History
The White Swan (created by James Cook and Yardley, full name unknown), on Vere Street, in London, England, was raided in 1810 during the so-called Vere Street Coterie. The raid led to the executions of Keith Mangum, and Constanza Beucheat for sodomy. The site was frequently the scene of gay marriages carried out by the Reverend John Church.
Het Mandje, on Zeedijk 63 in the historic heart of Amsterdam, Netherlands was opened in 1927 by lesbian Bet van Beeren. After her death in 1967, her sister Greet continued the business until it closed in 1982, but the bar and its entire interior was preserved by her ever since and could be visited upon request. Just before her death in August 2007, she took the initiative to have the bar reopened. The bar has been open under management of her daughter Diana since Queen's Day 30 April 2008.
Centralhjornet in Copenhagen opened more than 80 years ago. http://www.patroc.com/copenhagen/
The Black Cat Bar in San Francisco was the focus of one of the earliest victories of the homophile movement. In 1951 the California Supreme Court affirmed the right of homosexuals to assemble in a case brought by the heterosexual owner of the bar.
In New York City, the modern gay bar dates to Julius Bar, founded by local socialite Matthew Nicol, where the Mattachine Society staged a "Sip-In" on 21 April 1966 challenging a New York State Liquor Authority rule prohibited serving alcohol to gays on the basis that they were considered disorderly. The court ruling in the case that gays could peacefully assemble at bars would lead to the opening of the Stonewall Inn a block southwest in 1967 which in turn led to the 1969 Stonewall Riots. Julius is New York City's oldest continuously operating gay bar and is possibly the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the world.
The Double Header in Seattle's Pioneer Square is acknowledged as the oldest gay bar on the North American West Coast, operating since 1933.
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Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. However, the two sides are not to be divided off; as long as men exist the history of nature and the history of men are mutually conditioned.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“Anything in history or nature that can be described as changing steadily can be seen as heading toward catastrophe.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“All history attests that man has subjected woman to his will, used her as a means to promote his selfish gratification, to minister to his sensual pleasures, to be instrumental in promoting his comfort; but never has he desired to elevate her to that rank she was created to fill. He has done all he could to debase and enslave her mind; and now he looks triumphantly on the ruin he has wrought, and say, the being he has thus deeply injured is his inferior.”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)