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"Anita Bryant was probably the best thing that happened to the gay community."Īt gay bars, orange juice was no longer served because of Bryant's affiliation with the Florida growers. "We carried signs (one said: "Heil Anita Gay-Stop-O") and walked up and down the sidewalk in the pouring rain - 800 of us," she said. Mary Byrne recalls protesting outside the rally. She was there to promote a bill in the Indiana General Assembly (championed by a Greenwood lawmaker named, ironically, Don Boys) that would criminalize sodomy. Politically, gays in Indianapolis didn't band together until October 1977, when the recording artist/former Miss USA/Florida Citrus Commission spokeswoman Anita Bryant led a rally at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. "If you 'came out' back then, you'd have been beat to death," said Warman, who at the time was married to a woman, as was Palmer. Instead, they paid their fines and slinked away. McCann said that was "the first time I remember people actually being nice to each other."īut no one stood up and protested the raids. When people needed to use the toilet, a phalanx of men would stand up and form a wall to give privacy. They were herded together into a large cell with open toilets where they spent the night. McCann said that in 1964, he was one of some 80 gay men loaded into 12 paddy wagons and hauled to the Marion County Jail. "We'd quick drop our partner and grab a lesbian," said David McCann, 70, who lived in Kokomo but frequently socialized in Indianapolis.īut often such raids led to nights in jail, especially if the gay patrons didn't have I.D. She saw the police approach, flipped a light switch, a signal familiar to her patrons. But the proprietor, Betty Keller, was too quick for them. " 'Visiting a dive,' is what they'd call it," Warman said. Warman recalled being at Betty K's, a club that occupied a big old Victorian house at 17th and Central (since torn down) in the mid-'60s, when police came in to bust men for dancing with other men. "Young kids don't realize what it used to be like, what older people went through." "There's a lot of history behind where we are now," said Coby Palmer, 65, a florist and longtime gay civic leader. "Even way back there was a lot going on here," Bohr said. This at a time when Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, had just two each. He said that in 1970, the year he stopped concealing his homosexuality, Indianapolis had more than a dozen gay bars. Indianapolis gay bars used to be in the dark, not just figuratively but literally - they didn't used to have windows. "The afternoon light just came busting through and hit you," said Bill.
MENS GAY BARS NEAR ME WINDOWS
Since the 1970s, when Downtown Olly's was a different gay bar called Brothers, the wall had sealed off two huge picture windows in front. Several years ago, he was at that same bar, during a remodeling, as workers tore away a wall. He was 90 days sober and figured it would look bad to his AA sponsor, never mind he was drinking Diet Coke.īut he had something interesting, something metaphorical, to say, as "Rock me, Amadeus" played in the background at Downtown Olly's, 822 N. Not because he was in a gay bar, but because he was in a bar period. Actors will bring to life six locations in Indianapolis Old Northside tickets: $60.īill declined to disclose his last name. Indiana Humanities is hosting an LGBT history bar crawl on June 20 at 6 p.m. Most bars are open during the busy summer season between May and October, though a small number remain open during the winter season on the weekend.This story was originally published June 8, 2012. Generally you'll find that most gay bars are generally painted with all colours of the LGBTQI+ community, and their friends, in mind. There is a mix of gay/LGBTQI+ only places and LGBTQI+/straight-friendly to men only bars.Ī small lament is that there aren't any specific lesbian bars, though Sunrise in Ibiza Town is a popular haunt. The LGBTQI+ scene on Ibiza is pretty wild, just like it is in many worldwide cities, but with that hedonistic free-spirited edge that Ibiza brings. San Antonio also has its own LGBTQI+ meeting point in the bar of its first and only gay-only hotel The Purple.
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As we've said previously, the island is very gay and LGBTQI+ friendly generally, though there is a good selection of LGBTQI+ bars here, mostly concentrated in and around Ibiza Town, where Calle de la Virgen (see Catalán name Carrer de la Mare de Déu in Google maps) and nearby Calle Alfonso XIII ( Google maps) in the old port area are the main stopping points.įigueretas has a couple of gay bars, though many of its bars are pretty LGBTQI+-friendly.