News accounts and reading what i could find to read and trying to make some sense of what had happened. And during that, i came across an editorial online. And that short editorial helped me understand the importance of gay bars and clubs in a way that i have never understood before. Of how important they are. As gathering places and as places of activism. Places of great significance in American History. I decided that day that we had to bring that author to birmingham so she could share her insights and research with us. And we are very pleased that we have been able to do that. She is a professor of history at santa clara university. She began teaching her course in title lesbian and gays in history in 2004. The sample class can be viewed on the cspan online library. Her work on lgbtq history is featured in her 2012 book, beyond natures housekeepers. She is also the winner of studies in progressivism and her articles have appeared in newspapers and websites. Including the miami herald, San Francisco chronicle. Cnn. Nuclear politics. Include National Public radio, Wisconsin Public radio, voice of america and she has worked as a consultant or pbs. Welcoming our in author. [applause] well, i am so honored to be here at the birmingham public library. And i really want to thank jim for inviting me to speak and for worked to everyone who so successfully to publicize this event. Most of all, i really want to thank all of you for taking the time to hear a talk about history, of all things, on a sunday afternoon. In his invitation to me, jim wrote i was struck by the similarities between the role of gay nightclubs in the Gay Rights Movement and africanamerican churches in the civil Rights Movement. And i thought that was a pretty perceptive observation. The surface, the church you see there on the left in montgomery alabama, it doesnt seem to have a lot in common with a seedy bar on the right, operating illegally in Greenwich Village new york. That Beautiful Church in montgomery was designated as a inional historic landmark 1974 in memory of Martin Luther king jr. Who served as the from 19541960. He helped to organize the montgomery bus boycott in the office in the churchs basement. And yet, this june, president declared that seedy bar in new york city as the countrys First National , gay,nt to lesbian bisexual, transgender and queer rights. And im going to go through that again in case you are not familiar. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning. So when you hear that, that is what the term is referring to. Now as it turns out, in this country, most gay bars and black churches have a very long history. Both have served as havens and sanctuaries. They have been the centers of solidarity and community and education. And as a result, they have also been the sites of arson. Violence and persecution. Thoset, resistance to efforts to intimidate and squelch ultimately led to greater advancements in pride rights and freedom. Even before the modern gay bar, place has always played a powerful role in the lives of lgbtq americans. Exclusivelyll focus on the evolution of gay bars and nightclubs and the many roles they have played in American History. So. Intimate samesex relationships have long been tolerated in American History. This was especially true of men in singlesex communities, miners and cowboys. So here is the idealized version. The gold rush miners. And heres the real thing. The assumption for most straight people is that these men werent gay. They were just making do. They are having harmless fun. And the same was thought of about crossdressing. Just harmless fun. Which it often was. That is not to say samesex sexuality was not occurring, of course it was. It just wasnt on most straight peoples radar. Urban environments offered far more opportunities to seek out and act on samesex desires than had ever been available when america was a nation of family farmers. Urban environments were creating lots of different spaces, public parks, for men to find each other. The first ymca opens in the United States in 1851 in boston. 1884, we have mens bathhouses at the bowery. Lots of activity going on there. 1880s, new yorks bleecker street was home to at least two known gay bars. The slide and the black rabbit. And the timing of this is interesting. Term92 we see the homosexual first appear in print. And it is defined as a sexual perversion. So with this invention and recognition of homosexuality, gradually comes an awareness that all the samesex activities might not just be harmless fun after all. And so, we see the new york only world has the slide bar leaker street as a pit of shame where wretches without moral sense or shame make nightly public exhibition of their evil doings. 1901, the New York Times reported on the arrests of several of the patrons of the black rabbit. It antivice activists who called the bar wicked, claiming that sato a meant more would blush for shame adhering to what depths of vice the habitues have stated. 1903 we have the first raid on a new york city bathhouse. 60 men were detained. 14 were arrested. The onlyork is not place to feature early gay bars and clubs. They began springing up in every city. The opened in San Francisco in 1908. Establishments called bathhouses or juke chances. They offered some opportunities for nonphysical sexual behaviors. Far from the prying eyes of the disapproving churchgoing establishment. Now i know means worthies for homosexuals only that they were the starting place for many women who would later become relatively open including lucille bogus, born here in birmingham and the author of the explicity it lesbian bold dagger womens blues. Were the place to be. Almost all clubs remained racially segregated. Harlem residents said about the 1920s, new york was a great place to be a lesbian. You had a beautiful time up there. Oh, girl, you have some time up there. By 1932, this nightclub map would feature gladyss clam house. There it is right there. [laughter] gladys was Gladys Bentley, who made no secret her sexual preference for women. In the 1930s she was the featured singer at the ubangi club. You can note her gay male dancers. Becomehtclubs would especially important in world war ii. Particularly in coastal cities. In small towns and farmhouses across america, most homosexuals were deeply closeted. In their isolation, many believed they were the only ones in their town or even in their state to have these feelings. And they feared what others said were true, that homosexuals were dangerous perverts. Closeted homosexuals from all over the United States left their small town to serve their country, either by enlisting in the military or taking up more production jobs. War production jobs. At some point, most ended up near a coastal city and almost all ended up in some city. Often for the very first time. Many closeted gays go to their first gay bar. For example, San Franciscos black cat. Many lesbians go to their first lesbian bar. Monas. Known as you will notice Gladys Bentley was still performing in the 1940s. They find out they are not the only ones, that there are a lot of people who are atypical sexually, and theyre not perverted deviant criminals but good, loyal americans who are serving their country well in a time of need. When the war is over they dont , want to return to their small towns and their smalltown closets. Many settled in the cities where they first experienced themselves accepted. We are poised for a whole new era and looking back you might anticipate this is when we are going to have the gay and lesbian Rights Movement. This would be the beginning of that. Instead, lgbtq people are going to have to endure 25 more years of repression. After those hopes raised by world war ii, the cold war was a particularly horrible time to be gay, lesbian, transgender, or bisexual in the United States. Gay men and lesbians were seen as particular risks to national security. Sexual perverts who infiltrated our government in recent years are perhaps as dangerous as the actual communists. Atypical sexuality was grounds for immediate and permanent dismissal from government jobs. This begins in the state department pretty high up. Pretty soon, its going to filter its way all the way down. This includes people like postal carrier and workers and librarians. Anybody who has any kind of government position. And so people remained in the closet. Its a little different now. What do you do with that nascent pride and sense of identity . That was born out of world war ii. You cant unring a bell. You cant unlearn something you have learned about yourself. Gay bars are going to become more important than ever. And theyre going to be scarier because of police raids. It was illegal to serve an alcoholic drink to known homosexual, as they were deemed inherently disorderly. Remember that homosexuality itself is not only considered unnatural and in moral, it is illegal. And not just sex acts, but any samesex conduct, like Holding Hands can be deemed lewd and lascivious. So you can imagine what would happen in this climate if you get your name or, god for bid, your picture in the paper during such a raid. And you will note the headline here. 109 arrested in vice den, eight teachers, suburb principle seized. If you are married, as most closeted homosexuals were, these were immediate grounds for divorce. With the spouse getting sole custody of your children. It means you would lose your job, lose your apartment, lose your churches and friends. And that is ultimately if the charges are dropped. If they are pressed you are going to face the prospect of a jury trial. I think we can all understand why virtually everyone facing a morals charge with lead to a lower misdemeanor drunk and disorderly for example, or pay a fine, anything to not to have to go to court. You could also be committed, against your will come on. Going to need somebody to push a button for me. Just one second. Changing battery. There we go. You could also be committed to a mental hospital. And this is especially true of young people to be cured of your illness. This could include electroshock therapy and various forms of aversion therapy. Getting caught at a gay bar was a quick way to ruin your life. So why go . Gays and lesbians who came of age in the 40s, 50s, and 60s speak over and over and over again about how they risk their reputation, their marriages, their family, their livelihood by going to gay bars. The gay bars save their lives. They kept them from despairing that they were the only ones. Kept them from believing that society was right, that they were sick and criminal and would be better off dead. In the bars and nightclubs, they found hookups and one night stands. They also found partners and lovers and friends and people who accepted them as they were. They didnt have to carry out the exhausting work of pretending to be straight. They could be themselves, and being true to yourself is very precious. It is worth a lot of risk. Lesbians during this period suffered double discrimination. Even most gay men saw women as inferior. In the days before widespread feminism, the lesbian bar was the truly rare place where women were not pressured to cater to men. A lesbian in the 1940s said, we could throw off our dresses and high heels, the uniform required of all women. Lesbians could wear pants and be free of mens unwanted sexual attention. The lesbian bar created a whole new alternate society. And culture. And for many workingclass lesbians that was the world of the butchfemme. It created roles for lesbians, told him how to dress, how to behave, even how to act. Undercover cops trying to get into lesbian bars were easily spotted and kept out. As one regular said, that was my world, and the other world was not real. Some very brave gay men and lesbians for the organizations againstn to fight back government treatment. Bars became the crucial battles in the campaigns for gay rights. It became the settings for the crucial battles in the campaigns for gay rights. And perhaps the least known, but most important, took place inside this bar. On april 21, 1966, kasich been a sipin wasd staged, like a sitin. They bring a photographer and they bring a photographer and the announced to the bartender that they are homosexual men and they wanted to drink. Its a gay bar, everyone knows they are gay, but they announce this to the bartender. They would announce this to the bartender. This picture was taken just before they announced it and you can see the bartender putting his hand over the glass, because he is not going to be up to serve them the drink. As you know, that is illegal to serve openly gay men a drink. Mattachine then challenged in court the laws that prohibited serving alcoholic beverages to gays. The ruling in the case that the gays could peacefully assemble at bars and drink alcohol and established a new era of licensed, legally operating gay bars, and included a new gay bar in 1967 only a block away, the Stonewall Inn. Just as lesbians were often rejected or discriminated against in some gay mens bars, gays and lesbians of color faced racial as well as sexual discrimination. Transgender people were virtual iniahs, not even accepted gay bars. Contins cafeteria was a diner in San Franciscos tenderloin district, and one of the few places transgender people congregated publicly in the city. Crossdressing was illegal, and so the police regularly raided the place. In august 1966, just a few months after the sipin, some patrons began picketing the cafeteria, because management kept calling the police to have their transgendered customers arrested. During an attempted arrest, the transcustomers began to fight back and a riot broke out. One of the first efforts by transgendered people to stand up against abuse and discrimination by police. And there is something very empowering about standing up for yourself. Gay bars were the sites of all kinds of empowerment. They were lifesaving and fun, despite the fact that they still represented real danger in the form of constant raids and police harassment. It was no longer illegal to serve and openly keep person age rink in some states, but atypical Sexual Activity serve and openly gay person in serve and openly gay person in some states, but atypical sexual activities still remains illegal. 1962, illinois became the first state to decriminalize homosexual acts between consenting adults in private. Until 2003 that the Supreme Court declared sodomy laws still in many states to be unconstitutional. Admit that police in gay bars could be harassed by police not just for homosexual acts, but also drunk and disorderly and obscene behavior and the whole list of possible offenses. A major turning point in lgbtq history started at the Stonewall Inn at about 1 20 in the morning on june 28, 1969. Stonewall was a gay bar and two of the keywords are class and race. Who were the patrons of this bar . For the most part workingclass. Drag queens which lesbians, love the different people. Some are people of color. Many are people who have already been deemed to be inferior, lower class, and many are openly gay. They are not white middleclass people terrified of losing of having their sexuality revealed. They are terrified of being they arent terrified of being outed, they arent going to lose their jobs, their homes, their families. Stonewall had been raided several times for operating without a liquor license. Lots of bars did. It was cheaper to pay off the police than it was to pay for a liquor license. Some police started the standard raid, and the patrons had had enough. And they began rioting inside the bar. They threw bricks and bottles and fires. Spreads,rating news Everyone Wants to be part of this. They come back and do it again the next tonight. And then again the next night. It gets some coverage. Some of the coverage is negative. This is a really snotty article for the new york daily news. The queen bees are stinging mad. It is getting publicity. There is something significant about fighting back against injustice. Just like other oppressed people were doing in the civil Rights Movement. Violence seems to generate respect or at least attention. A decade later, Allen Ginsberg remembered the guys were so beautiful. They have lost that wounded look that fags all had 10 years ago. I think there are two components to this. One was the creation of the Gay Liberation front. And another was a more aggressive Political Organization that had been in existence before. And the second press is a commemorative march that takes place one year after the stonewall riots. You can see the christopher street march. Very well attended. There is also a commemorative march in los angeles. As you know, to this day there are gay pride parades, and these people in the may not realize they are commemorating the stonewall riots, but in fact that is what those parades were originally designed to do. They are a really exhilarating powerful event. Homosexuality, it is called there is an old expression to reveals one homosexuality, it is called letting a hair pin drop. Stonewall was called the hair pin drop around the world. As gays and lesbians came out of the closet. Publications and organizations proliferated, and gay bars became increasingly visible and popular sites for socializing and political organizing. They also became sites for violent people. People leaving bars were freed with the victims of street violence and gay bashing. The pulse bar in orlando was not the first to be the site of a mass murderer. In 1973, an arsonist set fire to the gay bar the upstairs lounge in new orleans, killing 32. Despite that large number of fatalities, no politician, not the mayor or governor, certainly not the president made any kind of a statement. The fire was likely set by a psychologically unstable patron, but we will never know, because the police are not interested in investigating. The patron committed suicide the following year. According to a survivor of th