Snopes gay bar

ABC Entertainment. Topic: LGBT. Garry Wotherspoon outside the Oxford Hotel, the same venue he went to the night he participated in the first Sydney Mardi Gras in Three well-known Oxford Street gay bars are being put forward for heritage status in recognition of their contribution to Sydney's queer history.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore AO says the venues are integral to the social and physical fabric of the area. Historian and Qtopia board member Garry Wotherspoon. Garry Wotherspoon — historian and board member of Sydney's queer history museum, Qtopia — agrees that the area's historical significance should not be forgotten.

As someone who marched in the very first Mardi Gras inGarry has had a connection to the strip for almost 50 years.

Why Are Gay Bars Central to LGBTQ+ History?

He points out that male homosexual acts were illegal in NSW until Determining which venues to put forward for heritage listing was not a simple task for the City of Sydney, but the three venues kept popping up during consultation with gay local queer community. Garry agrees that these venues hold a special place in the queer community's snopes.

The Oxford Hotel in Supplied: City of Sydney archives. The Oxford Hotel has been serving drinks to Sydney locals sincealthough the venue has been operating as a pub under a variety of different names since It wasn't until that it officially opened as a gay venue, bar itself as "the latest gay pub on the [Oxford Street] strip.

American band The D-Men playing in snopes the public hall that would become Palms over a decade later. Built in and once the site of the Catholic Women's Association, Palms opened as a gay club in as an underground cabaret venue. The H. Webb Millinery store in on the site that the Universal nightclub, formerly the Midnight Shift, now gay.

In Novemberthe venue reopened again as the Midnight Shift and operated under this name until late After almost a year of closed doors, the bar reopened as Universal in September While heritage listings have been hotly debated in recent years as possible impediments to social changeGarry maintains they serve a valuable purpose.

Heeding the lessons from history allows us to make a more diverse, inclusive society explains Garry. He says that acknowledging history can be particularly important for persecuted minorities. The heritage listing proposal comes as the face of Oxford Street continues to change.

Last week, beloved gay nightclub ARQ announced it would be closing its doors this month. City of Sydney councillors unanimously voted in favour of the proposal at the end of last year and the heritage listing is now with the NSW government for review. Once approved, the proposal will be open for public feedback.