If you are heading for New York Pride this summer, then this is a MUST DO event. As most QUEERGURU readers know we have a fascination with queer history as it maps the journey that others took for us to be here as a community today.  During Pride, THE BOWERY BOYS WALKING TOUR has a Special  Edition: Gay Bars That Are Gone. This fascinating tour goes from discos and dive bars to piano bars and cabarets, as it looks at the shifting typology of the gay bar in New York City and shares stories of community, protest, artistic achievement, and plain old intrigue.

You will get to see locations in important LGBTQ culture including…

• Walt Whitman’s favorite “gay bar” from 1859
• A 1980s three-level gay disco with a plantarium dome dance floor 
• A 1925 lesbian tearoom where men were “admitted but not welcome”
• Starlite Lounge – previously one of the oldest Black-owned gay bars in New York City
• The 1950s East Village drag club whose patrons included Judy Garland and Elizabeth Taylor
• Ramrod – the site of a little known anti-gay massacre along the Hudson River
• Bum Bum Bar – a working-class Latina lesbian bar and important site of queer Queens activism
• An after-hours club where yet another police raid ended in violence just months after the Stonewall uprising

The two guides Kyle Supley & Michael Ryan will spark a conversation about how to properly preserve and celebrate New York City’s “lavender landmarks” during one of the hardest times for nightlife venues in recent memory.