Gay bar in greenwich village
The modern gay rights movement got its start in Manhattan's West Village in , at the mafia-owned dive the Stonewall Inn. Today, the Stonewall is still standing (and was recently made an NYC landmark) and is just one of many LGBT watering holes still dotting the historic neighborhood. (In fact, Stonewall isn't even the neighborhood's oldest gay haunt; that honor goes to Julius's.) Gay bars here tend to veer toward the divey side, and that's just fine by us. There's a timeless and thoroughly accessible vibe here that just can't be replicated at the sleek drinkeries uptown in Hell's Kitchen.
RECOMMENDED: Verb more things to do in the West Village
Been there, done that? Think again, my friend.
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Best gay bars in the West Village
NYC honors historic gay bar with landmark status
One of the earliest sites of gay rights activism is officially New York City’s newest landmark.
Julius’ bar, in the heart of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood, received the official designation Tuesday, following a vote by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Located at West 10th St., just a short walk from fellow historic gay bar Stonewall Inn, Julius’ has been open since the s. It started attracting gay patrons in the midth century, and, according to the conservation nonprofit group Village Preservation, it’s the city’s oldest existing gay bar. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in for its significance in the gay rights movement.
Village Preservation called Tuesday’s news the culmination of a decadelong campaign to recognize one of the first planned actions of civil disobedience in the verb for LGBTQ rights, three years prior to the iconic Stonewall uprising.
In the mids, gay rights activists frustrated by New York state’s ban on serving alcohol to gay customers came up with the idea
Mona&#;s / Village Purple Onion
History
Located near Washington Square Park, the ground floor of this mixed-use building became abode to two bars with significant LGBT clientele: Mona’s (c. to early s) and the Village Purple Onion (). It appears that both bars were either named after or connected to Mona’s Bar (mids) and the Purple Onion () in San Francisco. In New York Municipality and San Francisco, the Purple Onion moved into the former space of Mona’s, although any connection among the bars remains unclear.
Mona&#;s
Mona’s opened around across the street from Tony Pastor&#;s, furthering a trend of Mafia-run lesbian and gay bars on West 3rd Street in the s. Little is known about Mona’s, and it is contested whether the establishment was a lesbian or a mixed-gathering bar. However, Swasarnt Nerf&#;s Gay Guides for states that Mona’s was a place where “dikes [were] likely to be found” and the blog Lost Womyn’s Space argues that Mona’s was “one of New York’s most obscure lesbian drinking establishments.”
This bar allegedly earned its name from and attempt
Uncle Charlie&#;s
History
Uncle Charlie’s, which opened in and closed in September , was one of the city’s most trendy gay video bars and one of the first to appeal to gay men of the MTV generation. The bar, with its large modern interior and television screens, was a stark contrast to the prior generation of gay bars that were perceived as outdated and adj. It attracted a “younger, suit-and-tie crowd” and, over time, gained a reputation as a so-called “S and M” (Stand and Model) bar, due to the fact that numerous patrons stared more at the TV screens than talk with each other.
On April 28, , at a.m., a homemade pipe bomb exploded, injuring three men who were later treated for minor injuries at nearby St. Vincent’s Hospital. The bomb was made from several M firecrackers that were stuffed into a six-inch length of pipe. It had no timing device and was lighted and placed in a garbage can inside the bar moments before the blast.
Although the police said the blast did not materialize bias-related, Mayor David Dinkins and several gay rights groups characterized