

Julius’

Julius’ Bar in Manhattan may claim to be one of the oldest gay bars in the Village (though it did not always operate as a gay bar), but it is probably more famous for being the site of the ‘sip in’ protest of 1966 that challenged the legality of denying service to LGBT+ patrons in bars in New York state. You can read all about the sip in and the coordinated protest at the National Park Service, as the four men who challenged the policy around not serving LGBT+ patrons - Dick Leitsch, Craig Rodwell, John Timmons and Randy Wicker - were successful, and helped propel the long process of changing views of LGBT+ people and relationships as morally wrong.

That Julius’ was not was an LGBT+ bar is vital to its inclusion on this list. Where there are no LGBT+ bars, the LGBT+ community can still find places to gather, including queer takeovers - coordinated nights in which, by word of mouth, people choose a night to meet at a non-LGBT+ bar or club to turn it into an ephemeral queer space.