Bars and nightclubs have played an important role in LGBTQ history, and it’s no surprise that the Stonewall Riots started in a bar and not, say, a coffeehouse, store, or library. For many, many years, bars and nightclubs were pretty much the only safe spaces where LGBTQ people could congregate with each other, openly, without fear of being scorned, beaten, or worse. (Let’s not pretend things were perfect, though. Police raids could be devastating, especially for the innocent people who were rounded up and charged with crimes.)
Today, LGBTQ people are more accepted in society, and we have many more meeting places than ever before. And technology allows us to connect in ways unimaginable just a decade or two ago. But bars and nightclubs are still seen as safe spaces. That’s why the Pulse Massacre in Orlando was so devastating — it’s not just that LGBTQ people and allies were murdered in cold blood, but it occurred somewhere LGBTQ people were supposed to be insulated from hatred. Rest in Power.
