Other names used to describe these establishments include boy bar, girl bar, gay club, gay pub, queer bar, lesbian bar, drag bar, and dyke bar, depending on the niche communities that they served. Gay bars once served as the centre of gay culture and were one of the few places people with same-sex orientations and gender-variant identities could openly socialize. Shown here in 1969, it has since been remodeled.Ī gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) clientele the term gay is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT and queer communities. The Stonewall Inn in New York City was the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which have come to symbolize the beginning of the modern gay liberation movement in the United States.
