Gay bar frederick

Prominent gays and lesbians recall what the experience meant to them. By The New York Times. F or generations of gays and lesbians, especially those for whom walking into the sometime secret and darkened doorway of one was often the first step in the coming-out process, gay bars have long held a significant place in their personal histories.

That was never more apparent than in the days following the mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. Below, some other prominent gays and lesbians recall what gay bars meant to them as they began to embrace their sexuality, some eagerly and some nervously. Andy Cohen: Television host and producer.

I used to sneak away from my straight friends at Boston University and go to Chaps gay bars often have hypermasculine names in Boston's Back Bay. It was quite literally like stepping into another world.

Why Are Gay Bars Central to LGBTQ+ History?

Pre-internet, gay bars were integral in our social development. They were an escape from the often unfriendly outside world, packed every night of the week, and everyone inside was a friend. Jane Lynch: Actress. It would have been aroundwhich made me ish and I was fresh out of graduate school. I looked very straight and very Midwestern cornfed.

I walked around the block before I got the nerve to go in because the lady bouncers looked so fearsome and eyed me suspiciously. This is a lesbian bar. I was 17 years old, and equally scared of being caught for being underage, and of frederick recognized by anyone I knew.

I don't even think I ordered a beer. I just remember frantically playing pinball and not speaking to anyone the whole time I was there. That fake ID was my lifeline for gay because it got me into the only places where I could find the gay community that I so wanted to be part of.

Gay bars and clubs were the alpha and the omega for me then. I wish I still had that terrible fake Arizona driver's license — I think my alter ego from that ID her name was Ann would be 48 years old by now. I still have her same haircut. Darren Walker: President, the Ford Foundation. Inmy freshman year at the University of Texas, my sophisticated friend Kenneth would drive us in his new Cutlass to a bar called Austin Country.

It was a giant converted warehouse, with bars encircling the dance floor and the biggest disco ball in Austin. By my senior year, the mood was changing. We were focused on getting into law school, or business school, or landing a job. Tragically, AIDS was beginning its deadly, devastating advance.

The frivolity of those fast, fulsome, fleeting bar has long since given way.