Drinking: a gay way of life
By Arthur Evans
This is the second and final installment on the impact of Gay big business on the quality of Gay life. *
Next to the popper industry, the second biggest money-maker in the Gay business world is the network of bars and baths. Among straights, bars are just one way among many for meeting social needs. Among Gays, however, bars have become the dominant means of socializing and meeting sexual partners.
The reasons for this dominance are clear. A long history of straight bigotry has driven us out of families, churches, labor unions, and other open avenues of making friends and lovers. For decades we have been forced to flee to the one place where we could meet each other in relative safety — the local Gay bar. As a result, the bar has played a historical role in Gay life that is unparalleled by its straight counterpart.
Until recently many Gay bars were owned by straights. In large cities, especially on the East Coast, the most popular were run, directly or indirectly, by the Mafia. The gangsters who controlled these bars had absolutely no concern whatsoever for the quality of Gay life. Their only goal was to make as much money as possible. By the 1950's, they had cultivated into a fine art a set of tricks to make their customers become heavy drinkers.
For example, they deliberately avoided having any ventilation system, so that the bar would fill up with hot air and cigarette smoke, making people thirsty. In addition, they kept the music so loud that it was uncomfortable to initiate a conversation. The patrons, having come to the bar to cruise, and now having each other in sight, were nevertheless inhibited by the loud noise from talking to each other. To relieve the tension and deal with the environment, they would buy more drinks.
As closing time approached (desperate hour), the volume and tempo of the music would soar, as the cash registers rang away. Most Mafia bars in the 50's were, in fact, rundown, dimly lit, filthy fire-traps, reflecting both the arrogant contempt of their owners and the lack of self-esteem of their patrons.
With the coming of Gay liberation, the influence of the Mafia declined. On the West Coast in particular, a large number of Gay-owned, legitimately run bars sprang up. But the new owners — whether unthinkingly or from the same profit motive — tended to continue the same contrived environment. As a result, to this day — twelve years after the Stonewall Riots that began the modern Gay liberation movement — many independently run Gay bars in San Francisco are indistinguishable in atmosphere from the Mafia-run bars of New York City in the 1950's.
In view of this historical development, we shouldn't be surprised to find a high rate of Gay alcoholism. And, indeed, those who have read the existing medical literature as well as those who actually treat patients agree: Gay alcoholism has become a real problem.
Gina White, in a recent survey of social needs, cites a 1980 overview of research by Zigrang that concludes: “... three out of every ten homosexuals are likely to experience significant difficulties as a result of alcohol abuse.” According to Roy Grey, the business manager of Acceptance House (a Gay alcoholic recovery program) “about 20% of all Gay people are alcoholics, compared to a national average of 10%.” Carol Migden, the executive director of Operation Concern (a Gay mental health service), claims, “Drinking problems are pervasive and almost taken for granted by our clients”, adding that Gay alcoholism is “a paramount problem that probably will increase.”
Of course, the bars can't be blamed for all of the problem, since Gay men are also under great personal stress from a hostile straight world, and San Francisco is traditionally a drinking city. Nonetheless, the special role of bars in our lives and the contrived environments of these bars are added factors.
Do the bar owners feel any sense of concern because of these factors? Not much, judging by the behavior of the Tavern Guild, an association of more than 100 of San Francisco's 200 Gay bars. I asked Roy Gray how much money the Tavern Guild had contributed to Acceptance House's alcoholic recovery program. He couldn't remember ever receiving a contribution of any significance. I checked this with Jim Bonko, the Tavern Guild's administrator, and he said he could find no record of the Guild ever having given them any money.
Operation Concern, on the other hand, has received some money from the Tavern Guild. Ed Scott, president of the Guild, told me they hold benefits from time to time and give all the proceeds to Operation Concern. Nonetheless, the money given hasn't been very much, according to Carol Migden. She characterized the amount of support as “minimal” from the Guild, both when Operation Concern was a part of the Tavern Guild foundation, and after it became an independently incorporated facility. She says certain individuals within the Tavern Guild (such as Bob Ross, publisher of B.A.R.) have been very helpful, but that the overall pattern was poor.
Carol Migden also notes that most bar owners have no health plans for their employees. As a result, a financial strain falls on Operation Concern when they come there for professional services.
Ed Scott says that although “the good Gay bars” have health plans, many do not. When I asked him whether the Guild tries to persuade its members to have such plans, he responded, “We can't tell the owners how to run their businesses.”
The bar owners are also complacent about fire and safety conditions in their businesses. In 1976 a committee of Bay Area Gay Liberation (BAGL) conducted a fire and health inspection of 17 bars, mostly in the Folsom area. The members of the committee (Randy Alfred, David Goldman, and Chris Perry) filled out a written form for each bar, noting such things as number and placement of fire extinguishers, accessibility of fire exits, sanitation in bathrooms, level of sound, etc.
Here are some of the observations recorded for various bars: “One [fire] extinguisher located in locked storeroom; bartender does not have a key”, “no apparent rear exit — no exit signs”, “no apparent ventilation to exterior.” In public testimony before the Human Rights Commission, David Goldman stated that several of the bars inspected were “in flagrant violation of minimal standards of the fire and health codes.” Unfortunately, BAGL soon disappeared from the scene, and the matter was dropped. But in some bars, fire and safety problems remain to this day.
When I raised this concern with Ed Scott, he responded, “To my knowledge it's not a problem. The Fire and Health Departments do a good job.” But when I pressed him whether the Guild had ever actually inspected its member bars for fire and safety requirements, he replied “no”, adding, “observance of fire and health standards is not part of the requirement for membership in the Tavern Guild.”
The network of bars and baths has given rise to a distinct type of lifestyle that has affected the quality of life far beyond the questions of alcoholism, fire safety, and even discrimination. Though difficult to measure in quantitative terms, these other effects — psychological, and to an extent spiritual — are far-reaching and devastating.
They are nowhere more evident than on Castro Street, the heartland of the Gay-bar lifestyle. During the last five years, Castro Street has changed from being a genuine neighborhood for Gays of widely varying lifestyles, fantasies, personal appearances, and social classes. Increasingly, it has become a bar zone where unsmiling men with over-developed bodies stand around, get drunk, snort poppers, and give each other attitude. And in the wake of this bar culture has come an increasing amount of loneliness and alienation, which the bar owners seem totally oblivious to.
I mentioned to Ed Scott the growing number of letters to the gay press complaining of alienation, and asked him whether he thought the bars contribute to this alienation. He replied: “Where else would they go? Bars keep them off the streets and out of the tea rooms and give them feelings of security and safety.”
The Gay-bar lifestyle (or clone lifestyle, as it has been called) has been deliberately fostered by bar owners and merchants. Just look at all the ads in the established Gay press for bars, gyms, clothing stores, glory holes, etc. The pictures of men in these ads all look the same — usually white and middle-class, holding butch poses, displaying overdeveloped bodies, and presumably interested in nothing else in life than constant cruising. Such ads sell more that the individual products they push. They also sell a lifestyle of conformity and mindless consumerism.
Bar owners and merchants have taken advantage of the huge number of Gay men who have flocked here as refugees from straight America. Many of these newcomers secretly feel guilt-ridden about being Gay and are ashamed and embarrassed by the feminine parts of their personalities. Because of long years of repression, they are desperate for a Gay environment — any Gay environment. So they become easy prey to business owners who claim that self-respect, manliness, and a Gay identity can be had by buying the same clothes, body type, and fantasies as everyone else. Hence the greed of the Gay business establishment and the insecurity (and even self-hatred) of many Gay consumers feed off each other, and combine to lower the quality of our lives.
This deterioration is symbolized in a particularly vivid way for me by an address, 575 Castro Street. Once upon a time, that address was occupied by a small-time camera shop. Its owners was Harvey Milk, whom I knew as an outgoing, on-the-line Gay man who deeply cared about social justice. His store was unpretentious, and catered to local neighborhood needs. At times it was almost like a little community center.
Before Harvey was assassinated, his store was forced off the premises by scandalous rent increases. It was eventually replaced by a sleek new store, Statements, which is still there, and specializes in selling designer lamps to a monied clientele.
I went to Statements recently to ask the owner his views on how Gay business has affected the quality of Gay life. I recognized him from the time he had crossed our picket line while we were protesting discrimination at the Club Baths. He said he was too busy to talk to me (even though I was the only customer in the store). He also asked that I not print his name.
I milled around Statements thinking of the day I and many others accompanied Harvey Milk on his inaugural walk from that address to City Hall. And I looked at what was now being sold there. A small white chrome lamp (the “Balance 200”), consisting of a rod about 3 feet long, balanced on a pedestal about 1 1/2 feet high. Price: $875.00 And a floor lamp about 5 1/2 feet high, made of 1/2 inch thick tubing, sticking up out of a small marble base. Price: $1,250.00. Is this chrome commercialism, then, the dream that Harvey Milk died for?
There's a place for the Gay business establishment in our lives. We need the baths, bars, and network of stores that provide us with necessities and diversions. But that place should be a responsible one. Gay business owners should not sell products that may be a grave threat to our health. They should observe applicable laws concerning discrimination, fire hazards, and public safety. And above all, they should be sensitive as to how the general lifestyle they are pushing affects the quality of our lives.
Sad to say, many Gay businesses are not acting responsibly, and in fact are behaving just like the straight business establishment, which they now consciously ape. But just as we deserve to be treated with respect by the straight world, so we deserve to be treated with respect within our own community. It's a matter of Gay pride.
We won't get this respect unless we organize. Such has been the lesson in dealing with straight bigotry, as it has been the experience of American consumers in general dealing with big business. With this in mind, a new organization, Gay Renewal, is being formed to challenge the business interests that take us for granted and to raise a public discussion of the quality of Gay life. In the spirit of both Stonewall and Harvey Milk, this new group will leaflet, agitate, do street theater, educate, litigate, satirize, demonstrate, and confront. For the time has come to open wide the windows of Gay life.
[Printed at the end of the article, but no longer valid.] If you would like to help create an organization as outlined above, please send a note with your name and address to Arthur Evans, c/o Coming Up!, room 104, 2120 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94114.
* The first article, “Poppers: An ugly side of gay business”, was published in the November 1981 issue of Coming Up!
Afterword
The above article was published in the December 1981 issue of Coming Up!. Thanks to the librarians of the San Francisco Public Library for supplying me with a copy. The Library has a complete run of Coming Up! on microfiche.
Arthur Evans's critiques of gay businesses and the clone lifestyle were prophetic. He foresaw disaster on the horizon, in which gay men would lose their health, their souls, and their lives. I later made related criticisms in a 1987 talk in Amsterdam, “Political-Economic Construction of Gay Male Identities”. Ian Young's fine book, The Stonewall Experiment (1995), describes the destruction of gay liberation ideals by a venal and harmful sex industry.
John Lauritsen, July 2016