Washington Square Park‘s historic nightlife from OUTgoing.Īs it turns out my local bank was a landmark gay dance club, The Saint, and my grocery store was Andy Warhol’s Electric Circus, on St. Which corner? Him: Southeast Me: Wait, that’s my hardware store now. Me: Your real family came to a cruisy bar to hang out? That’s amazing.
My family used to come on Sundays to a potluck.
It was cruisy, but it was a great place of community. Him: My favorite, Tunnel Bar, was on 7th and 1st. Recently I was chatting with a gay male friend in his 70s and long-time East Villager: Today’s gay nightlife experience feels sterile and conservative in comparison, and leads me to relive the past through stories. I’m a night owl and find the vice side of New York to be much more to my liking. The stories from iconic spots like the Anvil, Bonnie and Clyde’s or Studio 54 are unfamiliar now - spectacular, cruisy dance floors dark leather bars and a network of bathhouses. Lesbian, gay or trans, they went through the 1970s disco sexfest, followed by the brutality of the AIDS crisis which changed the lives of every LGBT person. It’s my nature to ask the queer survivors of 70s and 80s New York about the after-dark they experienced. OUTgoing: Mapping the Hidden History of New York’s Gay Nightlife
