[Kätzchen]

Originally Posted by homoe

I remember when you had to use a secret "password" to entry gay bars and you also usually had to enter thru a back door!

Originally Posted by C0LLETTE

I remember when you had to memorise the fire exits in those dark, dingy Mafia- run bars and pray they hadn't locked the doors to keep people from getting in for free.

(Preventing a $2.00 cheated entry could cost over a hundred disaster taken lives cause we had no rights ...and no one cared.)

Originally Posted by homoe

I remember when all the windows were boarded up in gay bars! They were dark and gloomy as hell..........

Originally Posted by homoe

OMG YES, I remember that as well Chad...

I wonder if they still do? I haven't been to a gay bar in years!

Soooo, I remember that two years ago, come December, BFP member Virago created a forum thread about how lesbians used to congregate at certain local bars in their community, if there were any types of places safe enough to gather around. I posted in that thread and here's a link to my post:

http://www.butchfemmeplanet.com/foru...1&postcount=14

As I remember, there was no such thing in my home state of Idaho. Lesbian members of my community back then usually held posts in the community as academics, or in other fields of employment, but especially so, during the 1960s and 1970s, you could lose your job, lose your standing socially or even be arrested or held against your will in an mental institution. I imagine if it weren't for the sexual revolution during those twin decades, and the high social price paid by people who participated in Stonewall, and other similar social protests, that what social standing and privileges afforded to members of the LBGTQ community would not exist.

There was no such place for lesbian or gas to meet in the state I grew up in. We mostly held private get together by private invitation only. Of course, even later during the late 1980s, there still was no public bars where members of the LBGTQ were free to mingle and socialize without fear of reprisals.

I haven't lived in my home state since the late 1980s, but even here in Oregon, it's not always been an easy thing either, unless you count only two or three communities I know of in Oregon, where members of the LGBT can mingle free of social consequences. We used to have an Lesbian owned bar close to the Hawthorne district, back in the 1990's, early 2000's. But it went out of business. The only other lesbian owned entity that I know of in Portland, is the book store In Other Words, which used to be located in the Hawthorne district, but has since relocated to the Alberta neighborhood in the inner North Northeast sector of Portland. We still have a small collection of Women's Resource Offices at state community college campuses or at state owned universities across the state of Oregon. Private universities I am not sure about but I am guessing they don't offer any resources for women who identify anywhere on the lesbian spectrum.

At any rate..... I think Virago thread was very interesting and filled with numerous posts by members from all.over the US.

I think it's important to remember our roots and to do all we can at an local level to ensure our rights and social standing remains strong during turbulent times across the country!

Here's a second post I made in Virago's forum thread:

http://www.butchfemmeplanet.com/foru...1&postcount=28