![history of gay bars in denver history of gay bars in denver](https://media2.westword.com/den/imager/u/original/11122249/brutal-poodle-wesley-moralez.jpg)
He even tried to block them from showing slides that illustrated the number of arrests of gay citizens in Denver. That meant that each person would have less than a minute to speak their minds. When the crowd applauded the first speaker, Koch warned them that he would have them all hauled away on Sheriff's buses. 35 people signed up to speak and Koch agreed to give them a total of 30 minutes to speak. Their first challenge was city council president, Robert Koch. On October 23, 1973, 350 gays and lesbians showed up to make sure the city council heard their voices. At the same time, the GCD planned to get a large number of gay activists to show up at a city council meeting in October. Other lawyers outside of the GCD, both gay and "straight", also agreed to help in the lawsuit because they knew it was the right thing to do. The GCD lawyers (Jerry Gerash and Paul Hunter) would fight to prove that these arrests were illegal and wrong. They made a plan to file a lawsuit against the city. Jerry and the GCD knew they had to fight this abuse of gay citizens.
History of gay bars in denver driver#
If they got on the bus, the driver would try and get them to admit to being gay and they would be arrested, often whether or not they said they were gay. The police even hired a bus called "The Johnny Cash Special" that would drive around and offer to take men to a concert. This, basically, meant that the police could arrest people for doing anything they thought was "gross." This included things like holding hands, dancing together, men dressing like women or women dressing like men. While being gay was no longer illegal, gays and lesbians were still being arrested for "lewdness". A staggering 100% of all of the people arrested for "lewdness" in that period were gay. In the first few months of 1973, over 250 gay men were arrested. That change in the law, however, didn't end the constant arrests, discrimination and harassment by authorities, employers and landlords. Their group was called the Gay Coalition of Denver (GCD).ġ972 was also the year that it was no longer against the law simply to be gay. In the fall of that year, Jerry and his partner, Lynn Tamlin, organized a group with their friends Jane Dundee, Terry Mangan and Mary Sassatelli. It was clear that Denver needed a stronger, political organization that could fight for civil rights.
![history of gay bars in denver history of gay bars in denver](http://gaycolorado.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Shopping3_Larimer_VD_SteveShopping_CherryCreek_VD_SteveCrelius.png)
One was a motorcycle club and the other was the Metropolitan Community Church of the Rockies. In 1972, there were only two gay organizations in Denver. "For two decades I was emotionally, and physically involved in social movements of other people, yet all my life I had been concerned with my own gayness, and seeing the injustice done to gay people.” What happened in 1969, however, finally gave Jerry and other gay rights activists a reason to join the fight for the rights of other gay Americans like themselves. Jerry took part in these fights as well as the one to end the war in Vietnam. For many years, a civil rights battle was being fought over the rights of women and minorities. At first he studied optometry, but eventually went on to graduate from University of Denver Law School in 1969. First he went to UCLA and later to Berkeley. In the early 1950s, he attended college at the University of California. It was this same year that he discovered he was part of a larger community that could look to each other for support. He and many gay youth like him wanted to go to gay bars because it was the only place they could be open about who they were and still be loved and respected.
![history of gay bars in denver history of gay bars in denver](https://s3-media0.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/XOdx7MblQ5tHu8ljdh8abQ/ls.jpg)
He didn't do this because he wanted to drink alcohol. Around this time he also got a fake ID so he could go to gay bars. Jerry was in his first relationship when he was 17 and he already knew that it had to remain a secret for his own safety. There was a great deal of prejudice against gay people and you could even be targeted by the police for loving the wrong person. While many people now think of big cities like Los Angeles as safe places for gay people, that was not true in the 1940s and 1950s. By the time he was 14, he knew he was gay. When Jerry was 10 years old, the family moved to Los Angeles.