Chicago gay bars in the 1980
- #Chicago gay bars in the 1980 archive#
- #Chicago gay bars in the 1980 series#
- #Chicago gay bars in the 1980 free#
Places like the Graduate allowed gays and lesbians to gather in an atmosphere free of fear or judgment. "On the other side is where a group of Mexicans hung out. "The first eight to nine bar stools were filled with the same people every day, who worked as attorneys and stockbrokers," Novakowski says.
Inside the bar was what Novakowski calls the Million Dollar Corner. Of all the bars he's worked at or patronized, Novakowski says the Graduate was his favorite, because of the varied clientele. "It really was a neighborhood bar, and by that, I mean you couldn't even tell it was there," Novakowski says. Novakowski tended bar there for 10 years, from 1979 to 1989, and returned in 1999 when the owners decided to get out of the business and wanted someone familiar to help run the bar during its last months. That brings us to the Graduate, an establishment that once stood at 23 W. It's great that we feel more comfortable in straight bars, but no matter what, it's not the same," Freuler says. "If gay people want to go somewhere they can be themselves, this is it. Leaving IBT's with Freuler, we make the same assessment as Thomas: For young gays and lesbians, that first gay-bar experience is still important.
#Chicago gay bars in the 1980 archive#
He's also a volunteer with the Tucson Gay Historical Society and the Tucson Gay Museum, an online museum (with an archive of newspapers, brochures, fliers and mementos collected by members of the gay community. Sitting across from Novakowski at IBT's is Ernie Freuler, who hosts the public-access show OutWest. There may be fewer of them, and we may see more folks we think of as 'straight' in the crowd, but I believe gay people will always gather to drink and dance under their rainbow flags." "As long as enough people keep feeling the need for queer communion, America's gay bars will endure. Could the double whammy of mainstreaming and technology mean that gay bars are doomed?"ĭespite her research, however, Thomas decided that the gay bar is not doomed. "Between 20, the number of gay and lesbian bars and clubs in gay-travel-guide publisher Damron's database decreased by 12.5 percent, from 1,605 to 1,405. And it's not just that gays are hanging out in straight bars some are eschewing bars altogether and finding partners online or via location-based smart-phone apps like Grindr, Qrushr and Scruff," Thomas wrote. "In 2007, Entrepreneur Magazine put gay bars on its list of businesses facing extinction, along with record stores and pay phones.
#Chicago gay bars in the 1980 series#
June Thomas, author of The Gay Bar: Its Riotous Past and Uncertain Future, wrote a six-part series on the history and the future of the gay bar for last year.
Today's gay-bar scene includes about a half-dozen places: IBT's, as well as Woody's, New Moon, Brodie's Tavern, Venture-N, and Colors. Novakowski stands behind the club's bar with a cup of coffee in one hand, occasionally putting it down to pour a drink for a daytime patron, or to fold bar towels in preparation for the evening rush.Īt the height of Tucson's gay-bar era-the late-1970s into the mid-'80s-there were about a dozen bars, and Novakowski recalls most of their names: the Graduate, the Venture, Sir James, Hair Tiz, the Joshua Tree/Backdoor, the Stonewall Eagle, Michael's, the Fineline, Rita's, Colette's, Venture, Lucky Pierre's and IBT's. More specifically, he's tending a gay bar.Īway from the glare of the summer sun, IBT's on Fourth Avenue offers a dark, cool respite. on a weekday afternoon, and Tom Novakowski is doing what he's done almost every day for the past 40 years-tending bar.