Metropolitan Bar (559 Lorimer Street), a bar, and the Rosemont (63 Montrose Avenue), a bar with aspirations to be a nightclub, both in Williamsburg, and 3 Dollar Bill (260 Meserole Street), a big venue that hosts dance parties in East Williamsburg, all cater to youngish Brooklyn crowds. But where else might gay folks of all stripes go during the gay pride weekend to end all gay pride weekends? Today, the Stonewall is more likely to serve as a campaign stop for Democratic politicians (or a venue for a Vogue magazine staff dinner) than the location of a sellout party.
AIDS also played a big part in the decline of the bar and club scene. They also led to a golden age in gay bar hopping and nightclub cavorting that lasted roughly until 2000, when numerous establishments closed down for reasons having as much to do with gentrification as homophobia. The events of 1969 likely marked the point at which gay rights became a national debate. (This year, finally, the police apologized.) It opened in 1967, a year after laws forbidding night life establishments from knowingly “serving alcohol to homosexuals” were overturned.Īlthough it was Mafia-owned, the constant police raids were not targeted at bringing down the Genovese Crime Family. The Stonewall Inn is probably the world’s most famous gay bar.
