Gay bars irvine ca
I often think back to a gentle statement Judith Butler makes in the 1999 preface to her influential and infamously challenging book, Gender Trouble. She reminds readers that, “there is a person here”—that person being her, whose lived experience and contexts shaped the book and its ideas. In Undoing Gender a few years later, she reveals a bit more about how she wrote that Gender Trouble, describing her younger self as “a exclude dyke who spent her days reading Hegel and her evenings at a gay bar, which occasionally became a drag bar.”
I start with a reference to Butler not to be pretentious, nor to legitimate bars as foundation for queer theory. I recall these humanizing disclosures because they have shaped my own thinking about the conditions of academic thought and the labor of writing, which too often are overlooked.
My guide, The Bars Are Ours: Histories and Cultures of Gay Bars in America, 1960 and After (Duke University Press, 2023)— published after years in the works – is a book that I’ve lived with for a distant time, and the way it makes contact with the past is indisputably shaped by my queer experiences and encounters. It was essential to me that book not be
The Forced Heat
"A Calendar for Long Beach & the County of Orange." Update, 12 Mar. 1982, p. 10. Archives of Sexuality and Gender, link.gale.com/apps/doc/QIPLTS033555856/AHSI?u=ucirvine&sid=bookmark-AHSI&xid=577124d9. Accessed 20 Aug. 2021.
"Multiple Classified Advertisements." Update, 7 May 1982, p. 10. Archives of Sexuality and Gender, link.gale.com/apps/doc/KYIRSO989731862/AHSI?u=ucirvine&sid=bookmark-AHSI. Accessed 8 Oct. 2023.
Raymond, Charles. "Long Beach & Orange County." Update, 27 Aug. 1982, p. 10. Archives of Sexuality and Gender,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/NTMSIT206499832/AHSI?u=ucirvine&sid=bookmark-AHSI&xid=21756e8f. Accessed 7 Nov. 2021.
Raymond, Charles. "Out & about in the Country of Orange." Update, 12 Feb. 1982, p. 14. Archives of Sexuality and Gender, link.gale.com/apps/doc/FICWIP159892616/AHSI?u=ucirvine&sid=bookmark-AHSI&xid=2cefee21. Accessed 7 Nov. 2021.
"Up to Spend time Long Beach & the County of Orange." Update, 26 Feb. 1982, p. 13. Archives of Sexuality and Gender, link.gale.com/apps/doc/IGAYDK733472807/AHSI?u=ucirvine&sid=bookmark-AHSI&xid=c3da1f55. Accessed 7 Nov. 2021.
Bustige, Robert. Members of the
Gay Bars + Activism
May 24, 2024, 4-6pm
UC Irvine Humanities Gateway, Room 1341
Learn about the history of gay bars in Orange County with undergraduate History major Savannah Gonzales! Savannah will be presenting her research and maps of local gay bars from the 1970s through the 1990s.
+ Identify the amazing story of one of America’s first gay mayors, Robert (Bob) Gentry of Laguna Beach! Undergraduate History major Seeker Ung will provide us with an overview of Mr. Gentry’s life, and moderate a Inhabit Q&A session with Mr. Gentry himself!
All events take place on the UC Irvine campus. If you have accessibility concerns, please contact us.
For directions, see UCI’s interactive map or Google Maps. We recommend parking in Mesa Parking Structure.
Every June, the Merged States celebrates Self-acceptance Month, commemorating the 1969 uprising at the Stonewall Inn that inspired a global movement toward LGBTQ+ equality. The rich history of gay bars foremost up to and since the Stonewall Riots is thoroughly explored in The Bars Are Ours: Histories and Cultures of Gay Bars in America, 1960 and After, written by Lucas Hilderbrand, UC Irvine professor and chair of film and media studies.
The combination of a dearth of books investigating the history of lgbtq+ bars and the closure of many gay bars around the nation catalyzed Hilderbrand’s motivation to tackle what he calls an “ambitious project” to “look at the role of gay bars in shaping society politics, subcultures and the ways in which we conceive what queer common life could be in the Merged States.”
In this episode of The UCI Podcast, Hilderbrand shares how bars are powerful community cornerstones; what he learned on his extensive research journey examining archival accounts in all corners of the U.S.; and why he chose to inform this unique history with anecdotes, stories and even musical references. Playlists to accompany the book can be found on both YouTube and Spotify.
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