Rainbow drinks being poured
A decade or so ago I recall reading a column entitled “The Ten Top Startup Businesses Doomed to Fail.” Along with video rental joint and yogurt shop, “gay bar” was among the ventures the article predicted would likely end in financial ruin. As if to prove the point, BTW Lounge, a supposed bisexual themed gay bar on Buffalo in the Third Ward, opened in 2011 and lasted less than a year.
According to other sources, 50% of gay bars across the country closed between 2012 and 2021. Milwaukee, which once boasted dozens of gay and lesbian bars located throughout the city, had more than its share of closings in that decade as well. Among them were the Boot Camp Saloon in 2011, Triangle and Mona’s Out and About in 2012, Boom and the Room and Nut Hut in 2014. Various factors caused their closures but there was little incentive for entrepreneurs to open new venues.
It seemed we were indeed on the verge of a post-gay world where the dimly lit, seedy bars of yore, despite their cheap drinks and gritty charm, were passé. The seeming strides of LGBTQ progress and marriage equality gave credence to those who advocated LGBTQs melding into the grander scheme of things. For those who promoted equality in its most idyllic and utopian sense, it seemed like LGBTQ assimilation was just over the rainbow. Anyone can go anywhere was their wishful thinking motto. It also appeared that those insisting on embracing queer identity rather than dilute it with the trappings of straight monotony would be sidelined.
Straddling the Cusp
In fact, locales like Hamburger Mary’s that opened in 2011 straddled the gay-straight cusp. For over 13 years, Mary’s gay owners exploited the broader marketing appeal of queer culture to attract the trendy straight folks who lived their enlightenment by venturing into the exotic LGBTQ underworld. The result was good for business. Bachelorette parties enthusiastically supported the venue’s drag shows while its drag bingo nights helped local charities of all persuasions to raise funds.
Conversely, but in a similar spirit, in 2012 the Guerilla Gay Bar movement hit Milwaukee. The idea was for a mob of LGBTQ people to take over a straight bar. Although originally intended to surprise the targeted locale with a gaggle of hard drinking and big tipping gays, eventually the events were prearranged not only to avoid an awkward reception but also to allow the bar to staff adequately to accommodate the sudden influx. Complaints by gay bar owners over lost business and the fading novelty eventual led to the Guerilla Gay Bar’s quick demise.
The end of the progressive Obama-era and the subsequent Republican backlash to it after the 2016 election brought advances to LGBTQ rights to a halt. Besides, during those heady years of would-be social integration, there may have been a bit of soul searching. Some LGBTQ patrons were not amused and found straight gawkers at gay bars intrusive. Comments on social media opined that one goes to one’s own bar for one’s own people and not to be a tourist attraction. They also noted that feeling of “something missing” when exploring the realm of straight bars. Perhaps there was something to the old “birds of a feather” adage after all. One would hardly expect Guerilla Methodists to descend on a Roman Catholic Church. Ecumenism notwithstanding, the impasse over transubstantiation would inevitably cast a pall over any church social.
Return to Homophobia?
That reality and the return to overt homophobia as a political tool may have actually inspired a Renaissance of LGBTQ dedicated public entertainment spaces. According to research undertaken by the Lesbian Bar Project, of the 200 lesbian bars that existed in the ‘80s, as of 2020 there were only 15 remaining nationwide. Listed among them was Milwaukee’s Walker’s Pint, located for over two decades in the city’s gayborhood, Walker’s Point. Their complete extinction seemed just a matter of time. Today, however, according to Krista Burton’s 2023 memoir Moby Dyck: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Lesbian Bar in America, there are at least 35.
Meanwhile, last year, just around the corner from the Pint, a new gay bar POP opened at 124 W. National Avenue. Located in the same building that once was home to Switch, a gritty old school gay bar that closed in 2008, POP is a bright, polished and trendy dance bar with all the amenities. It recently hosted a Coming Out Celebration with Chasten Buttigieg, gay dad and husband of US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, as its honored guest. Drag diva Dear Ruthie has also moved her bingo and cabarets to POP.
Currently, including POP, there are 10 bars and clubs that still warrant the “gay” or “lesbian” moniker, while several others, while not gay per se, are LGBTQ owned or community friendly.
Opened in 1968 and located on the Lower East Side, This is It remains Milwaukee's oldest and longest continuously operating gay bar in the city (and in the country). Now co-owned by mega drag icon Trixie Mattel and George Schneider, it has evolved from an unmarked, old school gay bar to a high profile dance and drag show venue attracting a younger clientele. It even made the Republican National Convention’s list of recommended sites to see.
Lively Walker’s Point
Most of the remaining bars on the list are in Walker’s Point. On the corner of National Avenue and Water Street, D.I.X. bucked the conventional wisdom of the day and opened in 2010. It carries on regardless today. Since 1984, La Cage on the opposite end of the block at National Avenue and Second Street has always been a destination for the dance obsessed but also has as long a reputation for drag shows, theatrical productions and events.
Fluid, at National and Second Street, Kruz, at the east end of National Avenue, Harbor Room on East Greenfield and Water Street, and Woody’s at Second and Lapham Avenue, all have been part of the scene for decades and cater to a diverse clientele of bears, sports enthusiasts and other sundry gays. Woody’s even hosts a sheepshead night on Thursdays, preserving a Milwaukee tradition.
Among the other LGBTQ-embracing locales are Club Charlie’s in the Third Ward, the home of Karen Valentine’s “Showtunes Sunday Funday,” and Sabbatic in Walker’s Point with the Art Bar on Burleigh Avenue in Riverwest and Cactus Club on East Russell Avenue in Bay View bookending the northern and southern frontiers of city.
Despite its fewer numbers, Milwaukee’s LGBTQ bar scene remains alive and well with something for everyone.
