What's the name of the first gay bar you ever visited - and where was it?

[eltos]

Ozz Supper Club in Buena Park, CA. It was an 18+ venue. I was 19 or 20 yo. I remember going with 2 guys I had barely just met online the same day who were the same age. 

Edited Monday at 08:54 PM by eltos

[Cumfilledbottomboi]

Destination, Beijing china. I graduated uni and went there to teach. Came out whilst there.

[Read1]

When I was 18 I got the guts to go into my first gay bar called Buddy's Bar, located on the corner of Church  Street and Gerrard in Toronto. I was too nervous back then to enter the St Charles Tavern via the  Yonge Street entrance. Later on, I found out that said tavern had a back door entrance/exit. Gay life was so different in the early 1980s. 

[slavetoy4u2use]

Can't remember the names but its was in West Lafayette Indiana. Didn't know the etiquette of when to show up for the crowds so I was there way too early but being fresh collbe meat I had no problem meeting and going to a hotel with someone and then walking back to the dorms afterwards.

[versmetropig]

When I was 17, my older brother and his girlfriend used to take me to Studio 54 - this would be the very end of 1979 into 1980 - I was a senior in H.S. and the drinking age at the time was 18, but they never had a problem getting me in there. After a few hours of dancing, my brother and his GF would head to "Plato's Retreat" a STRAIGHT sex club and bathhouse, while I would head to the Ansonia Baths or one of the gay porn theaters like the Adonis or the David and fuck around then we'd all meet up at 5 or 6AM and head home. I went to Fordham University in September of '80 and turned 18 in November. By that time, I was going to The Anvil, The Spike, and The Eagle (seriously) and during breaks home in Nyack I would go to the two gay bars there which were called Reflections and Candlelight.

Funny, I never got to Uncle Charlie's or the Monster or Ty's any of the milder NYC bars until I was 19 or 20!

[PozPumpDump]

My first gay bar was Trax on Haight Street. I was living a block away on Masonic and Page St. Just had moved to the San Francisco, I was 23 years old, it was Dec 1989, right after the huge quake. Ending up going home with two 50 something year old guys to the basement apartment on Fell St. They used me every which way until the sun was up. crazy times, the best of times. 

[SpectreAgent]

Brief Encounter, in St.Martin’s Lane, London. It was a notorious pickup joint, although in my naïveté I was unaware just how notorious. A very famous actor once tried to pick me up there, but I went instead with a security guard from the nearby South African embassy. And that really wasn’t a gun in his pocket… 

[SpectreAgent]

On 1/11/2026 at 10:07 PM, BritFFPig said:

The Coleherne, Earl’s Court, London. Got my arsed fucked many times by guys I picked up there. It was a starting point for many young guys first experience 

Did you ever go to The Fort? 

[lower_bucks_bottom]

The Den in New Brunswick, NJ. It has since moved to Somerset, NJ just down the road but still going. It has an interesting story in the gay rights movement.[think before following links] [think before following links] https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/images/PDFs/The Story of Richard Mack and Mannys Den.pdf

Edited Tuesday at 06:58 PM by lower_bucks_bottom

[NewConvert]

Bullwinkle's in Bloomington Indiana. I was a closeted bi guy at the time, tall and quite fit; and Bullwinkle's had a weekly drag show on Friday and Saturday night.  One Saturday night after drinking in a straight college bar, and fairly buzzed, I decided to check out the drag show. Long story short, one of the drag queens took me home, fucked me all night and into the next morning, and by time I left I understood my true place and never looked  back.

[Rillion]

9 hours ago, PozPumpDump said:

My first gay bar was Trax on Haight Street. I was living a block away on Masonic and Page St. Just had moved to the San Francisco, I was 23 years old, it was Dec 1989, right after the huge quake. Ending up going home with two 50 something year old guys to the basement apartment on Fell St. They used me every which way until the sun was up. crazy times, the best of times. 

I loved going there when I moved to the city in 95. I lived near Fell & Fillmore. 

[Rillion]

My first gay bar was the Blue Lagoon in Santa Cruz California. Probably around 1992. It apparently still exists but isn't much a gay bar anymore. 

[Pozguyinchi]

Club 5 in Madison Wisconsin.  I was underaged and with my soon to be boyfriend. He was able to get me in because he knew a lot of the guys that went there. I hear it’s still open.

[LiamHudsonXXX]

Unofficial gay bar was in Haverstraw, NY where a gay biker group would meet up.  I was a summer camp counselor at the time,  Sumer of 82 probably.  And the bar tender had a special she called a fusty rose and they were really good.  I am sloshed, chatting it up with the biker guys, while making out with whatever girl was there…. One of the guys offers me a ride on his bike, some big thing, what do I know. Went over to the reservoir and he said let’s go for for a swim….  Strip down, skinny dipping and then we are making out, and before you know it he has fucked two loads into me.  Went back to the bar like nothing happened.   Felt amazing riding on the back of that big ass bike!  
First official one was Splash many years later.  

[AirmaxUK]

1992 - Was studying at Brunel Uni. and the LGBT Soc they introduced me to The Greyhound at Colnbrook on the A4 near Heathrow, which was the place to be.  I met the guy who took my virginity there. I think we chatted on an IRC channel first and arranged to meet there.   I recall ihim coming back to my room in uni halls of residence, we didn't have any lube to fuck so we used Lynx/Axe shower gel. 

The Greyhound became my regular for many years. (What3Words:  chain.finely.vocal )

Innocent days - but perhaps a harbinger of things to come as I fancied the pants off 'Russell' who assisted in the DJ booth by working the lights. He was skinny as a skeleton and his moves were like - well Russell was a very apt name as he kinda rustled in his skinny frame in baggier clothes.  Never got to play with him but one of my housemates dated him for a while. I recall he was a forklift driver during the day.

When I was out of Uni and into the world of work, I bumped into a colleague there. 

They often used to have a gay act called 'Chip' who did a kind of striptease - he had a PA and attached a leash as part of his routine erotic dancing encouraging patrons to lead him around.  I still have a framed picture of him. I bumped into Chip on IRC in 1995 and arranged a meet and was deeply disappointed to discover he was a total bottom. (I should have known but, hey I was young and inexperienced!) Chip actually had a sad demise a few years later when he was visiting the USA  and a breath control scene/bondage  went badly wrong. 

The other popular act was Margarita Pracatan who played there often. I never really understood or got the point.  But she was popular and even made the Clive Anderson show on TV. 

I remember the lesbians ran the kitchen and pool table. 

Back then, the Metropolitan Police would show up regularly and record all the number plates of cars parked in the car park. Rumour was they were looking to correlate with cars parked at cruising spots. 

Eventually, I understand the landlord sold out to Spearmint Rhino who turned it into a casino/straight stripper bar.  He opened the White Blackbird in High Wycombe which was nowhere near as successful and then I lost touch. 

 

Edited Tuesday at 11:52 PM by AirmaxUK
Added what3words location