It’s an eye-opening piece to say the least.
(Sadly, lesbians and those of other sexual preferences are largely ignored in the article.) The piece also included several admonitions to bar-hoppers to watch their behavior around Dallas police. In addition to the photos, there was also info on at least 30 popular homosexual hang-outs from the time.
The article, “Big Dallas” by Jerry Daniels, appeared in the May/June 1975 issue of Ciao!, a New York-based gay travel magazine. When a reader of my blog directed my attention to an article on Dallas’ gay club scene of the 1970s - with photographs! - I was pretty excited. There are plenty of negative items that appeared in the local newspapers, most of which invariably focused on reports of vice raids or were generally one-sided psychology-based discussions of “aberrant behavior,” etc.īut there is almost no mention at all of gay culture. * * * * *I write regularly about Dallas history, and it has been difficult to find positive media accounts of Dallas’ gay community before the 1970s. It’s hard to overstate the importance of these safe meeting places at a time when men and women were being arrested and were losing their jobs simply because they were gay. That was a quote from a Dallas Gay Political Caucus spokesman in a 1979 Dallas Morning News article on the emergence of Oak Lawn as the center of Dallas’ gay community. It’s a place you can go and just relax and be yourself.” It’s a place where you can go and quit worrying about the stereotypes and what other people are thinking of you.
#Gay bars in dallas for mature men free#
In the early days, they were the only places where gay men and women could socialize openly with one another in a “safe” environment where they were free to be themselves. Gay and lesbian bars have always held an important place in the LGBTQ community. These police raids and constant harassment continued through the latter half of the 1970s, when an organized and unified gay community became politically active and took their complaints to the courts. Establishments that catered to people who were part of what we now call the LGBTQ community were frequently raided, and the owners, employees and patrons were routinely arrested simply because they were there when the place was busted. Their locations were shared on a need-to-know basis, and entering these places was reminiscent of drinkers slipping into unmarked Prohibition-era speakeasies strangers were eyed with suspicion. There had, however, been gay bars in Dallas, dating back to at least the early 1950s (one of the first was Le Boeuf Sur Le Toit, later renamed Villa Fontana). Homosexuals and lesbians were often forced to keep a very low profile, if only for self-preservation. Arrest, loss of one’s job, and social condemnation were very real possibilities to those whose secret was discovered. Still, as soul-crushing as news of extreme acts of violence can be, we can’t forget how much progress has been made.īefore the days of political activism, being gay was something one often kept to oneself or shared only with a close circle of friends. In the past few months, the United States has celebrated a few important milestones in the history of civil rights for gay Americans: the designation of the Stonewall Inn in New York City as a National Monument to Gay Rights and the first anniversary of the historic Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states.īut while there has been undeniable social and political progress in recent memory, there have also been stark reminders of continued hatred and intolerance against LGBTQ individuals by hateful and intolerant people - among them the recent mass shooting in Orlando and, here in Dallas, the ongoing physical attacks in and around Oak Lawn which have prompted Mark Cuban to donate one million dollars to the Dallas Police Department in order to increase patrols and to better protect the city’s LGBTQ community. A Photo History of Dallas’ Gay Bars of the 1970s.