Six-episode docuseries explores the history and decline of gay bars in America as LGBTQ+ acceptance grows, questioning i | dHNfMVBXdjhjeHpzTVE
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00:00A blazing saddle. I'm like, what is this, some country bar?
00:05Had huge bars on the windows.
00:08Lo and behold, I was sitting next to the owner.
00:10He was a character. He was a Vietnam vet.
00:13June 25th, 1949, I popped out and said,
00:17hello, it's showtime.
00:20It wasn't like he was dressed to the nines,
00:22because he owned a gay bar.
00:24Nope, work boots, work shirt, Bob.
00:27Being a bar owner is being a showman,
00:29wrangling brothers or something.
00:31I hadn't really met any gay people.
00:33I said, oh, I'm Gary. And he said, oh, glad to meet you.
00:35He says, now what's your real name?
00:38I'd never heard the word gay.
00:40Straight people didn't want to know about us.
00:42We were in the closet, which is where they wanted us.
00:45I'd lived through war, and I'd seen it all.
00:48And then I'd get out going, oh, thank God,
00:51now I'm in the land of free, the home of the brave.
00:54No more war.
00:56Then AIDS starts, and it was a worse war
01:00than an actual shooting war.
01:04I was just told I had AIDS.
01:06My first thought is, okay, I'll be gone in a year.
01:10This was 1986.
01:12It got really, really sad.
01:15We all had a need to help our brothers.
01:18AIDS left a big hole in the community.
01:21They fear that young people don't understand
01:23that we still need to fight.
01:25Stories matter.
01:27Everybody's story matters.
01:30Bob was like dad to, like, 90% of this crowd.
01:34My community stands first. I'm second.
01:40I will fight for my community until the day I die.
01:44We will talk and speak the truth.
01:46We hold a sense of purpose.
01:50And I think that's where the gay bar is still kind of important.
01:53I never wanted to be some living legend.
01:56Just trying to be one of the guys, you know?
02:01I walked up to the bartender and I said,
02:03this one of them queer bars?
02:05And everybody shot up.
02:07And he said, yeah, it's a gay bar.
02:09And I said, thank God, Mary, I'm home.