We celebrated that historic evening in my young life at the Flame Show Bar, located at 4264 John R at Canfield, near Wayne University. Segregation of another kind.įor my 21st birthday celebration I went with three of my Cass Tech gay art grads - Edward Flourney, Eddie Gonda and Gordon Bernard (aka Rita Hayworth). Lesbians sat in a restricted balcony area. Straight tourists and gay men sat downstairs. I was 19 when I borrowed a friend’s ID to go with some of my lesbian friends to the Silver Slipper, a dyke bar on Grand River, not too far from downtown Detroit. Tonight’s the night when your presence is not welcome, Mary!) There was a time in the mid-’60s when the drinking glass of an intruder was audibly broken as the offending patron was leaving its premises. (A touch of irony these days is that one of Detroit’s oldest bars has done an about-face in the past couple of decades, and is now almost exclusively a black gay bar. The request was intended to keep white bars whites only and, in some cases, men only. For decades, a seeming legitimate requirement asked for admission to Detroit gay bars was three pieces of ID, including one with photo selfie (in or out of drag optional).
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