Your first gay bar...

[JT Brooklyn]

buzz..Nice to have Memorie's. I worked at the "Tool Box" Straight Bar during the day with a Female Bartender & "Gay at Night" with Weds Movie Nites "No Groping allowed"!

 

Which usually meant you'd take HIM outside under the Highway! I met my First True Love on the Pool Table in KELLER'S which then was an Old Dump!

 

Sadly most from that era are now gone...Except 1 or 2 still sitting in "Boots & Saddles"..or as we fondly called the place.."Bra's & Girdle's"

[+ Charlie]

buzz..Nice to have Memorie's. I worked at the "Tool Box" Straight Bar during the day with a Female Bartender & "Gay at Night" with Weds Movie Nites "No Groping allowed"!

 

Which usually meant you'd take HIM outside under the Highway! I met my First True Love on the Pool Table in KELLER'S which then was an Old Dump!

 

Sadly most from that era are now gone...Except 1 or 2 still sitting in "Boots & Saddles"..or as we fondly called the place.."Bra's & Girdle's"

You and Buzz and I must all have passed one another more than once, since all the bars mentioned in both your posts were my haunts also. The only place no one has mentioned yet is the Harbor Bar, the first leather bar I was ever taken to, in 1964.

[Guest Adrian Hart]

I couldn't pass this thread up, too much fun to reminisce about losing my gay club virginity. Picture this: 18 year old kid straight from Idaho and landing in Orlando. All I had was my new found gayness and honest to god, no clue about ANYTHING gay. A few months after moving here I was coaxed to go out with a boy I was dating to a club called Southern Nights (now Revolutions). I was terrified for a variety of reasons but I held his hand and entered the smoke filled club. I was on sensory overload as i'd never seen so many hot men before and apparently they had never seen me either. I think I about broke my dates hand trying not to ever let loose of him and I kept my eyes on him or the floor to avoid turnng beat red at the stares I was getting being the new kid in town. After a while we went into see a show..I had no idea what kind of show but I went along with him and we sat in front of a little stage at the end of a runway. Remember now, I dont know anything about the gay world at this point, at all. As the lights went down and the curtains opened to the song "A little bitty pissant country place" something came out on the stage and my mouth hit the floor. Carmella Marcella Garcia, a very rotund, big haired and extremely crass drag queen lip syncing to a song and for some reason expecting people to give her money for doing so. I looked at my date who was happily watching and then looked back to the stage to see her coming right at me with a big shit eating grin as she finished her song. " I need someone to fu*k me up the cornhole" she exclaimed as she bent her massive ass in front of me.. "you game twinkie?". To this day i think thats why im a bottom, LOL. That's my story and im stickin to it. all the best- Adrian Hart

[+ honcho]

My first bar was the White Horse; it was essentially the nearest gay bar to the UC Berkeley Campus although it was just across the border in North Oakland.

[i vaguely recall there being another gay bar actually in berkeley, but much further away from the campus].

 

I went on the night of my 21st birthday.

 

[i was not a virgin at the time, having responded to personal Ad in the Berkeley Barb about 4 months prior].

[Michael Wayne]

great thread! Mine was H.G. Roosters in West Palm Beach, Florida. I was very scared, shy, etc. The bartender who I later discovered was the manager flirted with me strongly then took me by the hand into the bathroom and gave me an amazing blowjob. when we were done he said , "Welcome to Roosters and you have an awesome cock." Needless to say I was never shy going there again. I made some great friends in that place.......a sad footnote: The guy I am talking about was brutally murdered by his lover several years ago in their apartment. This thread brought back some really good memories for me and some really SAD ones.

[+ Axiom2001]

Well, guys, my first step into a gay bar was NOT as positive as it should have been if I had known in advance about the venue and its ambiance. I had taken my good friend of many years to see "Boys in the Band" in San Francisco. Afterwards he asked me to accompany him to a restaurant. That it was not; it was a quiet gay bar which had a quiet atmosphere and a few men who were listening to the good music and conversing. I was beside myself and wanted to leave because at that time I was really NOT "out" to myself, as such, or to others. My friend had deceived me, and I had not appreciated this, so we left, and until today I still like to talk about this briefly with him and then laugh and NOT make so much of this primary initiation. I also applaud myself in how far I've come.

 

In looking back at this experience, I think if he'd told me in advance where we were going and in his own way prepared me before entrance, it would not have been mildly traumatic for me. But in my knowing him better than his actually knowing me--that is part of him-- not telling the truth and being completely "real" with individuals whom he considers to be his good friends. That's it, men!

 

Although my first experience was NOT as positive as it should have gone-- the subsequent ones were magnificently stellar. I unexpectedly came out to myself in San Francisco at an underground type bar called "The Big Barn" It was located in North Beach in San Francisco and stayed open until around 3:30ish or 4am. A record by Junior Walker and the All Stars was being played; I grabbed the hand of my very good friend and began to dance my ass off, the first time I'd danced with a man in public. After that-- I danced a lot during the rest of the night and began to go to other gay bars and clubs almost every weekend while I was in San Francisco.

 

The bar scene hovered in the Polk Street area, downtown San Francisco, and a couple to three in the North Beach area. Afterwards, things changed in San Francisco; once The Castro came about, many venues closed in the previously-mentioned area, AIDS hit, I became older, my interests changed, etc., etc. etc. That's about it!!!!

[Guest Michaelnc]

Ann Arbor

 

My first was a gay disco in Ann Arbor, MI called The Rubaiyat. It was 1979 or so. I was officially straight and I went with my friend Debbie. It was a gay bar, but lots of straight people went there; so it seemed safe to me. We drank cokes, since we were under age. We felt very sophisticated, which is hilarious to me now. Two less sophisticated people have never existed!