"If we're not selling drinks, what are you going to do?" "We sell drinks to people to pay for ourselves, to pay for our shows, to pay for everything," Johnson said from his new home in Chicago. When we first closed, it was awful."īut thanks to federal loans, community support, and donations from the LGBT-focused nonprofit Gill Foundation, the city's oldest gay bar is here to stay.īut others - like Tom Johnson, the former owner of Therapy Lounge - weren't as lucky.
"I had such a deflated feeling," Buford said. "That would be the first case against homosexuals actually proactively documented," Lustbader said.Īnd it all happened in 1966 - three years prior to the Stonewall riots, widely seen as the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement.īut this piece of history, Julius' Bar, was almost gone for good thanks to COVID. The incident has become known as the "sip in." So they brought a photographer and newspaper reporter with them to document it. "We wanted to have a place refuse to serve us for being homosexual," Wicker said. So those protestors thought something might go down. See, those well-dressed patrons - some of the earliest gay rights protestors - knew that Julius' Bar in Greenwich Village was already being closely watched by state authorities due to prior infractions. 'Cause we already have trouble with that,'" Wicker said. That's when the bartender held out his hand. "We were saying, 'We are homosexuals and we want to order a cocktail,'" Wicker said. And Randy Wicker, on the far end of the bar in that photo, was one of those men.
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Download for FREE!īut you could easily argue that a certain black-and-white photograph - showing a group of men being denied a drink - laid the groundwork for the gay bars of today. Get breaking news alerts in the FOX 5 NY News app. "Disorderly people were considered homosexuals."
"After prohibition, the State Liquor Authority is formed, which has a regulation that basically says if you serve people who are disorderly you can lose your license," Lustbader said. You'd have to either be in possession of an underground guidebook listing places considered "safe" or rely on word of mouth.
"They were bottle clubs, you had a sign, a fictitious name in many cases to get in." "In many cases, they were private clubs with bouncers at the door," Lustbader said. "So bars became really safe spaces."īut the gay bar of the past was much different than the one we think of today where every inch is covered in rainbow flags.
You can check out the best drag shows or cabaret performances, but these queer spaces all offer something unique, from cozy vibes and cheap drinks to high energy dancing and brunch parties - sometimes in the same place on different days! Maybe your interests skew more trendy and urbane, or perhaps you're more of the down-and-dirty, "what happens on the weekends, stays on the weekends" type - we're not here to judge! There are plenty of LGBTQ+ things to do in New York, but if it’s a bar you’re looking for, we’ve got you covered."People could lose their jobs, their families, employment, religious associations," Lustbader added. The West Village is a classic destination for queer nightlife, but you’ll find something exciting and welcoming in pretty much any part of the city. The best queer bars in NYC range from dive bars to dance clubs, with historic spots like the Stonewall Inn anchoring them all. New York has played a major role in LGBTQ+ history, and it’s no wonder there are a slew of bars that have been beacons for the community (and prime party spots) for decades.