As a known hub of queer social life, bars in this stretch of Boston were frequently raided by the Boston Police’s vice squad (a department or division of a police force that enforces laws against prostitution, drug abuse, illegal gambling, etc). On the edge of the infamous “Combat Zone,” it was once home to the city’s most popular gay bar, the Punch Bowl. Park Square was a hub of gay activity in the 1950s and ’60s. ⇒Site 3: Park Square (Corner of Arlington Street, Stewart Street, and Columbus Avenue) Today, you can see some of its original memorabilia at ClubCafé on Columbus Avenue. In 1952, it began operating exclusively as a gay bar. Famous faces, including Elton John and Judy Garland, were known to frequent the club while in town for performances. Opened as a speakeasy during Prohibition in 1929, the Napoleon Club was an elite, members-only establishment. ⇒Site 2: The Napoleon Club (52 Piedmont Street)
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That we have control of the music played in Jacques that we be allowed to choose records to go the jukebox.That we be allowed to disseminate literature of interest to the gay community inside the bar.That conditions, especially in bathrooms, be made more sanitary.There should be easily accessible fire escapes-without locks on them.That the upstairs be for women only and that all men there must be accompanied by a woman.Despite the bar’s generally welcoming atmosphere, marchers protested their concerns about the bar’s misogyny discrimination against lesbian patrons. The bar was the first stop of the 1971 Pride march and the first site at which a list of demands was read. Now it is Boston’s oldest surviving LGBT establishment. The bar was renovated and renamed in 1964. By the mid-1940s, it was operating at night as one of the city’s most popular gay bars (including Vara’s other bar, The Other Side, which closed in 1977 after after facing increasing homophobia in Bay Village). Henry Vara opened this legendary drag bar in Bay Village in 1938 as the Colonial Tavern. Click on the layers on the menu to the left to find directions so you and your LGBTQ allies can go on a socially-distanced Pride march. In recognition of the cancellation of this year’s in-person Pride Parade (which has been postponed until June 2021) we’ve retraced the route of the original march. Protestors read aloud a list of demands at four of these sites, which were believed to represent oppressive institutions: Jacque’s Cabaret in Bay Village, Boston police headquarters on Berkeley Street, the State House on Beacon Hill, and St. This parade was explicitly political. Its route included thirteen sites of demonstration.
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#MAP OF GAY BARS IN BOSTON SERIES#
The first official Gay Pride March in Boston took place on Saturday, June 26, 1971-two years after the Stonewall Riots, a series of protests in New York largely credited with sparking the U.S. Boston has played a historically important role in drawing national attention to LGBTQ rights.