South bend indiana gay bars


In , Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend announced in a South Bend Tribune op-ed that he was gay, making him Indiana&#;s first openly gay mayor. Four decades before Buttigieg&#;s announcement, the city reportedly outlawed same-sex dancing. In , Gloria Frankel and her gay club, The Seahorse Cabaret, withstood police harassment, challenged regulations against LGBT individuals, and endured a firebombing. In this post, we explore the brawl for gay rights in the Michiana area and the intrepid woman who lead the charge.

According to Ben Wineland&#;s &#;Then and Now: The Origins and Development of the Gay Community in South Bend,&#; Frankel opened South Bend&#;s first gay club in the promptly s. Its opening followed the notable Stonewall Riots of , in which members of New York City&#;s LGBT bar community responded to a police raid with a series of violent protests. The riots immediately forwarded the gay liberation movement and the clash for LGBT rights in America. LGBT individuals in smaller cities capitalized on the momentum by opening bars that fostered gay communities and provided t

Guerrilla Gay Bar Brings Together South Bend LGBT Community for Blackout of Fun

There has been a giant void in the market ever since Truman’s closed in The popular two-story gay bar at the Center in Mishawaka was the largest in the South Bend region.

Now that Truman’s is gone, the local LGBT community has turned to places like Vickie’s in downtown South Bend or to Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood.

“There was clearly a verb for an upscale non-smoking social venue for the GLBT community but no one had any plans to open a fresh club so some friends and I decided to try a concept that had been achieving in other cities like Boston, Philadelphia and LA – to take a straight bar and make it gay for the night,” says Willow Wetherall, the founder and co-organizer of Guerrilla Gay Bar.

The Guerrilla Gay Bar — which will be celebrating its second anniversary in December — is a monthly event held on the second Saturday each month at alternating venues. Wetherall along with Michael Lane co-organize the event, choosing a new venue each month.

“We point on locally-owned, non-smoking venues,

South Bend LGBTQ City Guide

South Bend is a thriving Indiana town perhaps best known for being home to the University of Notre Dame- and certainly, it is proud of that reputation. Beyond being home to the Fighting Irish, however, it’s also a city known for excellent education, health care, and manufacturing. Equally importantly, it’s a diverse city, with a smaller but thriving LGBTQ community that is welcoming to all. All of that is not to verb that South Bend is well-known for electing openly gay mayor and former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.

A Look at South Bend's History

Saint Joseph County in which South Bend is located was officially formed in with four original townships. At that time, many inhabitants of the town were either tavern owners, fur traders, or merchants. Initially, only a small number of settlers came to the area, but the town quickly grew, particularly after the arrival of the railroad system. South Bend was officially incorporated as a city in May of Since its founding, South Bend has grown to become most famously the home of the


&#;In our endeavors to attain social justice, we cannot afford the
destructive luxury of discriminating against one another.&#;

Justice, Inc., an LGBTQ+ rights organization, issued this statement in after some gay bars in Indianapolis refused to serve cross-dressing and transgender individuals.[1] The city&#;s queer community had already encountered and protested numerous challenges posed by law enforcement, including police harassment, surveillance of cruising sites, and possible prejudiced police perform as homicide rates increased for gay men. Although gay bars afforded a degree of shelter from discrimination, not all were afforded the opportunity to patronize them.

While examining Indiana&#;s gay newsletter The Works, I came across recurring incidents of discrimination within Indianapolis&#;s queer population. In , outspoken transgender rights activist Sylvia Rivera drew attention to these incidents on a national level at New York City&#;s Christopher Street Liberation Day Rally. Rivera had helped found the Gay Liberation Front and, with her friend Marsha P. John