“We’re accepting of all people that come through the door,” Furno said.
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While the club has been open since September, the bar opened in full on May 29 with celebration and relief. Since Boston has “so few distinctively queer spaces,” gay bars and clubs still function as places for the community to meet, hook up, dance and have fun, Ilacqua said.Ĭourtney Furno is the general manager at The Alley Bar, a gay nightclub in downtown Boston. Their collections include flyers, menus, swizzle sticks and even the original stained glass windows from The Napoleon Club: a gay piano bar near Park Square in the latter half of the twentieth century. The History Project has collaborated with bar workers and goers to document artifacts, photos and stories from over the years.
“ also a place where you meet other people in the community … you’re creating and living out your identity as a queer person in public in bars,” said Joan Ilacqua, executive director of The History Project, an organization that aims to document, preserve and share New England’s LGBTQ+ history. But they were unable to recreate the bars’ unique social atmosphere.
Throughout the pandemic, local bars such as Back Bay’s Club Café and Dorchester’s Blend continued to engage their patrons by hosting virtual drag queen performances.
LGBTQ+ bars and social spaces have begun reopening to in-person social and community activity since state-wide COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted. Attendees of the Heels for Hope fundraiser at Club Café in Boston June 2018. After a long period of inactivity due to the pandemic and state-wide restrictions since March 2020, queer bars and nightlife spaces are starting to fully reopen, attracting individuals of all ages and identities.