Bloomington gay bar history (#0253)

In the 80’s the main gay bar in Bloomington was in this building, with a bar and dance floor on the lower level (a few steps down), and a large stage on the upper level where there were drag shows every weekend. Per Google, the main gay bar is now in the building to its right, with an entrance in the back and is actually called “The Back Door”. From the descriptions I’ve seen, the current gay bar in the adjacent building sounds very much like the gay bar that was in this building in the 80’s. The building in this picture is now a ‘martini bar’ without any specification as gay.

The gay bar in Bloomington, in the 1980’s, was pretty much like gay bars around the country at that time – a place to relax and socialize, dance (they had good music), find a partner, and sometimes a place to meet for political stuff. My very weak effort at bartending happened there – when our political group had events there, we got a percent of the proceeds if we provided the bar staffing.

The drag show upstairs on the weekend was a new experience for me since I’d never been a fan of drag shows when I lived in cities. Bloomington was small enough that you often knew the men who routinely performed in the drag shows, but the highlight for me was the amateur nights that they had about once a month. ‘Amateur’ isn’t quite the right word. It was not unusual for the men who performed to be closeted men from rural areas, often 50 to 100 miles away, who came for their monthly chance to be ‘gay’. For some their ability to do drag, and the quality of their lip-syncing, indicated they must have spent a surprising amount of time practicing in the privacy of their rural homes. I often found watching those ‘amateur’ shows to be a positive experience of their celebration, while at the same time a poignantly sad commentary on the status of gay life for many who were away from the more positive resources in cities and college towns.