Gay Bars
by Willie Walker, Archivist, GLBT Historical Society
The gay bar has been the central social institution in queer life during
the 20th Century. From the establishment of modern bars following
prohibition (1933) through the mid 1960s, the gay bar was usually the
only place that queer people could socialize outside of private homes.
Although that began to change with the establishment of the first
community centers, churches, and social services during the later 1960s,
those venues were unavailable in many smaller cities and towns, where the
bar continues to be the mainstay of gay life.
The evolution of modern bars following prohibition was accompanied by the
establishment of state agencies created to regulate them. These liquor
control agencies existed primarily to ensure that all liquor was bought
from licensed breweries and distilleries, that taxes were paid on every
bottle, and that bars wouldn't turn into bordellos.
Homos, bulldykes, queens, and other perverts were generally as unwelcome
as prostitutes, at least as far as the local police and state liquor
control authorities were concerned. Much of the history of gay bars in
the United States can be characterized as an ongoing struggle among queer
patrons, bar owners, local police, and state agencies over just who
controlled them. Since they were effectively illegal (or semi-legal)
establishments, gay bar owners were subject to the same
kind of extortion schemes that targeted prostitutes and gambling establishments.
In various cities, shakedowns were the realm of underworld organizations,
but more commonly it was the turf of the local cops. Sometimes the schemes
would be run by the police department itself, but they were more commonly
left to the district captain or even the cops
on the beat.
These were high-powered adversaries who harassed, intimidated, arrested,
and sometimes beat individual queers. This was done as a warning to bar
owners, employees, and their queer clients. If they wanted to stay in
business, bar owners paid up. Sometimes bars were raided and smashed up,
but usually these struggles were played out over the bodies of the
relatively helpless queers.
The financial incentive that once drove this entire situation had mostly
disappeared by the 1970s as laws and political perspectives changed.
However, certain segments of these former adversaries, particularly local
police, continued to harass gay bars and intimidate queers. Classic
examples of this occurred in a San Francisco dyke bar named Peg's in
1979, when off-duty police officers forced their way into the bar, beating the
bouncer, and harassing all the women present. Although this was a very
high profile incident which resulted in immediate and widespread censure,
none of the officers involved were ever punished.
An even more destructive "raid" occurred in the early 1980s at an
African-American gay bar in New York City called Blues. Here, the targets
were both queer and black; numerous men were severely beaten and the bar
and all its fixtures were totally destroyed.
Bar culture has changed in the last 20 years, as other kinds of queer
gathering places have mulitiplied. Still, neighborhood bars, bars in
small cities and towns, and taverns catering to specific sub-cultures
remain important social arenas, and we shouldn't forget that they were
the springboard from which the modern LGBT movement was launched.
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