For decades the gay bar was the backbone of our community.
Gay bars were our meeting places, our community centers, our safe havens.
We organized our protests there.
We met our lifelong friends there.
We explored the 'gay lifestyle' there.
Without gay bars there might never have been a gay 'community'.
Over the years there have been tens of thousands of gay bars that have come and gone. Some survived for several decades - others vanished in less than a year.
All of them had an impact on us as individuals
and collectively as a community.
Watch Videos from GayBarchives TV at:
The GayBarchives website features a copious amount of information about the gay bars from our past as well as those that continue to serve the LGBTQ community today. In all, thousands of bars have been documented so far.
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Click on the images below to view the Gay History 101 features in
Happening Digital Magazine.
You can find the full archive of this magazine at:
Direct links to each of the installments of
Gay History 101
on GayBarchives
The UpStairs Lounge Fire 1973
Dugan's Bistro Chicago, IL
World's Oldest Gay Bar
Studio One in West Hollywood
The Copa: Florida & Fire Island