"We sell drinks to people to pay for ourselves, to pay for our shows, to pay for everything," Johnson said from his new home in Chicago. When we first closed, it was awful."īut thanks to federal loans, community support, and donations from the LGBT-focused nonprofit Gill Foundation, the city's oldest gay bar is here to stay.īut others - like Tom Johnson, the former owner of Therapy Lounge - weren't as lucky. "I had such a deflated feeling," Buford said. "That would be the first case against homosexuals actually proactively documented," Lustbader said.Īnd it all happened in 1966 - three years prior to the Stonewall riots, widely seen as the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement.īut this piece of history, Julius' Bar, was almost gone for good thanks to COVID. The incident has become known as the "sip in." So they brought a photographer and newspaper reporter with them to document it. "We wanted to have a place refuse to serve us for being homosexual," Wicker said. So those protestors thought something might go down. See, those well-dressed patrons - some of the earliest gay rights protestors - knew that Julius' Bar in Greenwich Village was already being closely watched by state authorities due to prior infractions. 'Cause we already have trouble with that,'" Wicker said. That's when the bartender held out his hand. "We were saying, 'We are homosexuals and we want to order a cocktail,'" Wicker said. And Randy Wicker, on the far end of the bar in that photo, was one of those men.
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Download for FREE!īut you could easily argue that a certain black-and-white photograph - showing a group of men being denied a drink - laid the groundwork for the gay bars of today. Get breaking news alerts in the FOX 5 NY News app. "Disorderly people were considered homosexuals." "After prohibition, the State Liquor Authority is formed, which has a regulation that basically says if you serve people who are disorderly you can lose your license," Lustbader said. You'd have to either be in possession of an underground guidebook listing places considered "safe" or rely on word of mouth. "They were bottle clubs, you had a sign, a fictitious name in many cases to get in." "In many cases, they were private clubs with bouncers at the door," Lustbader said. "So bars became really safe spaces."īut the gay bar of the past was much different than the one we think of today where every inch is covered in rainbow flags. That's one less Marc Jacobs/cupcake shop we have to contend with."People could lose their jobs, their families, employment, religious associations," Lustbader added. "Apparently," said Next, "the owners of the building took notice of the outpouring of support for the little gay bar that could and, in the end, decided to let it stay while postponing their renovations for a few more years."Īs we add Pieces to the growing "Win" column, let's count it as a victory for a longtime piece of the Village against the forces of high-end apartments and upscale retail. The community spoke out in favor of saving Pieces and Michael Musto called it his "favorite hangout." He said it was "coming up against the usual 2011 prejudices, repressions, and challenges." One woman at a CB meeting said that the bar was a magnet for " 'private sex acts in doorways and basements' leaving behind a 'clutter of condoms' on the street." Pieces was denied. They then tried to move to West 8th Street, two doors from Gray's Papaya, but the Village neighbors vehemently opposed them. Pieces then tried to relocate to the Village Paper space, but they lost out to an upscale party restaurant. Pieces lost their lease last year so the building owner could "do a full-scale renovation of the three-story building, turning the upstairs floors into high-end apartments and the bar into upscale retail." I wanted to get the word out that we’re open and not going anywhere.” The owner of the bar told Next Magazine, "We now have a multi-year lease from the building's owners. The 19-year-old gay bar Pieces has won the battle to stay put.