What Was The First Gay Bar You Went To?

The Carousel - Grand Rapids, Michigan

Uncle Charlie's in NYC must be the first for someone here...

"The Bar" in Lexington KY, known at that time as Johnny Angel. I quickly left KY though for NYC and Uncle Charlie's was my hangout.

Your first time going to a gay bar is like taking a drug. You'll spend years if not a lifetime chasing that initial rush.

So true R4!! Mine was Brothers in Tallahassee, FL. Great times.

The Power Company, Durham NC. I can hear the Bucketheads booming from that wall of subwoofers now.

Revolver, West Hollywood

Tracks in DC way back in 1989.

Yeah R1 uncle Charlie's was my first. Roseanne Barr, Pudgy and Joan Rivers on the big screen.

The Office in Lincoln Nebraska.

The first one I enjoyed/felt comfortable in was The Saloon in Minneapolis, which is still around!

It was in Fort Worth, TX. Called Little Augies. I was alone, and I was terrified.

Midnight Shift, Sydney 1992. I wasn't there to meet guys but to try and score some acid.

I think Uncle Charlie's is a place a lot of people end up on their first day in New York

The Embers in Portland, Oregon. So many attractive gay men. (This was many years ago before they moved.) I was hooked after my first time there and I had to go back. I was so innocent back then. Really, I was!

Staircase, Auckland, 1988 - I was 18.

R14 TRAMP!!!

I could go to X rated movies before I could go to bars, so the Bijou in Chicago and the Tremont Arts and South Station Cinema in Boston all came before my first gay bar, which was Buddies when it was on Boylston St.

Bars were very tame compared to what was happening at the movies.

Rene’s in Tampa Florida 1976. Senior year of high school.

R14, did you know The Embers just closed?

My first gay bar was the 1270 in Boston.

The Edge in Kansas City. Got to see Paul Lekakis. He was gorgeous.

The stagecoach in Akron. I too, was terrified. Parked 3 blocks away, fearful of someone seeing my car - even though i didnt live in Akron and knew no one there. I wore sedgefield jeans, white shirt and blue crew neck sweater - and plenty of Pierre Cardin-- 40 years ago, and I remember it like it was yesterday.

The Diamond Horseshoe in Wilminton, Ca.

Badlands corner of Christopher and West, 1987. A friend was a bartender there.

Babylon!

The Nectarine was one of my first gay bars too. 1993. My junior year at Michigan. So exciting. My first was Crow Bar in NYC right before I started that junior year.

I think it was called Dutch's in Saginaw, MI. It also went by the code name Holland House because the Dutch live in Holland.

R24 - I didn't know Badlands was a bar at that time. What was it like? INow, I think its a porn store. I used to go to Kellers right down the block - it was diiirty. Lots of blowjobs in cars on WS highway

Akbar in Silver Lake 1997, the year they opened.

R28 Yep indeed it was. One of the owners was a guy called Chuck Dima who founded the Big Apple Softball League. He had a tough exterior but a heart of gold. Every Thanksgiving though the bar was closed, he provided a meal for anyone who wanted to stop in, particularly those sad lost hustlers on the West Side Highway.

Georgetown Grill, September, 1973.

Leon's on Tyson St. in Baltimore.

Is it still there?

The Edge, Soho, 1999.

The Generator in Chicago

Tilden in Pittsburgh...the original one in the old mansion. 1977.

I remember the first time I went to a gay bar that wasn't a dive. It was called "Gentry" in Chicago (now in a different location and just like any other bar) and it was up some stairs in a brownstone and had a grand piano and all the men wore sutis and ties.

suits

The Parliament House, Orlando!!!! Loved those drag shows!!!!

R20 Yes, I heard The Embers, after 48 years, had closed. The building has been sold to someone who plans to open a new gay bar in its place and name it Badlands. (See the link below for more information.)

Necto Ann Arbor. My absolute favorite club.

Harlee's Playroom 2- Yonkers, N.Y.

Thank you r39. I'm glad to hear there is a new bar going in. Did you hear that Hobos is closing (or has closed)?

Waterworks (I think that’s what it was called) on the UWS in NYC.

I had just come out of the closet and was petrified of going into any gay bar. My dear friend drove up from DC to take myto my first gay bar. I was too nervous to actually enjoy the experience. It took a few more bars before I got comfortable.

Now, I’m married and we rarely go any more (plus, there just don’t seem to be that many around).

Wow, I can’t believe 20 years have gone by so fast.

Scaramouche, Toledo Ohio. I walked in and my French teacher was the DJ!

The original M&K in Asbury Park, NJ...1976

R43-I think you mean The Works. It was a preppie , yuppie bar on Columbus Avenue and 81st street. Very attractive crowd on a Thursday night. That was my favorite bar in the mid to late 1990's.

JJ's Other Side - Wilton Manors Fla. 1985

The Club at Firestone in Orlando.

Sweet Gum Head - Atlanta Greatest drag show bar in the world back in the day.

Here's Burt Reynolds visiting with renowned drag performer Rachel Wells backstage in '75. But he was straight, you know! At least that's what he said. heh heh heh

The Boathouse in Austin, TX. Also nicknamed the Butt Hut or Dick Dock. I was 18 and went home with a 38-year old and my friends thought it was SO scandalous.

The Ramrod in Boston. I circled the building for 30 minutes before entering. I was attending a bear/leather event.

1470 Dorothy West in Dayton, Ohio.

Sporters on Beacon Hill, Boston. I was 15.

Napoleon's in Boston when I was 20 with a fake ID. By evening's end I was sitting on the piano singing a medley from "Thoroughly Modern Millie" including "Jimmy" to a guy named Jimmy who insisted I'd made up the song in his honor. (This was some years after the 1967 film had been released and prior to the B' Way musical). The rest is a blur.......

The Merrimack in Manchester NH. You had to be a member or have a member sign you in. One of my friends had a lesbian friend who was a memeber and she brought us. Very mixed crowd, not sexy at all.

Went back on my own a while later and fooled around with the bartender after closing. That started my 20-year string of fucking in gay bars. I need to make up a list.

(R55) I may have been one of those fortunate participants. I regularly went to the Merrimack, 484, Club Continental and Press Club with an occasional sojurn to Di Rocco's.

Cafe San Marco in San Francisco before it was expanded. You walked up that long, dark staircase then turned to the left to walk up the last four stairs - which were in a bright spot light. When you made the last step up on to the main floor, everyone in the bar would stop talking, look in your direction, give you the once-over, then go back to their conversations.

El Goya in Ybor City, Tampa. I was clerking for a law firm that summer. And being in a city where I didn't know anyone gave me the liberty to go to a gay bar without fear of anyone I knew seeing me go in.

I was still petrified. Sat in the parking lot, drinking to get my courage up.

It was shocking when I got inside. Totally not what I expected. I was thinking it would be like Cruising. But a very cute blond guy asked me to dance. And I never looked back. (Well, until now.)

The Powderhorn in Boston. I was best friends with a couple of lesbians, and it was a mixed bar, rare for that era. I don’t think it lasted very long.

If I remember right the first gay bar I went to in Boston was Club 1270 on Boylston Street. They had a rooftop bar which was a lot of fun in the summer. The Ramrod was close by and was also fun. I wasn't part of the leather scene though I kept a leather vest in my car so that I could gain admittance to the cruisy back room which was for leathermen only.

Somebody upthread mentioned a couple of gay cinemas including the Art Cinema on Tremont Street. Oo La La ! I had some great times there.

The Mark V in Ronkomkoma NY before the new owners ruined it

Julius in the West Village. Terrified suburban preppie, but it didn’t take me long to move on to Uncle Charlie’s in its original location around 38th and Lex or Third, Ninth Circle, Monster, and Townhouse. All “first” in a way. I was a quick study.

Trammp's, Lansing, MI. I think there was an adult movie theater next door, or several doors down, that showed gay movies one or two days a week. Based on the people I saw enter the theater, I steered clear.

Marlin Beach Hotel, Ft. Lauderdale

Hydrate, Chicago. Nervous as hell. Early 2000's.

another for 1270. (and then spent many years at Darts and Sporters as well)

Feathers - River Edge, NJ (1979)

The Napoleon Club, aka “The Wrinkle Room” in Boston’s Bay Village circa 1967. No fake ID needed @ 17 and I was, um, very popular with the aging clientele (“look and maybe buy me a drink but don’t touch”) but even closer to Marie, the pianist who had been a showgirl going back to the Zeigfeld era. I had a decent baritone and a summer job working for Blue Cross/Blue Shield and would help her with her Medicare claims: it was new then and no one knew how to get paid. I could have made a fortune filing the claim forms for the rest of the customers there. It and they had been around forever and when she lived in town, Judy Garland was a regular. JFK supposedly went there as a Harvard undergrad in the 1930’s.

The Other Side was the best place to get drugs and find fucked-up Southie hotties, Herbie’s Ramrod Room was the leather bar, the 1270 was the best place to dance, Sporters, Buddies, and later Fritz, the Eagle, and the Merrimack to name a few. And you could always park on the street near by. Plus the porn movies: the Bijou, the Art Cinema, the Pilgrim and the State were a fuckfest every night. Later it was the peep shows in the Combat Zone. Boston was so wide open then...unlike now.

R54 R68 - I in the Bay Village near Napoleans, that was my only piano bar. I'd stop by after work on weeknights and sing the theme from Sesame Street with the lesbian piano player, (I didn't know any show tunes.)

Another for 1270 and the first song I heard was I Need a Man. I'm sure 1270 was the first for many gay men because of all the colleges nearby. I went to BU and was told I had to go to the 12 by two of the Jewish Princesses next door to me in the dorm. The Long Island girls knew where all the gay bars were...this was in '77.

I think it may have been the Candy Store, on W. 56th St. between 5th and 6th Aves., in NYC. I may have been 24 or so, back in the early 70’s, closeted and so horny. That was a great place to meet men from out of town, who didn’t know the city, and were nervous about going too far away from their hotels. I met a lot of them. Sweet, hot guys.

Like R44, mine was Scaramouche in Toledo, OH. So packed most weekends that you could barely walk around the place. My best friend from HS came out to me, and we immediately hopped in his car and went to the bar. It took a little time to get used to seeing men kissing and grinding on the dance floor while they were snorting poppers!

R62 the uncle Charlie's in Murray hill was on third. There was one on Lexington also but it was uptown on 75th.

Thanks R74. During my bar era, I got to know all of them, as well as many others mentioned above in NYC and elsewhere. Though I was a bar slut, I was, and am, rather vanilla in the bedroom. Kept me alive and negative throughout.

The White Horse in Berkeley, CA.

Also Uncle Charlie's in Murray Hill, got picked up by actor Dick Kallman, farm boy's dream of Oz realized

I sat and talked with Barry Manilow a few times at the back bar at Charlie's on Third Avenue, circa 1975.

Woodys in Philadelphia. 1985

The San Antonio Country - San Antonio, Texas (1972)

"The Garage" in Columbus Ohio.

Premiere gay bar in that city for decades. Sadly, it's long gone now.

"Breezes", San Luis Obispo, Ca 1994

Lion's Pub in SF Pac Heights, 1995

The Kismet in Columbus Ohio, it was 1981 and I was going to Ohio State University. Met my very first trick there and later my very first boyfriend, who I was with for 3 years.

Moved to NYC and Uncle Charlies in the West Village became my go to bar for dick.

@ R68 . Sad but true !

Little Dudes in Jax Fl circa 1974.It was a lesbian bar but a very mixed crowd. I was 14. A guy I met there took me to another gay bar called "Old Plantation" or "OP" ,my very 1st gay disco,and the rest,as they say,is history. I was enchanted and quickly became a regular! Im sure being a hot piece of illegal ass helped.

[quote] Boston was so wide open then...unlike now.

Yeah what's with Boston now? It's like the Ramrod is firmly lodged up its fundament.

The Fabulous PHARR LIBRARY in the Atl.

The Gizmo Lounge, Birmingham, 1985. I was a senior in high school, I had just come out to myself, and I had bonded with another gay boy in my graduating class. He had been sneaking into bars since he was 14 (!), and he got me in with a fake ID. He had also just started doing drag and insisted that we both go out "slung up." He styled me and made me up, and I got lots of compliments for being flawless.

the Hide and Seek / the gay bar mentioned in BlacKkKlansman in Colo. Springs/ was it open in '72 the year the movie was set ? i went in '78 when the actual Ron Stallworth story was unfolding...

Madonna's first gay bar was also Menjo's in Detroit

The City Nightclub in Portland, Oregon. Probably around 1996. It was still underage. I was 17.

Paradise in Chicago, though it was really a club and not a bar.

[quote]it was really a club and not a bar.

What's the difference?

Faces in East St. Louis, IL. Not a nice neighborhood, to say the least. This was before the drinking age became 21, so went with a couple of college classmates after our freshmen year. None of us were out yet, but we told ourselves it was a place we could get a drink. One of the guys vanished for quite some time and then finally reappeared, saying he'd "mistakenly" walked into a back room where it was all dark and he felt a bunch of dicks coming at him. Says he backed out immediately. Right. The funny thing for me was seeing one of the guys my dad worked with -- in drag. Didn't recognize him at first, but then heard him talk.

I think it was called The Pier in Washington, DC.

Another first-timer at 1270 in Boston. I'd just moved there and met a lesbian at work took me under her wing and on the grand tour (over several months) and we hit up every bar in town, most of which are now long, long gone. We parked on the other side of the Ramrod and when we walked past towards 1270, a couple of hot guys coming out eyed me up and down and I grabbed her hand and rushed past. She warned me that the Ramrod was, well, the Ramrod, and of course I was scared to go in and... intrigued. It was only a few weeks later that, on my own, I was headed to the 1270 but curiosity got the best of me and despite not being properly attired, the Ramrod doorman said he'd let me in if I took my shirt off, and a new world opened up.

Luxor in Boston’s Bay Village. It was a video bar. I’d pick up older guys at the BPL and one took me to the bar. It was the era of music videos and had a VJ that dubbed all these funny clips between music videos while we all stood around and drank watching giant screens. I worked downstairs at Mario’s Italian restaurant a bit and met up with a new roommate and DONNA, the legendary waitress at the time. It’s all gone now. Napoleons was right around the corner and one of my faves, I met a gorgeously well endowed Columbia hustler there that was obsessed with my ass and couldn’t spend more than one night with him for wearing diapers the rest of my life, but he was smoking hot and DELICIOUS.

[quote] the Ramrod doorman said he'd let me in if I took my shirt off, and a new world opened up.

That happened to me at the Mine Shaft. I didn't end up having sex there for all to watch, but I did find people to have sex with offsite.

The Hippo in Baltimore (1989). Actually my friends took me somewhere else for a drink first, but I've completely forgotten the name or even if it was a gay bar.

I love this thread...

I know I've written about this before on DL, but I was having dinner with my husband and his two brothers, one of whom is also gay but about 10 years older. Hubby went to the restroom and the straight brother, trying to make conversation, asked me if there was any one place I'd like to go on vacation, where would it be... and when I answered the Mine Shaft in 1980, the gay brother almost choked on whatever he was eating. Hubby was, shall we say, not amused when he returned to the table of raucous laughter.

Fur Traders

Cabaret (the original in downtown KC on McGee) in 1977

Love this thread. My first gay bar was the bar at Nomad Village in Bethany Beach, DE. I was 17 (and looked much younger). My first boyfriend told me I'd never get into the Renegade in Rehoboth - even during the off-season - and since the bartender at Nomad (Jimmy) was a notorious "chicken hawk," I was sure to get in there.

Since it was off season, only the front bar was open on weekdays, and it was filled with closeted, Sussex County rednecks. My high school English teacher, the ever-effete Mr. Adams, was holding court at the bar. The lesbian gym-teacher (whose name I cannot remember) was there with a former student from my class, saw me, and FREAKED THE FUCK OUT. The girl she was with had to talk her down. It was a neighborhood bar in what was, at the time, a very small town in a very rural area. Jukebox. Smoky. Cruisy. Mix of men and women. And I remember the painting they had of a sheikh on black velvet. If nothing else the joint was klassy. (Yeah - with a "k.")

True to form, Jimmy followed me in the bathroom at one point to take a gander at my junk. (It was a urinal and a toilet in an open room, so it was easy to do.) He ran his hand above my dick and purred, "Niiiiice." I ran out of there to the safety of my boyfriend. I celebrated my 18th birthday at Nomad Village. Shortly after that, I took a trip to Washington, DC, and found my second home at Tracks.

Rounds. I was a whore, darling.

Peacock Alley in San Diego, California. Wretched.

A long-gone bar in Boston. Not sure of the name - not Napoleon's, not 1270 - possibly Sporters

Chester Street in Champaign, Illinois in 1985. My girlfriend took me there on a "mixed" night. A cute guy was cruising me, and i didn't realize i was cruising him back. When I went to the men's room, he asked my girlfriend "is your boyfriend straight, or can I dance with him?" She made us leave then, but I was was back the next year on my own.

CR Bar just outside Philly in Upper Darby. 1985. Only one there. Stayed for 20 minutes and left. So disappointing.

The Hawaiian Hut, West Sacramento. I was in college and went with a bunch of lesbians that I worked with. (I wasn't out at the time.) Scared to death the entire time. There were cops outside checking IDs.

Sporters in Boston- I had to do shots of Wild Turkey at a straight before I went in- I was 22 and literally shocked at the range of ages that were there. I had assumed it would be full of middle-aged men in trench coats. Soundtrack: Lou Rawls, “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine’- I didn’t have a clue about the allure and power of youth that one has at that age.

The first time I went to Nectarine Ballroom was in the 90s. It was also 70s night. Probably my most memorable early gay bar memory is the entire dance floor in their late teens and 20s doing the hustle and Electric Slide in unison .

Angles, Elmira Ny. Met my first boyfriend there! Ahhh memories!

Billy the Kid, I think it was on Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, around 1973.

The Odyssey, a disco in LA/Beverly Hills adjacent on Beverly Blvd, cross street La Cienega Blvd. It was a gay teen club - maybe the only of its kind? I think the age limit was 15 to 24, I remember being really nervous the first time i went because I was only 14 and the youngest in our group and didn't want to be left behind. But I got in (in hindsight, what 14 yr old has an ID w/DOB on it?) It was 1978 and it was the coolest place in town. All the teen celebrities of that time hung out there. We'd sneak in booze and mix it in with the non-alcoholic drinks we bought in the club. Plus recording artist like Madonna, Billy Idol, would bring their new demos to the club and play and see how the teen patrons liked it.

But I lived in Orange County so getting to LA wasn't convenient, so I started going to the gay bars in Garden Grove, which were easier to get to. I remember Rumour Hazzit and DOK West as my favorites, they were 18 and over, but we underage kids so would get to the bar really early, like 7 pm before the doorman arrived and just hung out, trying to stay out of the bartender's radar, till the place filled and we could dance freely. The few times the bars were raided, the DJ would flick the lights on and off and all the underage kids would head to the middle of the dance floor, where the older patrons would dance around us, keeping us away from the view of the police. Fun times!

R114 I think Billy the Kid was still around in the 80s. Was there a rash of gay bars after stonewall?

r50, was football great Jerry Smith running the Boathouse then?

The Blue Oyster, lots of leather men there and the DJ keep playing El Bimbo for some reason.

It seems like almost all responders are from Michigan. Must be something in the water of the Great Lakes.

Choices in Wallingford CT, followed by 168 in New Haven on the same night. Good times.

I'm from Michigan, but moved to Boston before coming out. I think that was a very wise decision.

It was called That Bar in Champaign, Il. I went by myself because while I was out to my friends, for the first time, I didn't have any gay friends. There were so many good looking men there, students and townies, and the vibe was great.

Like one of the above responders, my first was Julius', in the West Village, in 1977. I went with some older gay friends and I was shaking like a leaf. It sounds ridiculous in retrospect, but that's how it was. I was so scared.

My second bar was one I went to by myself and really liked: The Ninth Circle. I was chicken then, so it was a good fit. Ah, les neiges d'antan ...

I've never been in a gay bar, I'm shy and I don't drink also I live in a very small town so the nearest gay bar is in the next state.

Ty's on Christopher St in NYC

Thekla is olympia wa

The White Horse is in Oakland, 66th and Telegraph. Lots of fun in the early 1980's.

I worked next door to Ty’s for several years and LOVED always being the youngest guy in the place!

The Parliment House in Orlando FL 1977. The drinking age was 18 back then and I was a precocious twink playing " balcony bingo"

Same as OP. Nectarine was my first trip to a gay bar too. After that, I mostly went to Backstreet in Detroit.

Aside from a vaguely mixed college bar, my first gay bar was Zack's Fourth Avenue in Pittsburgh. A gorgeous space that was an old bank building - marble everywhere. Now gone (the building is being incorporated now into something, some theater I think).

I think of the many bars I went to back in the day in PA and OH, only the Interbelt near Akron survives.

Here's to the many fun places that have since closed:

Toolbox (Toronto) Keys, Numbers, U4ia, and so many more I can't even remember the names of, especially over in Lakewood (Cleveland) Lizzie Borden's (Erie) The Garage, Tradewinds (Columbus) Joshua's II (Youngstown) New York New York, Jazi's, Pegasus, the Eagle, Donny's (Pittsburgh) Clark's on Clark, Different Strokes, the Eagle (Chicago)

The Hipopotamos in Baltimore.

Back to Boston: Playland. First place I ever saw people so drunk. They had the drunkest patrons anywhere. I think you had to be an alcoholic to be a regular. I remember seeing one guy slide oh so gently off the barstool and sort of arrange himself on the floor for a moment's rest. Soon enough he was back on his feet - and brave - he should have been hosed off after being on that floor, then back on the stool, and then ordered and received another drink from the bartender. I looked at my friend and said, "They served him?" and he said, "Why not? He got up, didn't he?"

Like most of the Combat Zone (Boston's once officially designated Adult Entertainment District, aka lower Washington Street) it's gone now, replaced by a luxury condo tower. I think Playland's old entrance is now the entry to the "affordable housing" units in that building.

The Stud, SF, 1982.

Paradise, Chicago. The song I remember from that night is “Into the Groove” and when I hear it, it’s as close as I get to what R4 describes.

@ R133 . I only went to Playland once but I remember it well. A motley mix of customers of all ages and races, old framed photos of long forgotten actresses and Christmas lights in July. (I say this fondly) What a dump !!

On a sad note I just read in the online Edge magazine that the Paradise Club in Cambridge, MA will be closing for good on September 16. There really isn't much left in Boston.

I THINK it was The Boathouse in Austin, Texas in the very early 90's. That or a bar who's name I can't remember in London, in the very early 90's.

The Derby Fox. Springfield, MO.

R136: The 16th? Jaysus. It's been a shithole for a while, but still: another one bites the dust. No doubt to be replaced by some anonymous tower for the biotech or AI people. Or did MIT buy it?

That leaves, what, three or four gay bars total in a city of 650,000 and a metro of 2.5 million people? I'm too old and too married to care about the bar scene any more, but what about the children? What will they do? Where will they go? Hook-up apps are one thing, but where is the sense of community going to come from now? When all these places close, it changes what it means to be gay. Not saying it's better or worse, but it's different.

Jerry Smith, the great football star, ran the boathouse in the early 1980's.

Uncle Charlies fall of 81. I'm so fucking old.

Frankie's, somewhere on the east side of Columbus (maybe on Main Street). I think it's been gone since the mid-70s.

Faces in East St Louis was LEGENDARY in its day, primarily because it was open until 6 am. As Stefon would say, this place had EVERYTHING: a great upstairs bar and drag theater, a huge first floor dance floor with multiple bars, and No No Land in the basement. When all the St Louis bars closed at 1 am, everyone would head "across the river" - and of course, we lovingly called it "Feces" back then.

It's closed now; good thing, because if you went there today you would get your ASS SHOT OFF.

Bonnie & Clyde's located on 3rd Street next door to the fire station which, years later, Anderson Cooper bought and converted into what is now his home. We would go back and forth between there and The Duchess across from The Stonewall on Sheridan Square.

There was another lesbian bar predating Bonnie & Clyde's (I think it was called The Nightlife), but it was mob owned with a heavy set Mafioso sitting at the entrance collecting entry fee, and we went only once.

I don't remember the first gay bar, but do recall women had to show multiple pieces of identification while men just slid in without the hassle.

so sad about Boston - when you think of the bars in the 70's....Sporters, Buddies, Darts, 1270, Ramrod, Napoleons, Chaps, Stix...seemed like there was a bar on every corner...now...nothing.

[quote]Uncle Charlies fall of 81. I'm so fucking old.

lol, I went in '77, have your tried Townhouse?

To R52, I think the name was 1470 West, as it was located on West Dorothy Lane. That was my first gay bar I went to, back when Prince's Erotic City was first released.

A gay bar on West Dorothy Lane? Someone in Ohio had a sense of humor.

Woody's.... Toronto

@R139 . R136 here . According to Edge the building housing the Paradise has been purchased by Novartis Pharmaceuticals as part of their 'expansion plans' .

I also feel bad for the younger generation who have so few places to meet and gather with other gays. With most of the bookstores gone as well it makes you wonder what will become of gay culture.

r123 I wonder if we would know each other. I practically lived at the Ninth Circle those years.

Message for R63. Did you ever meet Edna the Lansing's only drag queen/performer? She was a fixture in Lansing in the 1990s. Anyone know whatever happened to her? She was a very friendly but sad person. I loved that she lived her truth everyday.

3 in Montreal on my first night. One friend and I were 16, the other 18. First The Mystique on Stanley, a wrinkle room plus we were there at around 8:30 and the Saturday afternoon alky crowd was way past shitfaced and obnoxious with each other, but very nice with us. Free drinks! I recognized one of the younger old guys, in his 30s, from tv but couldn't place him. I was too scared to return his interest.

Then we went to the Peel Pub, and after about an hour, saw a teacher from our school. He noticed so we left, worried he would turn us in for being underage. I think the Peel Pub still exists but long ago morphed into a straight student hangout. Probably when the gay bars opened up in what is now Le Village Gai.

Then we went a disco, can't remember the name but it was also on Stanley. There was a doorman so we were worried about getting carded but he came over and pulled us out of the line and brought us right in. Lots of hash smoking and coke snorting going on around us. We all did the hash but no coke. Then a flashy, hairy, handsome Lebanese guy with gold chains around his neck took us to a party somewhere on that old motel strip in NDG. And then... he left.

My two friends lived out in suburbia and had missed their last train, and we thought about taking a cab to my (parents') place, or even walking it to sober up a bit, but what the hell. We knocked on the door and said Wallid had brought us, but they didn't even notice and took us in and it was a mix of Lebanese guys and hippie types, some looked like bikers. Within about a half hour we three were in another with three Lebanese guys, drinking, smoking, and trying desperately to get their drunken cocks hard.

My friend in high school went to his first gay bar when he was only 17. It was a bar in Salem New York called Birds Of A Feather(What a fabulous GAY name)

The Rage, in Birmingham, Alabama mid 80s. The first person I saw was this gorgeous girl dancing towards me and laughing at the top of her lungs while saying “Mitch, it’s me Valerie! Don’t you still love me?” Turns our she was the girl I used to get in trouble for trying to kiss in first grade. She moved and I hadn’t seen her in almost 11 years... she was now a beautiful, femme lesbian and we danced all night. It was wonderful and she made any nervousness I had fall completely away.

After this I quickly started going to Atlanta mist weekends and was a regular at Pharr Library, Blake’s, Backstreet, and lots of private parties. I was underage but wasn’t given any hassle with getting in. Also went to some random gay bar in Tuscaloosa... maybe it was called Magnolias?

By 1990 I was living in NYC and going to Uncle Charlie’s, The Works, Splash, Crow Bar, the Boiler Room, and occasionally The Townhouse. Never went clubbing much as I was a tall, thin, hairy otter way before that was “trendy” and I always felt self conscious about being shirtless, etc.

Also remember going to The Big Cup, Barracuda, that random gay piano bar in the East 80s, Universal Cafe (felt like a bar, right?), and many, many more. Loved NYC in the 90s, there was an innocence and positive energy that faded after 9/11... and, of course, I got older. LOL

R130 Backstreet was one of the best Detroit clubs. It had a great club within a club feel to it, with a different vibe to various areas.

R 124 I am in a similar boat. Will not visit one at home. Have though when I've traveled on business - good times! Try one on vacation or if you travel for business sometime!

R155 The last couple paragraphs of your post reminded me of this thread

No other mentions of Menjo's in Detroit. Just me and Madonna?

Raspberries in Columbus in 2002 at the age of 43!

Thanks R158, great thread. I know nostalgia can be a dangerous emotion, but I have a hard time not experiencing it for 1990s NYC.

The One bar on Melrose Avenue. A neighborhood bar a few blocks away from Santa Monica Blvd. I met my first boyfriend there. We are still best friends 30 years later.

South Beach in Houston circa 2008. I don't live in Houston anymore but I hear it is closed now, as has happened to so many gar bars in just a short period.

Wasn't there a now forgotten DL meme, circa early 2000s about lipstick and Prada queens from Dallas?

I never got it.

NYC -- Lenny's Hideaway, W. 10th Street. Now Smalls, a jazz club. I was a college boy up in NYC with my college girlfriend. We were down in Greenwich Village and near Sheridan Square we ran into a girl we knew graduating a year before us, one of the "theater kids," supposedly "fast" and in New York to be an actress. She was glad to see us, had just received a check from home, wanted to buy us a drink. She looked around and said "oh let's go there, it's a sailor bar, but that's ok." We went down the stairs to Lenny's. It was empty, near 4pm. I saw nothing wrong with the room, just another basement bar. The following spring when in town for the basketball tournament and in the Village with my guys and way too curious but I don't think it showed I said "let's go look at the queers" and down the steps we went. It was packed, everyone looked blond in crew-necked Shetland sweaters, crew-cuts, were drinking beers. It was smokey, loud, looked like a college fraternity party. I said Marti must have been playing a joke on us, we left. It certainly didn't look like what I thought a gay bar would be like, and I was dying to find out. The following September, still a virgin, I crashed on a collage friend's sofa. He lived near Lenny's. He was gay, didn't have a phone, so of course we had to go to Lenny's to use the phone, it being a gay bar or not. Third or forth day in town, courage mustered, I went down those stairs. Maybe six pm. At the foot of the stairs a group of five or six guys were standing talking. All crew-cuts and crew-necked sweaters. One of them turned to me and to the amusement or put-up-with-ness of the others, said "Oh darling, no one wears madras north of Washington after Labor Day." I was in my favorite Brook Bros. madras blazer, I didn't know from Washington or Labor Day, but I knew then I was in a gay bar. The guy turned out to be, when he grew up, H.M. 'Harry' Koutoukas, the surrealist playwright. He was around the Village until his death. One of the guys in the group, a blond from Penn, later a lawyer, and a tall red-head said to be "the son of the fish-hook king of Maine" who lived out his life in Mexico writing porn, took pity and came to my rescue. That Saturday night I went to Lenny's again, now just another almost-blond guy there in a sweater. I was afraid to go home with anybody, noticed as it got later some of the what I thought better-looking guys ganged together near closing to go off to a party. The following Saturday night I noticed a sorta' short football-player cutie chunk in a group putting together a party. I was asked to go. The party was on 16th Street, off 6th. I happily went. Early there a guy went to change some records and was tall and nice looking and had been pointed out as the host. I had my innocent manners and thanked him for having the party. Then I blurted out to him "you're not really gay, are you?' Well. He always talked about that the many years on I knew him. He was a buyer for Chipp, his boyfriend a buyer for Lord & Taylor. As the evening went on, the sorta' short football-player cutie chunk caught me eyeing him and I took him home. No idea what we did but he spent the night. Ok, this is it for me, I'm gay, this is great! Saw him the following Saturday, it wasn't the same. The following Saturday out of Lenny's I took home a Broadway press-agent, he said, and several years later I did see his name in the papers, and knew a few agents myself, so I guess it was so. By then, there was a cadre around Lenny's, one English guy kept saying his buddy was coming up from Florida soon and was supposed to be one great guy. We met, he wasn't. But by then I thought I knew all about homosexuality so there was nothing left to do but to have a boyfriend, take the guy from Florida as a lover. It lasted four months until I was drafted into the Army. Two years later I had no idea of him.

I am pretty sure mine was Pegasus in downtown Pittsburgh or possibly the Holiday near the Carnegie Mellon and Pitt campuses - this would have been 1993. R35 - I never knew Tilden was located somewhere else before its downtown location. Was it the "House of" Tilden then? Was it a private club back then also? And where was this mansion located? I am fascinated R35!

Either City Ligjts in Buffalo or The Oarhouse in Norfolk. Can’t remember

Ooh, I forgot Woody's in Toronto, R149! And the Barn. And some place that was on the first floor of the hotel we stayed in. Boots? And the Black Eagle, the only place I've ever been where within 30 seconds of arrival, a patron pleaded with me to, uh, relieve my bowels in his presence. (I declined.)

And R35 I'm curious about the "old" Tilden too. I only remember the one on Liberty. In the late 80s/90s when it was Peg's, Images, and the Tilden, with Lucky's a little farther up into the Strip. Liberty Avenue was of course NEVER as festive and fun as they showed on QAF. (What we wouldn't have given for a 24 hour diner down there!)

R168. Woodys is still my go to place...the Black Eagle was basically an orgy...lol

The Townhouse in St Paul, MN. It was primarily a lesbian bar that tolerated gay men. If we got a little too flamboyant on the dance floor an afrofabulous dyke, who always wore mirror shades, would cross her arms and glare at us. We'd reel it in post haste.

R168, indeed - the QAF version of Liberty Ave was completely unreal! I visited Pittsburgh recently, and yikes - Liberty is pretty desolate and scary now. I think Tilden might still be open (the sign was still there anyway), but I am pretty sure all the others you mentioned are gone. I used to have so much fun at Lucky's!

Babylon in Redondo Beach California around 1996. I always wondered if this is where they got the name for QAF. It never got too crowded but was a nice mix of beach, thug and working class types from the South Bay and South Central who didn't want to travel up the 405 to WeHo. Of course it was torn down to build something that made more money.

Setting QAF in Pittsburgh never made sense. You go from the second biggest city in the UK...to Pittsburgh in America, as if they are equivalent gay capitals.

Moby Dick in SF was my first gay bar. Shook like a leaf. The doorman knew I was underage, but let me in anyway — no fake ID. He told me to hang out at the back of the bar, near the back entrance, should a cop arrive. Didn’t talk to anyone. Next time in a gay bar was in Sacramento (CA), also very nervous about the visit. Was downtown — don’t remember the name, but not a busy street. Was so horny, asked a guy if he would take me home and have sex with me. He did. He was very sweet. (He lived in the cottage behind his parents’ house, so told me we had to be quiet.). He was reluctant to have sex with me again, but did one more time, but it wasn’t as good as the first time. He was very patient with me.

Limelight on Stanley Street, Montreal

In the 80s, I went to a gay club in Nashville TN. I knew nothing about clubbing. I showed up at the very late hour of 10:00 pm thinking things would be already heated up and lots of people dancing. I was the only one there. People didn't start showing up until 11:30.

Rupaul talked about on his podcast the first time he went to a gay bar in San Diego. He showed up right after they opened and was the only one there for awhile. The next people to arrive were Kathy Najimy and her gay friend. She was wearing a patchwork hoop skirt and went straight to the dance floor.

The Cedar Brook Café, aka The Brook, in Westport, CT. Late 70's. Moved to CA in the 80's and first went to The Mineshaft in Long Beach. Good times.

Radio City Lounge in Salt Lake City Utah. I was 15. Gone now - Utah's first gay bar from its 1948 to 2009. Beer, wine - and when I was a kid you could bring a bottle in and order a "setup" It was on a main street with an entrance in the back. It didn't feel like there were a lot of gay people in Salt Lake then. Salt Lake wasn't particularly welcoming to gays and a lot people moved to San Francisco. And I was one of them. Now Salt Lake is quite gay and in 2015 they elected a gay mayor.

Splash in NYC. I was so freakin' nervous. TV screens with soft porn all around, sexy dancers on platforms, and a ton of testosterone.

R143 I can't imagine having s first gay bar experience in east St. Louis. When I was there in the late 1990s it was a hellhole dem of iniquity.

[quote] Also Uncle Charlie's in Murray Hill, got picked up by actor Dick Kallman, farm boy's dream of Oz realized

Now there's a name I had forgotten about long ago. Poor guy met a sad end. He and his lover were murdered in their apartment during a break-in when he was only 46.

[quote]Message for [R63]. Did you ever meet Edna the Lansing's only drag queen/performer?

No, as far as I can recall, I never encountered any drag queens at Trammp's. Certainly never saw a drag show there. Sorry!

anyone remember Sylvia Sidney - Boston's drag queen of the 70's? Always the last float at the (very small) Pride Parade?

A bar in the Hotel Elgin in Ottawa, coincidentally on the first night of the Stonewall riots. A group of classmates and I had been to the theater. We didn't even realize at first that it was a gay bar until we noticed that our one gal pal was the only woman in the place without a five o'clock shadow.

I remember Sylvia had a filthy mouth on her and lost several toes to diabetes. The last time I saw her was in a tiny bar called Charlie’s in the leather district

Did anyone meet anyone famous in a gay bar?

[quote]Did anyone meet anyone famous in a gay bar?

I sat and talked with Barry Manilow a few times at the back bar at Charlie's on Third Avenue, circa 1975. Also, less-well-known Jimmie Spheeris at the Apache in West LA in 1978. And a couple of porn guys.

Oh, I love Jimmie Spheeris' music. I knew there were rumors about him being gay. He was a beautiful man.

Number One 5th Avenue in San Diego. I talked with an older man that said he was in an episode of Married with Children

I've heard about Divine at Regent East, the piano bar down the block from Townhouse. Now closed.

R187-Yes. In around 1999 I was at The Works on the Upper west side of Manhattan and I spotted John Glover talking to someone. He was out. Though a celebrity is still a celebrity.

Together in Boston.

1270 too.

The original Uncle Charlie's on 3rd Ave (at about 38th Street (mid 70s). The next Uncle Charlie's was down on Greenwich Ave in the Village. I have a feeling that is the Charlie's some have referred to.

I see a few are as old as I am :) Gay bars were so much fun- neighborhood specific, type specific, and a whole reason to go to the Village on a Sat night- just bar hop all over the place.

A bar at the front of the Marlin Beach Hotel on Fort Lauderdale's strip. (Though, r3, Johnny Angel's would have been one of my first ones too.)

And going into the Marlin Beach Hotel was reckless and foolish (for the very deep in the closet me then); I was on spring break with a bunch of frat bros, and we were staying at the Bahamas Hotel not far from there, also on the strip. The MB had a marquee that said "Where the Boys Are," and I wasn't the sharpest tack in the drawer but figured out what that probably went. So one night I broke away from the others and went in there. I was terrified. There was a PacMan, I remember.

Eventually, a much older man asked me to go with him to the Copa. I was the dumbest, most naive kid; anyway, I went with him. And then it sort of dawned on me what he wanted to happen, and I managed to get away and go to the parking lot. I didn't have enough money to take a cab back to the hotel. idk, you would've thought I was in a horror movie, trying to escape. So I pretty much ran all the way from the Copa back to the hotel. I think that's a few miles? Jesus.

R184 Yes I do: The Mess in a Dress

Performing perhaps the worst rendition of "There's No Business Like Show Business/Hooray for Hollywood/Give My Regards to Broadway" evah. Looking back it's hard to see why people laughed.

Fred”s Pub in Munich, Germany. Surprisingly unfriendly. Within a few months, I mustered up the courage to walk into the one gay bar in the city I was stationed in, Augsburg, and made friends the first night.

JR’s in DC in the 90s

I talked to no one, and no one talked to me.

The New Bar in Madison, WI, in about 1993. So much fun!

Pegasus in Pittsburgh. The bar was behind a chain link cage and the under 21s were allowed on the dance floor. So all the old pervs were in the cage eying the underage. Those were the days!

Lafitte's in Galveston, Tx (now called Robert's Lafitte).

It was the mid eighties and I was fresh out of high school - and it was terrifying. Grimy, grungy, smelly and all the men there were middle aged leather daddies and I was like - No thanks, I'll stay closeted a few more years!

R202 Excuse me, high school? I certainly hope you didn't drink.

[203] Excuse you, but back then in Tx 18 was the drinking age.

I had turned 18 the week before.

I got my Tuesday's panties on too, but you probably didn't know that either

Danny's at the end of Christopher St. 1968

R166, I believe it was House of Tilden. It was somewhere on the edge of East Liberty, possibly near a highway. And it was doing the private club ruse. It was a grand old pile. Saw Barry Manilow and Debbie Reynolds there (not at the same time).

[quote]possibly the Holiday near the Carnegie Mellon and Pitt campuses

I didn't drink, and I really did look younger than my age (18-20), so I never went to the Holiday, but you could meet guys if you stood on S. Bellefield Street across the street from the Carnegie Museum, so that's how I met guys in the very early '70s. It wasn't a bar, but it was my first place I could go to meet strangers and have sex with them, usually in cars.

The upstairs bar at The Oxford Hotel, Sydney in 1995. Went there on an interstate trip with my best friend and we came out to each other. The Oxford is still open but my beautiful friend went to God nine years ago.

R201 The setup at Peg's was so odd. They only had chicken night on certain days as I remember, at least for a while. At other times there would be a weird divide with all the white guys on one side and all the black dudes on another.

Maxie's Famous Door in Indianapolis. I was 18 and using a fake ID. The queen at the door was highly suspicious but she knew I was hungry for it and new meat is always good for business. The Door was a drag bar with a really great drag show. That night I saw Audrey Morgan, the great Jeanetta Williams, and the one and only Tracy Adams. Also, my first White Russian. It was a great night.

[quote] Also, my first White Russian. It was a great night.

Was he cut or uncut?

The Frat House in Dallas, mid-80's. A popular place. I think it was on Fitzhugh Avenue. I can't find a trace of its existence online. Weird to think it's all just gone.

I don't remember the name of the place but it was a hole in the wall in St. Louis in the mid '80s and I was in my mid 20s, deeply closeted. For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to go on a Tuesday night at about 8 p.m., so of course, there was only one other person there. He was talking to the bartender, who came over to ask what I wanted and then went back to their conversation. Neither said another word to me. The only good thing about that night was finding the local gay rag, which gave me the location of some other gay bars.

The next time, I went on a Friday evening, wearing a tweed blazer, no less. Such a dork. I let this cute guy a few years older pick me up, then followed him in my car out to Fenton (way far out suburb) where he lived. We messed around some and had oral sex, and then I left. Discovered a short time later he'd given me crabs. Second time in a gay bar, first time having sex, and got crabs.

R187 ... Stars here ... fun story of first gay bars ...!

I went to The Warehouse in Hartford, CT in 1977. I was 17 and the valid age was 18 so I used my older brother's old driving license and modified it. You could just use a pencil to change it back then. The guy at the door knew the story but looked the other way. My boyfriend and I had a great time. It was amazing being around other gay people. This was WAY back and they refused to sell orange juice because of Anita Bryant. Guys used to buy us drinks but we were only into each other.

We did that dance "The Bump" and there were cheesy lights flashing around the dance floor saying: "What's your name? What's your number?"

OMG, I had forgotten about the bump!

I know, R216. There were various dance crazes at the time. Early disco era, I guess.

I really don't remember how we found out about The Warehouse as a gay club as we were young, living in a small town in CT and obviously few resources to figure it out. But somehow, we did. We could not believe there were all these gay people in one place.

Technically, it was Somebody's Place in Portland, Oregon, but only for a few minutes. Went to The Family Zoo around the corner from that, and the Family Zoo became my home away from home bar. Also went to the Embers mentioned in R14 a few times, but that was more of a dance bar. This was all more than 35 years ago - 1981-1982.

[quote]Technically, it was Somebody's Place in Portland, Oregon, but only for a few minutes.

I used to go there. Favorite bartender: Chris. And maybe Bill (did Bill work there or @ Reading Gaol?).

I really don't remember. I've never heard of Readin Gaol until now, so that must have come long after I left. I lived in Portland from 1980 to 1982. The bars I can remember from then were C C Slaughters (I was there on its opening night), Family Zoo (my main hangout), Somebody's Place, Rafters/Embers (which changed locations), Dahl & Penne, Darcelle XV (a drag bar named after its owner), The Other Side of Midnight (lesbian), The Grand Oasis (open all night long and homeless gays would sit there all night), and a couple others I can't remember the names of. All in downtown Portland or close to it. One gay bathhouse, the Majestic Hotel. Gay beach trips were to Rooster Rock State Park or Sauvie Island, to the nude sections. The gay pride parade was tiny and had a small dance in a park next to the river.

I had much more confidence back then. I remember walking up to guys that were way out of my league, and starting a conversation with them.

R221, Did they shoo you away, like a bothersome gnat? Sad, but guys can be like that. It stays with you forever.

I was at Togethers one night when I was at BU at a fundraiser for the Harry Reem's legal defense fund over Deep Throat. Here is what I remember....Harry Reems (sigh), Sylvia Sidney (scary) and Barney Frank in a small group. Speeches about 1st Amendment rights. Donna Summer "Spring Affair" playing and I just wanted to suck Harry Reems so bad...Oh well. I think before Together's was that iteration it was Sugar Shack. This was on Boyleston St. I lived in Boston from 75 to 84 and even though that was a million years ago it still seems like yesterday.

R223 did you suck Harry?

Buzz Club in Boston back in 2000ish.

I was a thin pretty young thing and I walked up the stairs to the club and ... BANG .... a room filled with all these older guys -- all with their shirts off -- and they were all buff and built and ripped and masculine and it was an astonishing site.

Not my first gay bar, but my first NYC gay bar was the original Uncle Charlie's on the East Side

Club Metro in St. Paul, MN

A huge multi level club. I was labeled fresh meat as a young lesbian and was hit on by a trans person and a couple.

In Philly, a bar (more a complex really) called "Equus" Downstairs was a tasteful bar with brown grass wallpaper, very '70's chic. Sexy guys with cocktails wearing pants that were magically skin tight in the ass and crotch and then abruptly wide at the ankles. Shirts of chianna, sweaters of valor. A few steps up was a glass door and a piano bar. That Pudgy was a stitch! And then up a flight there was a disco! "I Need A Hot Shoooooot!!!" I walked into that place and felt like SOMETHING!! I was in Philly a while back and it's got a new name -- but they had a little museum of the Equus days. Anybody else go to Equus?

Equus 1985. Terrified - and only 18. Called the gay hotline and asked where to go - it was a Wednesday - not quite peak time. Had fake ID - but I’m sure I looked more like 16. I remember a back area - thought there was food or something there.

They had the old Equus horse glass etching on display until recently. Equus is now Icandy but is changing hands again to Tabu owners. It’s nice that the building is still there. As are most of the bars from the 80s - unlike most cities. Philadelphia’s gayborhood is one of the best in US still. Go out every time I go back to visit.

R209 - so true. I want to say Sundays and Thursdays were chicken nights... I also remember that most times I was there (this would have been 93-94), at a certain point in the night this song would come on (which I think was called The Walk - not the song by The Time - something different), all the white guys would leave the dance floor and these three or four tall thin black guys would appear out of nowhere and do the most amazing acrobatic queeny dancing to this song! Then when the song ended they would vanish - never to be seen again that night. I also remember that the last song played EVERY night was It's My Life by Talk Talk - then the lights came on and everyone went home or went to Tilden.

Thank you R206 - I had no idea!

[quote]I really don't remember. I've never heard of Reading Gaol until now, so that must have come long after I left. I lived in Portland from 1980 to 1982. The bars I can remember from then were C C Slaughters (I was there on its opening night), Family Zoo (my main hangout), Somebody's Place, Rafters/Embers (which changed locations), Dahl & Penne.

I made a mistake. The Oscar Wilde-themed Portland bar was called Wilde Oscar's. Reading Gaol was actually in Washington, DC (I moved around a lot those years. I was in Portland from 1980-81 only. I don't remember Slaughters, but I had to have gone to the Rafters/Embers. The Family Zoo sounds familiar, as does Dahl & Penne.

Somebody's Place was my main bar. I had a boyfriend, so I mainly went to bars on my way home from work, not so much at night.

Clit Club - NYC

"Shirts of chianna, sweaters of valor."

"Shirts of Qiana, sweaters of velour"

I'd say "I fixed that" but I can't. I never went to Equus but those materials metastasized, like cancer does. Briefly, before we came to our senses, those materials were everywhere. Exposure to Qiana may have even caused cancer. They can't be fixed. The horror of both and of the way we dressed then is with me still, more so every time I see a photo of myself circa 1977.

Traxx in Cleveland. I was 17 and closeted but going there was the in thing for a small group of girls and guys in high school. They had a very creepy basement bar that was mostly empty except for guys hooking up in dark corners. Nobody said anything about any of us being gay. It just gave us "freak cred" because we weren't afraid to say we went.

Backstreet in Atlanta 1982. Went with other ' straight' friends from work land never looked back.

The Pharr Library had two for one drinks on Tuesday and Thursday, I think.

There was also the Armory, Weekends, The Gallus, The Cove

Cabaret on New Montgomery St. In SF.

R230 wow, that sounds roughly like the era I would have been there, on and off. I remember doing coat check there once or twice over holidays because I knew one of the bartenders.

I remember the Talk Talk song but there was also a period where they'd play some disco song at the end too. I am blanking on what it was, though.

My very first gay bar was The Avenue in Rochester (NY). But I’m not sure if it counts because I was so petrified that I just sort of lurked by the wall, not drinking, not talking. I guess I did that once or twice. That would have been in 1975, I think.

Then the next year, I was living in DC and came out with a vengeance. I went to The Other Side every chance I got. Not only is the bar no longer there; the street it was on no longer exists.

Woo Pig Sooie Lounge & Dance Club

The Copa had branches in Fort Lauderdale and Flint Fucking Michigan, where I visited.

More Michigan. What did I tell you?

I remember some tragic bar in Buffalo. Sneakers?

Buffalo was probably the saddest bar scene of any town I ever went out in during my college days. Even little podunk bars in that corner of NY/OH/PA had more life.

Flixx in Omaha was the first bar I went to after coming out. I was transferred there by my company after having been in Orange County, CA. What was funny to me was a group of old queens who thought of themselves as the "A" gays of the city. Very exclusionary and ready to bitch slap anyone who they thought was getting too big for their britches, i.e. me, because I didn't kowtow to a group of sagging, middle-aged alkies. I once brought a guy back to my house, not realizing he'd once been the boy toy of one of that group. He went back and told them, "You wouldn't believe his house; it's better than any of yours!" Well, it was California style, not Midwestern chintz, but from then on, it was war! I didn't care. I didn't want to socialize with any of them and knew my time there would be short.

R244 sounds like the next season of feud!

Wonder what Erna's first gay bar was. It was probably a cave shortly after the earth started to cool.

R232: The Family Zoo was my "home base" bar and we were really all one big dysfunctional family there. I still remember a lot of the people I knew there. It was a gay bar from 1947 to about 1990 or so. The owner was Bobby Hoblit. It became a slightly famous place from the TV movie "Prayers for Bobby." Now it's some kind of youth center. CC Slaughters was originally on SW Stark Street, but has sinced moved to another street and is much bigger now. The name "Wilde Oscar's" seems familiar to me, but I never spent much time there so it is only a dim memory for me.

Awww, I love all the stories of the nervousness and anxiety and the delays in actually entering. I had it too. It's like you knew, "if I cross this doorway, it's official." Lol.

Anybody remember the name of a gay bar in Cedar Rapids, Iowa? Back in the 1980's, a drag queen named Chatty Cathy performed there. She was funny.

I was passing through Cedar Rapids for a few days and met her in... another gay bar whose name I don't remember. One thing led to another and I remember sitting with her on a fence smoking Maui Wowie and watching the sun come up over a corn field.

Anybody remember the Damron Guide?

The Golden Lion, on Ludlow Avenue, in Cincinnati. I guess, around 1980.

The Discovery. Louisville, KY. 1983. I remember hearing Girls Just Want to Have Fun blasting from the upstairs dance floor as we approached. I was so thrilled.

There was a drag queen about 20 years ago in North Carolina called Iona Traylor. She had a calendar showing her trailer decorated for each month. Her enemy was a drag queen at another bar who called herself Wyona Traylor.

Yes, we had a Damron Guide for one year. Of course it was obsolete as soon as the World Wide Web started.

Yes, R248

Damron Guide was the Bar Bible

A few old bars mentioned upthread also mentioned here

LaCage in Milwaukee in '97. I went with a friend/roommate and was terrified. He promptly left me alone at one of the bars so he could do a circuit of flirting and I felt super abandoned as he didn't introduce me to ANYone.

The Roost in Edmonton Alberta. You had to leave ID. I was terrified.

Zippers

Prime Time 2 in Highland, NY. 1994. The best awful gay dance club adjacent to an apple orchard.

Campus, in Cambridge, MA

Funny how a place of excitement and fascination when you are younger can turn into a place of dread and avoidance.

After 30 years, I still am a little excited -or energized - walking into a gay bar. Unlike a straight bar or restaurant. Not sure why - think it’s a safe space and a frisson of sexual possibility (however irrelevant to me). But it seems most eldergays here really dislike gay bars. It’s odd to me the hate of gay bars. Is it insecurity or fear of judgment? I’d rather hang out with my people than a bunch of redneck straights.

If you don't drink alcohol, it's unappealing to spend time in a business where you have no interest in anything they are selling.

the end up san francisco

tinker's dam san jose

The Abbey, WEHO

My friends and I all had copies of the Damron guide. But a bunch of us shared one copy of Spartacus. Got vacation ideas from it!

Anyone remember the Gay Yellow Pages?

Cloud 9 in Minneapolis circa mid-80's. Didn't enter, but walked around and around outside. I was mid teens and didn't have access to fake ID. Lots of regular, masculine looking guys of various races going in and out. I ended up going to a pay phone and crank calling the bar. I said something stupid like "I want to see your cock" or some shit and the bartender who answered laughed and asked me if I was in the closet. I told him yes. We ended up talking for about an hour. I asked him all kinds of questions about what kind of guys go there and what do people do there. He really put me at ease and seemed like a very kind person. He told me to come by when I turn 18. I never did.

Several years later the first bar I officially entered was The Saloon, across the street from Cloud 9 ( which I believe was closed by then). My straight friend said he would go in with me for support. We were punk rockers and had our Mohawks sticking up, studded leather jackets, combat and cycle boots, camo pants and torn safety pinned shirts on. I knew of the saloon and always heard it was very male centered. As we were entering, I noticed guys would pass right on in while the few women who were there were asked for more than one form of identification. As we show our IDs, the bitchy queen at the door screams at us "do you know what kind of bar this is"? We said yes. He then says "it's a gay and lesbian bar".. Knowing this is probably not a very friendly place and that we were obviously not welcomed, I said ""when did you start including lesbians"? He threw our IDs at us and we went in. The place was 99.999% white and male. All pretty/preppy boys who would be called twinks today. We immediately left and searched the gay rags for another bar. Walked several blocks over to the 19. Best bar ever. Friendly people, male and female, working joes to business guys, all races, fem and butch. Oldest gay bar in Minneapolis too.

I learned many lessons that night, one being that gays can be just as nasty and assholish as straights. Also learned that they can be accepting, kind, and friendly.

My first bar was a molly house, but then again I'm old.

“’Tis strange that in a Country where

Our Ladies are so Kind and Fair,

So Gay, and Lovely, to the Sight,

So full of Beauty and Delight;

That Men should on each other doat,

And quit the charming Petticoat.”

r268 What year was this? For your negative Saloon experience?

I was a regular in 85/86 and was there 4 nights out of 7 with my lesbian friend w/o any problems. In the mid 80s, the bar was very chill...mainly guys but some women went too.

The Saloon was popular because it played a great mix of music....lots of British pop and alternative so gays, lesbians and even a few straights who liked the music went there. Cloud Nine and Gay 90s mostly only played Top 40.

Anyone still go to their first gay bar?

Menjo's in Detroit as a high school kid.

The Parliament House in Orlando as my first vacation bar.

Can't remember the name of it, but it wasn't anything special. I remember everyone in my town talking about "we have a gay bar now" but when I went it was full of all the people who went to every other bar in town, thinking they were edgy going to a gay bar, even though they weren't Lesbian, Gay or Bi.

I think it was called the Elephant Walk. In San Francisco.

[quote]r2 Uncle Charlie's in NYC must be the first for someone here...

That WAS the first gay bar I ever went to in NYC, when I was visiting someone. Was its full name Uncle Charlie's Good Time...or am I just imagining it?

I didn't know New York then....and don't even know where it was.

[quote]Was its full name Uncle Charlie's Good Time...or am I just imagining it?

You're imagining "Good Time," r275. I'm sure there's a Good Time Charlie's somewhere, though.

[quote]I didn't know New York then....and don't even know where it was.

What year?

There's a Good Time Charlie's in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but it's not a gay bar.

r276 I would think perhaps 1982 (?)

[quote]r277 There's a Good Time Charlie's in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but it's not a gay bar.

YET!

We are ON OUR WAY!

The Chase - Indianapolis.

R271 - the great thing about Philly is most of the gay bars I first went to 30 years ago are still there - though some changed names. One of the few gayborhoods still thriving.

Two: Tugs and The Monastery, both in Seattle -

The Barn in Toronto. Talk about baptism by fire...

Buzzby's San Francisco, 1974; I still have the tshirt I got there a couple of years later; when I moved to Washington for school, the Pier 9 was my second home--friendly, exhilarating, hot--there were phones on the tables around the dance floor that one could call another table with . . .

We condole you, R266.

The Abbey Coffehouse in the 90s before it was a bar was much cooler

R286 The Abbey

r284 What is that illustration supposed to depict??

Looks like a giant tongue.

It's in some kind of landscape, tho....with a bare tree, and boulders....

The iconic leather daddy bar The Ramrod in NYC. At the time, my workout buddy, who was gay, took me into the city for my birthday and drinks. I wasn't even out to myself yet but I was always accepting and liberal to have gay friends. We went into the bar but before we did, he said if you don't want anybody to hit on you, just don't stare them in the eye. We go in, it was dark and lots of guys in leather and chains. I never saw anything like that before. A friend of my friend notices us and walks up to us. My friend told me his name is Vince and today is his birthday too. Well, Vince was in all the leather and chains and looked like he bites heads off of snakes as a hobby. I felt a little intimidated by Vince. When my friend introduced us and mentioned it was my birthday too, Vince broke out into high camp and grabbed me, picked me up and spun me around, kissed me and wished me a happy birthday as pink chiffon flowed out of his mouth!! I was like WTF? Anyway, we had fun and I learned that leather guys are a bunch of sweethearts and not scary monsters! LOL! So much ass too with those leather chaps!

A friend took me to The Shack in Kenosha, WI.

Then, a bar in Racine called JoDee's.

He eventually took me to the bars in Milwaukee - YP, La Cage, and The Wreck Room.

This was the mid-1980s.

The first song I remember hearing was Donna Summer's "Love Is In Control".

Mid 90s. I lived in the middle of LA but was too afraid to go to a gay bar there. So I traversed all the way down to Laguna Beach to go to the Boom Boom Room (had heard of it through friends somehow). I had no idea how I was going to get in. Like others, my heart was beating. I was nervous, etc. Finally, I just went for it. Walked right in. Knew better than to drink. Just hung out, amazed at what I was seeing. Men with men.

Uncle Charlie's in NYC in the late '70s was at 38th and Third, a sister bar Uncle Charlie's Downtown opened in the Village a bit later on Greenwich St.

Racine and Kenosha have gay bars!!!!?????!!!!!!

Yes, they do.

Kenosha used to have The Shack and Racine had and still has Jodee's.

Kenosha now has Club Icon on I-94.

Racine and Kenosha sound like two black drag queens (maybe they are).

Anyhoo: The Copa and The Poop Deck at the Marlin Beach hotel in Ft. Lauderdale, mid 70's. Walked in and the first song I heard was Lou Rawls "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" (He was right!)

The Boathouse, Austin tx, New Year's Eve 1989. With my first boyfriend that I thought I would spend the rest of my life with (okay, I was a naive 20 year old just coming out). He was gone by mid-february. Should have clued in when he wouldn't call himself my boyfriend. Still have vivid memories of that New Year's Eve - it was great (except when I caught my boyfriend making out with one of his 'friend's'; gee, how many clues did I need????).

The Who's Who in Savannah, GA, 1981.

A friend I met in an AOL chatroom in 1999, shortly after moving to NYC, was astonished I had never been to a gay bar, and took me to my first, the Works. Had a great time just drinking and talking with everyone, then left with a random. Apologized the next day, he laughed and said it was no big deal and "I think now you're ready for The Toolbox." LOL.