Gay clubs detroit mi

 I have not worked on this blog in years. I leave it up because it documents history. Some of my comments are outdated and not accurate. I only posted the stories that I was told. That is why I left the comments sections on each exclude open so people could chime in with their thoughts/opinions. There still are a lot of bars I could list that I never got around to I understand. The Gold Coast is closed, what is left? The gay bar is dead but for a few. I have discovered an alternative to the gay bar, the gay campground. Lgbtq+ campgrounds are much like the aged gay bars, you have a perception of community and you can notice your friends every weekend. My favorite is Campit  in Saugatuck, MI. (Actually it is in Fennville) 

On Monroe Street, not far from where the One Campus Martius building now sits downtown, was the site of Detroit’s first gay bar, Club Frontenac. 

Opening in 1936, the establishment was the first place patrons didn’t acquire to conceal their identity, reference Michael Boettcher explained to a group of 10 on a recent edition of his Detroit Comes Out Tour, where he takes an extensive look at the city’s rich LGBTQ history. At a time where performative parties were becoming popular across the country, Club Frontenac became a hot spot but only lasted for seven years before it closed down in 1943. 

Other LGBTQ bars began popping up downtown around the same period, Bottecher said. The first dyke bar in town, Sweetheart Block, opened in 1939 on Third Street and in the mid-1940s, Club 509 launched on Woodward. And popular Detroit bars today like the Checker and the Detroiter bars were once LGBTQ haunts. 

Club 1011, which opened in the 1940s on Farmer Avenue, became a premier spot for the community, Boettcher said. 

“The 1011 was opened by a lgbtq+ couple, and it became the anchor of the neighborhood,” he said. “They did female impersonation in the 40s, which was against the law, so the