“But there is something special lost when a bar of 30 years goes under, because it takes with it a local history and a staff that knows people’s names.” “Gay bars have survived political oppression, the AIDS crisis, previous recessions, so they will survive this pandemic,” he said. Mattson is sure the bars won’t entirely disappear. Every queer person can tell you the first time they went to a gay bar.
“That’s something that straight people don’t often have to think about. “Even still, in this era where we can find queer content on YouTube and find sex partners or romance on phone apps, if you want to be in a room with other queer people, bars are often the only option,” Mattson said. Shunned or unwelcome elsewhere in less tolerant times, queer people could gather in bars, which for generations served as the community’s public squares and remain hubs for organizing and fundraising. After The Score closed in the early 2000s, LGBTQ patrons urged Garcia to dedicate her space to the community she had so openly accepted. And the prevalence of AIDS among Latinos nationwide skyrocketed by 130% between 19.Īt Jalisco, some patrons unaccustomed to seeing same-sex couples turned aggressive toward the new customers. Then-President Clinton unveiled the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which prevented service members from being openly gay, lesbian or bisexual without the threat of being discharged. California voters had approved Proposition 187, which sought to deny undocumented immigrants access to services, including public healthcare and education. Los Angeles in the 1990s was racially and politically tense. By then she had married Sergio Hernandez, who left his job as another bar’s security guard to help Garcia at Jalisco. When he died in 2005, Jalisco became hers officially. Also take a look at the Chicago Gay Bathhouse and Sex Club Guide, which has plenty of advice on where to meet guys looking to hookup around Chicago.As the owner got older, he left Garcia to manage the bar by herself. Here's a more in-depth look at these Downtown and South Side Chicago gay social establishments.
It's also a bit of a distance to reach these bars, but they're both legendary nightspots that are well-worth checking out, especially given that many of the nation's gay African-American hangouts have steadily disappeared over the years. Additionally, on the city's South Side, you'll find a pair of gay bars that cater predominantly to African-American patrons, Club Escape and Jeffery Pub. You can find extensive lists of establishments in the Chicago Lakeview Gay Nightlife Guide and the Chicago Andersonville Gay Nightlife Guide. These neighborhoods are a lot of fun, but they're also a bit of a haul - by cab or public transit - from downtown Chicago, which is where most of the city's hotels are.įortunately, there are a couple of very fun gay nightspots right in the heart of downtown, not to mention an almost endless supply of terrific restaurants, many of them with mixed gay/straight followings. Although Chicago has among the greatest selection of gay nightspots in the country, the majority of these hangouts - from bars and discos to LGBT-popular restaurants - are in popular mixed residential-commercial neighborhoods on the north side of the city.